Team Gray!

So it’s basketball season again. Where has the time gone? Last year at this time, I was gearing up for a long, pregnant season with two kids playing and one car. This year, it’s a baby that’s scared of the ball, two kids playing (for now), and two cars.

Homeschool sports are kind of funny. I mean, you sign up for school sports, you know there will be try-outs, and an emphasis on winning. Homeschoolers act like they’re all about the socializing. All about the chance to try new things. But when you go in there, rank amateur, just ‘trying something,’ you get schooled immediately.

And not necessarily by the mad game skills of the other kids. No, you’re schooled rather by the vast knowledge of the game. You don’t sign up for sports and kind of muddle through the season with minimal knowledge. No, it’s sink or swim, and you are practicing and studying a lot on your own.

Now that I think of it, it was like that in swimming and little league too, so, never mind. It’s just a shock to me that homeschool sports talk like they’re safe for the casual, new player. But if you don’t have your head in the game from the jump, have spent some of your off-season in training camp, and have considerable hours in watching the game, you’re at a considerable disadvantage.

Your team is already at a disadvantage, the coaches waste no time in telling you. School teams practice daily. We practice twice a week when we can get a gym. Xay will play for the Y after his short homeschool season this year. Yanni’s season will likely be much longer than Xay’s, just as it was last year. Even Xay’s just started, and Yanni has yet to officially start practice, there’s a scent of hope in the air. Many of the kids that came out this year played last year too. Maybe there’s less breaking in to do. Less anxiety for all involved.

But it is a different ball game once the actual season begins. We shall see. We shall see.

The new Largerfamilies is online. Come on over and check out some day in the life posts. I don’t know about you, but I find these kind of minute detail posts fascinating. Maybe you’d be bored, or horrified, I don’t know which, but would you please feel free to drop a comment, either which way? I’ll bet you could figure out which post is mine.