Lumberjacks

I didn't get many (any, really) good game photos and the game was kinda depressing, so I'll post about that later. 

But I wanted to share with you what we did post game because I wrote a little bit about post game rituals a few days ago. 

Bradley's team lost by over 20 and he didn't score.  Plus I think I saw/heard him kick the bench once, so I thought the 1.5 hour ride home tonight was going to be awful.

We had dinner at home after school, so I didn't think we would stop for dinner on the way home, but it has been mentioned more than a few times lately in our home how gross fast food really is.  So when Bradley said he was hungry, I knew I didn't want to drive through Taco Bell or Burger King on the way home.  We also weren't dressed for any Olive Garden/Red Lobster type place, either.  So we saw a "Lumberjacks" right on the street we took to get to the freeway, perfect. 

The décor was pretty neat and reminded me of my kitchen (same siding on the walls).  On a tv was a lumberjack competition. 

Bradley was never really in a bad mood on the way home.  I think Lumberjacks was a good idea! 

Boys!

Melanee doesn't have any sisters.  I don't have any sisters.  My mom didn't have any sisters.  My aunt (dad's sister) didn't have any sisters.  Dax has about 7 brothers.  Melanee has no nieces.  So, as you can see, A LOT of boys on both sides of the family, and not many girls.

For these reasons....I think Melanee was hoping for a daughter.  Surrounded by boys/men her WHOLE life.

Doesn't every mom need a daughter.  A friend.  A sweet little girl???

Well, Melanee and Dax had their ultra sound and found out what kind of baby they are having in June!  (I never hardly had any ultrasounds and never found out what my babies were before they were born....but, I think it's exciting to know...and more cost efficient to get ready for the baby.)

THEY ARE HAVING A BOY....a son! 

SO EXCITING!!!! 

Boys are the best.  She will love having a son.  She will love having a son if they have more children, having an older brother is so cool!  Boys are fun to dress in sport team onesies, in overalls, in cute hats, socks, fun pajamas.  Boys are the best! 

I think they are both really happy and even more excited now that they know.  It's more real, almost.  They can come up with a name and talk to it.  They don't have to think of boy and girl names.  They can paint the nursery and don't have to stick with yellow, boring baby clothes, blankets, etc.

And another Farnsworth to carry on the name!

moms

The Penguins brought their moms along on their road trip to LA and Phoenix.  So fun for them.  (The dad's got their trip last year). 

I also think it's so cool that the staff's moms got to come too, not just the players. 

I'm sad that a few of their moms couldn't come!!!  (*I hope they all have moms.)  Moms are the best!

Making the A team

I have been thinking about the benefits of making the A team vs. the positives of making the B team. 

Well, everyone WANTS to make the A team, right?  The A team is made up of the top players.  They play against the top players.  It's like the Varsity of junior high.  There are bragging rights that go with being on the A team.  The uniforms used to be better (but this year all 4 teams have the same uniforms).  The coaching is better.  The practices are better. 

But, there are some positives about playing on the B team, too.  On the B team, a good player can REALLY be a star.  Since he is playing against weaker competition, a strong player could score lots of points, lead his team, really dominate.  On the B team, there would be less pressure.  Less fans in the stands.  Less expectations. 

I think Bradley's in the right place.  But I also see the B team winning games, tournaments, getting praise.  I just wonder if he would have had more fun on that team????  The opponents are not as skilled, tall, or competitive.  Bradley would be outstanding! 

I guess he's just going to have to dig deeper or grow 6 inches because he is always going to have to be in the middle of the crowd under the basket.  Boxing out is supposed to work, even if a player is short, boxing out is a way to keep them away from the rebounds....but if a guy is so much bigger than Bradley (and the rest), all he needs to do is to reach over the boxing out-er. 

The coach told Bradley he needs to love basketball as much as soccer to get better.  I think the coach has the ability to make that happen.  The coach can make practices fun, teach Bradley some strategies to overcome the size differences, design some plays to get by superior teams, and I think it would help if he gave the kids tons of compliments, pats on the back, smiles,  and high fives. (or maybe that's just what a mom wants to see?)

Nooooo Not Fair

The schedule for this weekend's basketball tournament just came out....and if you've been reading my Bradley basketball recaps you'll understand the significance to my title....haha.....Bidwell's first opponent is Marsh!!!!  There are 8 teams in the tournament...single elimination....(well, the type of elimination where the loser bracket teams cant come back and win)....and Bradley's team plays THE BEST TEAM EVER first. 

I see a couple of other discrepancies on the schedule....making me think it was well thought out by the planners....The host team plays the easiest opponent first.  The top 3 teams are all going to meet before the finals.  And the games are so spread out that we could be there (in Redding) until 10:00 at night! 

WHO MAKES THESE SCHEDULES????  I want to be a scheduler, haha!  Yeah, but then I would have done the same, haha, given my team the easy schedule.  Or not, random is best AND to win ANY tournament, they have to beat the best sometime or another, may as well do it early in the tournament, while they are fresh!

Just like the USMNT!  They are in "the group of death" for the opening round of the World Cup.  My thoughts--- big deal, they have to beat a lot of good teams to be World Cup Champions, cant be afraid or Germany or Portugal or anyone.....so, so, yeah.....I shouldn't be afraid of Marsh. 

move it!

I just remembered something my dad used to say to my brothers and I all the time. 

Our tv is situated in the only place it can in our front room because of the cable hook up and because on the other wall the sun shines through and makes it so we cant see the tv.....so, the tv, is right in the path between the front door and the kitchen.  It's also between our bedroom door and the kitchen.  To get through the house, you need to walk in front of the tv.....ssoooooo, I am constantly saying to the kids (and Scott), (Especially Scott), "Get out of the way!" or "Move it!".....

but an old memory came to my mind.  "You make a better door than window."  So I just said that to Andrew and his friend Adam.

They had NO IDEA what that meant.  Haha! 

And they are still standing in front of MY HOCKEY GAME!!!! 

Twitter will kill you

My kids have this saying, "Twitter will kill you."  It comes from a YouTube video of the same name.  They say it to make fun of me for liking Twitter, when they just dont get why I like it.  Every time I state an interesting fact, they say, "Where did you hear that, Twitter?"

(and the answer is usually "yes"!)

Well, today I was on Twitter, reading all the interesting facts....and one of them was from a local reporter and it said, "Police Chatter: broken gas line at 1423 Palm Ave".  We live at 13** Palm Ave (did the little stars protect our identity/privacy?)...so I looked out the window....and what did I see???  A fire engine right in front of our house.  Down the street another one.  Plus, other fire people arriving in their own cars/trucks.

Haha....so Twitter can "save" you, too!!!!

Without Twitter, I wouldnt have known that my neighborhood was about to blow.

I called to Bradley who had left the room a few minutes earlier.  He came out wrapped in a bath towel, with a bloody nose.  He was going to the bathroom, while having a bloody nose, and was just about to get into the shower.  GO GET DRESSED!

Andrew wanted to leave, but I thought that the fire guys could obviously see us looking at them and if there was any real danger they would motion to us to leave, they didnt, so we stayed.

There was no huge gas ball of an explosion.  PG and E trucks also came.  They must have shut everything off, because one by one the fire trucks quietly left. 

Crisis averted.

But, hey, "Twitter will save you"

...is my new expression.

Andrew basketball

Andrew's team had a game on Saturday.  Scott took him and watched.  Andrew played well and scored 9 baskets....but his team lost.  Andrew's team hasn't won a game....yet.  Andrew is having fun, is improving, and is getting exercise.  He has a good coach.  He has a good attitude.  I hope he will continue to play after this season!

I dont think Andrew has ever been on a winning team....well, yeah, once our soccer team was REALLY good....so good that all the other coaches complained to the league that we were "stacked".....but most often Andrew is on the worst team in the league, season after season, year after year.  Not as fun to always lose. 

I hope his soccer team is better.  He wont be the youngest in the age division this time, so he, I'm sure, will do better himself. 

GO ANDREW!!!!

Pro Sports

My passion right now is my kids sport activities.  Soccer starts up this week for Andrew.  Basketball wont slow down until March.  Life is busy and I like it that way.  We have been able to work through every game/practice conflict so far with tag team parenting and the help of carpooling with friends. 

Pro soccer (the MLS and USMNT varieties) have been on hold for a while, but they are both starting up again, which is exciting.  I dont think the Earthquakes will be as good this year as they have been....either that or they will be way better, but they wont be the same.  They've lost about 6 or 7 starters.  The team that I love will be totally different.  I will probably learn all about the new additions and still love them, but I get really mad/sad when my "guys" get traded away, get cut, or choose to leave!  The USMNT has been practicing and will have a "Friendly" game next week.  I'm excited about that and hope it will be televised!

The Sharks have won 6 in a row and have been playing exciting hockey.  They are a different team this year, too.  I really enjoy watching hockey!  It's probably the most exciting spectator sport.  I even do fantasy hockey and follow all the hockey guys/writers on Twitter, so, you could probably say I'm obsessed a little. 

I have found a new "sport" to follow.  It's called slopestyle skiing.  It is really fun to watch.  The athletes are really cool.  I cant wait to watch the events at the Olympics!  My favorite skier is Nick Goepper.  Bradley tells me I should find a skater to "like" and then watch that skater's videos on You Tube, then watch the X Games and other skate competitions.  I am worried that if I do that, that will be another "sport" addiction to take my time, haha!!!! 

How did I become this way!!!  I do not know.  But I do get a lot of enjoyment out of my "hobby" of sports viewing! 

more youth sport thoughts

I know all the "experts" think that the ride home from youth sport games should be the same after a win or loss.  I'm not disagreeing....but I still think that ride home is VERY different after a win or a loss...and it's NOT the parents fault.  NOTHING the parent can say either way, positive, negative, ANYTHING...is going to make the ride better or worse depending on the out come of the game. 

Stated clearer----if the child "won", the ride home will be AWESOME, so much fun, happy, gooooood times.  If the child "lost".....parents can stop at every ice cream shop, pizza place, Ross store, and that ride home still will NEVER be as happy as the ride home after a win!

And about what to say on the ride.  I think a parent could say JUST ABOUT ANYTHING after a win....but they need to be VERY careful after a loss.

Another point I want to make here is both parents and coaches need to be realistic about wins and losses.  Very often a player can play WELL and still lose.  Very often a team is going to lose just because the other team is better.  Coaches should not say things like, "you guys sucked today".....or "you should have won".....(both have been said to Bradley's teams this season (soccer and basketball).  BUT, I've also learned that parents should NOT SAY, "You guys never had a chance today."  (To justify, I thought if I said that, I would be canceling out the coaches statement of telling the boys they lost cuz they played horribly, they didnt, the other team was just GOOD.)

I dont want to be one of those blogs or articles that try to tell parents the right way to be a good parent, but in my experience----

1.) don't tell a kid they played poorly (even if it's true, they don't want to hear it)(no one feels worse than they do)(they probably already know!)
2.) don't tell a kid the other team is a better team (even if its true, they don't want to hear it) (they probably already know!)

There is no situation they would ever want to hear these words....after a loss OR a win.

tournament day 2

 We drove back to Redding today for day two of the Parson's tournament.  We go back to basically the same place next week for the Sequoia tournament.  Hopefully Bidwell WONT play Marsh again next week.  

Bradley had 6 straight days of basketball.
He played in 6 games this week.  (He played against mean old dreaded Marsh twice.  Scary!)
He scored 6 points twice today.
6 must be our new lucky number!

Bradley is the tallest kid on his team.  There are no advantages to that.  Being the tallest kid is actually very disadvantageous (great word).  You see, he is definitely the smallest center in the league.  He HAS to go up against the other team's "bigs" because no one else on his team can.  But some of them are SO BIG they can just grab any nearby ball with their height and longer wingspans.  

If Bradley's team had a real "big guy" or even a couple of them, Bradley could play guard, he could be a dribbler, a shooter, a guy who gets to move around and actually do things.  But, no, since he is the "center" he has to stand under the basket, taking elbows to the mouth, getting shoved around, and beat down on both offense and defense.  It's a thankless job.  

Bradley's coach said that they are going to play like the Golden State Warriors.  What does that even mean, because from what I can tell, they dont look anything like the Warriors, no one for the Stephan Curry role, which is much needed if any team expects to imitate the Warriors.  

We arrived to Enterprise High to see Marsh players in the parking lot, so we knew the game was against Marsh.  Since they only lost by 7 points last time they played (on Wednesday)....they knew there was some chance for victory, but, that was not going to happen today....Marsh played all their 6 foot guys (3) and two other real basketball players.  (Last time they distributed the wealth, meaning, they played some of their stronger guys with some of their weaker guys and subbed in 5 at a time.) 

One of the players Bradley held to 2 points last game scored 20 this game.  Marsh came to play.  Marsh came to win.  I actually dont remember the final score, but it was a blow out.....not fun.  

I did the scorebook again, so bad quality and quantity of photos again!

After the first game of the day, we had to drive to a different school.  When we got there we found out that they were a game and a half BEHIND schedule, so we had a tail gate party in the parking lot. I thought it was a lot of fun to visit, eat, and have fun together.  

Can you tell how much bigger this guy was than Bradley????  

#25 walked in front of the picture, but can you tell from this one how that guys height advantage helped him in the game?

Dont look at the score, haha, but actually, the first quarter ended at 21-3....but the other quarters, if you look at them as individual quarters....the next was 9-8, then 11-11, then 10-9....closssssssse.  If they could have started off better, it would have been a good game.  

I think Bradley's team took the game too lightly.  

They thought they could easily beat this team.

 The hour and a half unexpected break threw them off.  

And, they just came out slow, sluggish, terrible.  

     No one really scored more than 10....No real "stars" of the day today.  They all lost together, it was a team effort.
     I'm not saying that to be mean or to say they played bad.....they tried hard, they just didnt have it today.
     Their coach really seemed to be in a bad mood all day, too.  That didnt help.  Teen-aged boys need lots of instruction and encouragement.

On the way home Bradley said that this was a waste of a weekend...but I dont think so.  I think players can learn a lot from losses.  And I really enjoyed spending time with Bradley.  He's a great kid!

Tournament game 1

I had to do the scorebook again and Scott didn't come....so I only took a few pictures....didn't want to make the refs mad or have anyone think I wasn't doing my job. 

We drove all the way to Redding for one game and have to go back tomorrow.  Luckily, Bradley's team won, so tomorrow's game is at 1:00, if they would have lost the game would have been at 9:00 and Redding is 1.5 hours away. 

Bradley's team played against U Prep.  There are a lot of teams in this tournament and the way the brackets are set up, to win the tournament will take beating just about every team (loser bracket can play and win and come back to the winner's bracket.)  We watched the game before ours and the one after and it looks like there is some very good competition!  One team had a player with a FULL BEARD. 

Bradley's team plays Marsh tomorrow, if Marsh won tonight!

 

Tonight's game was close.  It started out with Bradley's team looking really good, then they got behind, then they came back.....they played really, really well the final 2 minutes...and won with a final score of 58-49.  Bradley scored 6 points.  He got a lot of playing time.  He got some important rebounds and steals.  His team worked very hard.  They will sleep well tonight!  One teammate got hurt playing baseball and another got bad grades, so they are down to 8 players...they get a lot of playing time, which is fine with them. 

Out in front of the gym after the game.

Since we go to Redding for basketball tournaments so often, we now have a regular post game place to stop at...it's actually a Burger King inside of a gas station,...ewwww....but also hahhaaaa. 

These two kids who went with us are different than the two who would go last year, so when we told them this was our regular stop, one of them said, "So you can go up to the counter and tell them to give you "the usual" and they'll know what you want?"  haha!  yeah!!!  NO!

Honor Roll Ceremony

Bradley earned two certificates (one for last spring and one for this fall) for being on the Honor Roll. 

He also got a Bidwell bumper sticker.

My photos are out of focus!!! 

He did sort of stop and pose for me.

After seeing how many people filled the multi purpose room, I am starting to think that Bidwell give out good grades generously!  Haha!  Lots of students made the honor roll.

Bradley would have dressed nicer, but he came straight from basketball practice.  Lots of basketball players made the Honor Roll.  They stood together (A and B team).  They thought they were so cool coming in late and standing together.)

I knew my photos were out of focus and not very good, so we went and found the vice principal after the program was over and got a better photo!!!

 

Good Job Bradley.  I know Junior High is hard and a lot of work.  We are very proud of you!

Another Game

After the game tonight, I told Bradley that he and his team played well, but he disagreed.  He even said that the coach told them they played poorly.  But I know "some" about basketball and I paid close attention to the whole game because I was the score book person....so, I can tell you that Bradley's team had a good game.  Their opponent, Marsh, beat them by 40 one time last year.  I thought this game might be the same type of blow out, but Bradley's team started the game with a 10-0 run.  Marsh followed with the next 16 points, I think, haha....but the point difference never exceeded 10. 

Bradley did not score, that's probably why he thinks he had a "bad game".  But Bradley did get lots of rebounds.  He also stopped the other team's big guys, none of them scored more than 3 or 4.  Bradley is all beat up from the physical under the basket game.  He also took some charges and dove on the floor for some loose balls. 

Only 3 players from Bradley's team scored.  One player got 19 points and two others scored 7 each. 

The other team had each player on their roster with 2, 3, 4, 5 points each.  Balance scoring.

The final score was 40-33.

Maybe they can get them next time! 

GO BIDWELL!!!

 

Bradey's B Ball Game

Bradley has a busy basketball week. 

Practice yesterday, game today, game tomorrow, practice Thursday, tournament Friday and Saturday. 

I know that's a typical week for high school sports, but it's never been that way for Junior High basketball because so many teams, organizations, people, events use the school's one and only gym, so there is not enough gym time to go around. 

Today was a rematch of the cross town rivalry game played a few weeks ago (Bidwell at Chico Jr, again).  Bradley's team hasn't had a game since that day.  They lost that game big!

Bradley's team has been working really hard at practice.  They learned a lot in their loss.  They had a game plan today.  They were READY.

The game was close and hard fought.  Bradley's team did have many turn overs and missed shots, but they played really well on defense to stay in the game.  The deficit was never huge or impossible to over come.  Bradley's team never lost focus or got discouraged.  They tried so hard.  They were diving for loose balls.  They were running fast, everywhere.  They were cheering from the sideline. 

Bradley was a starter.  I cant say that he's the best player or that he has earned the position or anything, but I do know that Bradley plays a lot better as a starter as opposed to when he comes off the bench.  His mind or attitude or mentality is just different.  He's more pumped up or confident. 

He even got to do the tip off.  It was pretty exciting.  He didn't win it, the other player had major "hops"....but the other team didn't score on their first time down the court, so it doesn't really matter that Bradley didn't win the tip, right??? 

Bradley is the tallest person on his team, so his defensive assignment is to usually guard the other team's "big guy".  Chico Junior has two 6 foot players, plus the guy with major "hops", so Bradley has a hard job.  He did well, though.  He got many rebounds and a couple of steals. 

On offense Bradley scored 14 points.  He got 4 on free throws.  He scored 4 on jump shots from out wide, and 8 other, which were from under the basket on lay ups or rebound lay ins. 

Chico led most of the game.....except when they were tied 41-41.  Bradley's team actually had the ball with about 15-20 seconds left on the clock, they rushed too much and took a shot and missed (not Bradley) with 8 seconds left on the clock.  The other coach called time out.  I actually said to Scott at that point (41-41, 8 seconds on the clock, Chico with the ball)...."Number 11 is going to take it up and do a tear drop floater"......he did, and made it, AT THE BUZZER......buzzer beater, Chico WON! 

Heartbreaking loss....but still one Bidwell can hold their heads high and say, "We really improved, we did a lot of good things this game, we ALMOST had them." 

They play another local Junior High tomorrow.  That will be a hard game.  Hope Bradley's team is not too worn out! 

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