Upward Basketball: First Game

In December, Jered and Will started Upward Basketball with the league that meets at our church. We have over 300 children 5-12 years old that participate in basketball or cheerleading in our league. Will's team is 8 first grade boys, and Jered is their head coach. They had their first game Saturday morning. Will was super excited and had a lot of fun. He doesn't quite get the game yet, since this is the first time he's ever played basketball, but he knows how to block! The boys did a nice job working together as a team and passed the ball around really well. Some of the boys played very well and I was surprised at how exciting the game was to watch. I think Will's favorite part was running. He runs pretty fast with his lanky legs. Here's a link to a short video from the first quarter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA1THe1bYxw

After it was over, Will said, "I want to do 25 more games!!" Emma said, "I want to be a blue girl," (aka cheerleader). I explained that she has to be 5, so that night she prayed, "and thank you that I can please be a cheer girl when I get big." The team practices every Monday night, and has games every Saturday at 10am for the next 7 weeks. Will has had so much fun, we might look into Upward Soccer for the Spring too. We are also registering Emma for fall preschool (pk4) soon. I can't believe it! She is looking forward to starting school in the fall. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is her favorite show, so she can't wait to "be like Daniel at school." Hopefully she'll like school as much as Will has. He's a good example for her, because he is a good student and loves going to school.