December Basketball

As I have mentioned before, life transforms between early November and late March in the Messina household. Basketball schedules rule the house. We were banking on the boys only playing for ISS this year and being on the same team. They actually started out that way, as the JV A team is mostly made up of 8th and 9th graders. They compete with U16 boys teams in the area. However, Joe had some upperclassmen that talked to the varsity coach and got Joe a tryout for varsity. Joe practiced with them for a week and was told he'd made the varsity squad. He's pretty excited and we are both quite proud of him. He's quite a good defensive player. He is also a talker on the court, which is a plus. This leave Tim on the JV A team...and that was actually a good thing. He was no longer in Joe's shadow and started to shine on his own. He is a natural leader because of his skills and has really blossomed this year. All those hours of basketball practice have paid off. The boys lives and breathes basketball. I have never seen anyone so determined and focused. So Tim is playing on the JV team and Joe is playing on the varsity team. They practice on opposite days. Tim is also playing on the U18 Stavanger basketball klubb team that Rich helps coach. Tim manages to practice basketball four days a week and then games are on the weekends...on both Saturdays and Sundays. Between SBBK, JV and Varsity ball, we really keep going. I love watching them play though. They really have grown so much in the last two years...in the last year especially. Let's just hope they keep growing. :o)