Middle school sports in Illinois are actually.. impressive. I'm an Illinois basher, living here and being from Wisconsin with deep Packers, Brewers and Badgers ties certainly isn't easy. But, middle school sports do have a leg up in this state for one simple reason.. state playoffs. Most or all (??) middle school sports have state competition and basketball has the whole she-bang: regionals, sectionals and state games.
The middle school I coach at has put together a recent string of state teams in girl's basketball. In the late 1990's the middle school boys team made it a few times followed up with 2000 and 2002 high school (IHSA) championships. The current sophomores in high school won the 7th grade boys 3A state title. The current freshman made a state appearance last year, and now, you can add this year's 7th graders to the list.
Sadly, when we got there things didn't go well. Our opponent was dare I say... en fuego. It didn't help that we couldn't hit sand if we fell off a camel. When the first half was over we had mustered 10 points and they only had... 28. We MADE 2 field goal attempts, thankfully nobody charted how many we missed. We also managed 6 free throws, not bad... until you consider we shot 17 of them! We had multiple, MULTIPLE misses from inside 3 feet. Frustrating. The 2nd half didn't get much better as we'd manage a little run to get it down to 12ish points and then have a weak foul against an AND 1 play, or we'd leave a shooter open and they'd hit a 3 ball.
It was a frustrating game, and one thing that was hard for me the previous years and early this season was to not get sarcastic during the games. At times, I'd get so frustrated with them when they'd baffle me with their decisions. Yesterday, I could see it wasn't because of a lack of effort.. they were just nervous, rattled and up against a buzzsaw. The effort was intense, and I made sure all 14 kids got to be a part of that game for several minutes. (It helps when the game is decided early) I continued to coach through the mistakes and through all of our frustrations reminding them of the little things.. jump stops in the lane, a pass fake, or to be aggressive and take a shot when you're 1 foot from the hoop.
Despite getting run up by 22 (27-49) I was proud of my kids. The thing that sticks out into my mind the most.. is that we're down 22 points with 8 seconds left, a shot goes up and the rebound bumbles off some hands to go out of bounds; one of my players dove full extension into the wall to try to save the ball. That honestly, blew my mind. I was in awe and admiration of that player's effort and intensity. I always tried to coach them in practice and games to play hard, regardless of score... winning or losing. I wouldn't have traded that 2 seconds for a win (hmmm... really??). That play meant a lot to me, more than the kids know.
I could see some of them really get better as the season went along. I reminded them in the locker room, after the game, that this is just 7th grade. It's great to have their name on our middle school gym's wall, it's great to experience that level of competition and to enjoy that stage, but what about the taste of defeat? What about being crushed by 22? Were they happy just to be there one time? Are they going to work hard this summer to get a return trip and a win? What about going into high school? I challenged them to challenge each other; I hope they push each other to be a great team and to not slack off. I brought up names familiar to them.. and to me during my little pep talk, so called "jerks" but winners like Kobe, Jordan and Bird. I told them stories I'd heard about the 3 of them, and how they challenged themselves to work harder than anybody else.. and when they had teammates that didn't work that hard, how they'd challenge their teammates. Sometimes, it's okay to be a "jerk" and to challenge your teammates. Push yourself then push others. That's how we'll get back to state next year.
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