Upward Basketball

Dan and his coach before their first game

This is a picture of Dan at home after scoring his first basket!
So proud of him. It was the fourth or fifth game. He scored the next game, too and got close several other times. 

I got a lot of these great photos from #23's mom.
Preston became a good friend of Daniel's, and his mother and I became fast friends, too. 

Such a great group of boys!
One of the fathers made this great banner that the team signed and ran through at the last game of the season. Their team name (chosen by Upward) was Wildcats, which was my team mascot in high school. 

Preston's mom presented Chip and the assistant coach with a nice gift card and a monogrammed coffee mug for their volunteering contribution at the end of the last game. Chip is such a good coach. I love watching him interact with the kids. I also really loved the Upward philosophy. It's a Christian organization and promotes sportsmanship above all things. After each game Chip presented each player with one of 5 different stars: Christlike, Sportmanship, Effort, Offense or Defense. They also got play cards with scripture to memorize and earned green stars for reading the memorized scripture. A few boys stood up at the last game and read their scriptures. Following each practice, they had a devotion and prayer. During half time, they had a lesson based on Scripture. And, they prayed before games and after as well during half time. The kids I kept before/after school for the years the kids were in preschool used to play and I remember Pam, their mother, saying that Chip would make a good coach some day. Well, this was the year! I hope that he does it next year as well. I think he will. 

Anabella with Preston's younger brother, Jackson. 

I love this picture of Daniel.
His confidence improved so much over the course of the season.
All the boys made so much improvement.
They were undefeated after the first game. They didn't just win, they WON.
They actually stop taking score when a team gets 8 or more points ahead. Let's just say they stopped giving us our points just about every game. Not that it matters who wins, but who doesn't like to win?! 

Love this picture, too. 

Chip deciding who earned which star....

Unfortunately, we're going to miss the awards ceremony because it's the Saturday of Spring Break and we'll be in Florida. Next sport will be flag football!!