Champion of the Whirled

I forgot to report on this, but Rachel's team won the Layton Tournament for her age group. Her team was remarkable in that most of the players understood what was going on, and about three or four of them were really good shooters. 

Rachel didn't contribute much, but she did contribute. In fact, in the championship game (which was pretty close) tiny Rachel came up with a couple of key rebounds, stole the ball once and played pretty good defense.

In the semi-final game, the defending guard was harassing the point-guard a lot, so the coach told Rachel to set a screen. I wondered if she would know what to do. She ran down to the person guarding her teammate. So far so good! Then, as the defender started to go by, Rachel reached out and grabbed her. Oops.

For some reason I was surrounded by family of the opposing team that game. As Rachel grabbed the defender, a couple of parents got outraged and hollered "Come on!" or something like that. The referee called a foul, but some parents seemed upset. I suppose it is natural to get upset when your daughter or teammate of daughter is getting mauled ... but Rachel is always either the tiniest player or second tiniest player on the floor, and she isn't really rough or anything.

That is when I did something ... um ... interesting? When things get heated, I don't usually say anything, but I just wondered how the folks around me would respond if they knew my daughter was the big bad meanie pants. So, I blurted out, proudly, "That girl belongs to me!" Everyone around me started giggling. I then said something like "She has brothers. She can't just stand there!"

Maybe it added some perspective. Maybe just levity. Maybe I will get a horse head in my bed. I don't know. 

By the way, can I just add that I am baffled at the handful of parents that yell at the coach or the 16-yr-old referees? I don't see any reason for anyone to get upset during a basketball game with 4th graders.

Anyway, here is a picture of Rachel with her trophy: