...Mark Chambers, aging Prep Writer

Magic have the ball, tied, 27 seconds to go. Lakers make the steal, though the lay-up is stopped with a hard foul. Laker star goes to the line for two with very little time remaining. Misses the first, but banks in the second. (Slim chance of overtime, now, at least there will be a winner.) Magic inbounds and brings the ball forward, time slipping faster than the clock seems to move.

Shot is taken, missed. Rebound fight away from the rim, personal foul on the Lakers with seven seconds on the clock. Time out, Magic....the only way to stop the clock in this league, even balls out of bounds allow the clock to run...

"Connor, you inbound the ball." "Hank set a good screen on No. 1, he'll be guarding Logan." "Logan, start opposite Conner and break for the ball and the basket, make the lay-up." "Everyone get back to defend after it goes in..."

Coach Shira demonstrated his ability to break the options down into fifth-grade segments. The crowd, the teams for the following game, the players not in the game all have something to add, but the five on the floor know where the Magic are going.

Except for Laker Number One who goofs up the plan....he plays a one-man zone under the basket. Hanks sets a good screen on him, Logan remains covered. Breaking free with four seconds to play, Logan drives to the rim, hits the contested lay-in, the crowd goes wild, Magic win by one. A quick time-out call by the Lakers with two seconds remaining is overlooked by the referee, Magic awarded the victory.

Who said only the NCAA Finals have last-second crowd pleasers??

The more things change....

Eric, Judy’s son-in-law, has been coaching kid-hoops since Connor could first play at 8-foot baskets. This summer, after hearing how much I missed coaching kids, and knowing that I’d have more time to be available than when I was working, he asked if I wanted to help with the ten & eleven year olds, (that includes Connor). It is refreshing to see that although parental contact has increased dramatically, the kids are still the same as when I had Nate’s ten-year old team twenty-ONE years ago. To wit:

They all want to launch three-pointers every chance they get at practice, but of course will miss every lay-up they try in a rush. If they have plenty of time, they’ll make the lay-ups, and they’ll make just enough threes to think that they can shoot them in games.

“Can I knock that Mohawk kid’s haircut sideways?” Kids come to the bench in between the action with the most original plays to call. I’m not sure what the signal is for “slap his Mohawk” but we didn’t make one up and I talked Ben out of it as a goodwill gesture since we were up by twenty-five.

“I’m on FAHR!!” They all struggle and want to score more, nevermind whether we’re up by thirty or they’ve already scored more than anyone else. Sometimes, though, when the youngster who battles for all the rebounds and seems to have his shots clang the rim every time gets a few to go in, he gets more excited than any pro athlete. I had a chat with this particular young man, sharing that if he’d use the backboard it would improve his chances and also reduce the energy the ball takes to the rim, making any misses easier for him to rebound again. A pretty cerebral sort, he thought this made me the smartest coach on the planet and he tried it. He indeed DID catch fire, had four put-backs in a row, with a big smile behind his sports goggles and a new swagger to his step.

They haven’t matured to the level of body odor yet. Today’s kids, with their video games and short bike rides, seldom really get sweaty. They get driven more often than anyone in Nate’s generation, and far more than any coaches were. Just like Nate’s generation, they sweat early and often, though they don’t smell. It is astonishing. One of these years, or maybe even during a game this year, they’ll walk over during a time-out and “the bug” will have caught one or two of them. Just like the swallows returning to Capistrano, young men get stinky when they get athletic…it just hasn't happened to these 10’s and 11’s, yet.

Picture night is a pain. Too much goofing off, no discipline. After three games where we’ve dominated, there is a good chance we’ll “play like we practiced” last night after pictures and get handed our lunch tonight. At the same time, they have more team speed than any fifth-grade team I’ve coached, or played against, and it is really hard to coach speed. We can show them how to set screens and how to play defense by moving their feet. Blasting up and down the court is their world, and they LOVE to show how fast they can be. Let’s just hope that they beat the zone defense down the floor tonight and get some easy ones before the zone sets up.

And what kind of coach teaches a ZONE defense to his kids at this age, anyway? There's something that has "stayed the same." There were a couple that tried it against Nate’s teams, which surprised us only once.

Coach Mark to referee: "I thought zones were illegal at this age??!!"
Referee to Coach Mark: "You should have read the rules better AT THIS AGE!!" "Sit back down!"

From then on, we were ready for their lazy approach and made them pay. I’m curious to see what we do tonight when we see one for the first time.