Wrestling and First Basketball Game

It was an all-sports Saturday. It started early with a trip to a local high school wrestling tournament. 

Shane started off on my phone, but he buddied up once other kids showed. There was a discussion about how many ants were in each water fountain.

I got to watch the first dual before it was time to take Shane to his first basketball game! He changed in the car outside.

Inexplicably, he wanted to wrestle once he was in his basketball gear.

The game was bound to be interesting. We've only had three practices. Shane made it to two. Defense was never covered. Even if it was, the last practice was over three weeks ago!

The coaches held a pre-game strategy session and prayer.

Shane's not sold on basketball. He agreed to it initially, but sometimes has said, "I didn't want to do basketball" since.

His actions don't always match his words. He was thrilled to run out when they called out each team member to audience applause.

He danced and spun around after the coaches gave him a white wristband. The purpose became clear later.

The game was broken into two 18 minute periods. Five kids were on the court for each team for a period of six minutes. Each kid had a different color wristband. The kids were supposed to guard whoever's band matched theirs to make it less chaotic (good idea). I'm pretty sure the other team was mostly 2nd graders based on the height difference

Here is the unedited game footage for anyone who'd like to watch. Shane got to play for three six-minute periods. One in the first half and two in the second.

Shane's team lost 24-4. The other team was clearly better. Shane figured out how to keep his hands in the air for defense (mostly) by the end. He even took a shot.

There was a snack and debriefing at the end. Each player got a star that could be ironed on to their shirt.

I bought Shane some chicken nuggets for lunch at the concession stand and it was back to wrestling.

Shane became a stadium shark.

Here, you can see him on the approach.

He alternated between keeping himself entertained and trying to climb on me. He got really excited when the tournament was over and the wrestlers started to rip up the tape.

I'm not going to say it was the highlight of his day, but it just might have been. We were out all morning and most of the afternoon. Carrie was waiting for us for a quiet night when we got back.