This year Jonathan can finally play school-sports (7th grade is the earliest you can do this in our district). He tried out for basketball and made Varsity, but wanted to be on JV. His friends were on JV (mostly) and he felt like he was the worst player on Varsity.
I have decided, after years of worrying a bit too much about which teams he gets on, that life is just too short to get all worked up about youth sports! I JUST want him to have the opportunity to play, have fun, and to build relationships with his peers.
So... I e-mailed the coach and asked if he could please drop down to JV. Luckily, he said OK, so Jonathan played JV this year.
He's a good player, but still lacks the fire and aggression you need to compete in basketball. It's good that he is so kind and conscientious about listening to the coaches, but sometimes I just want him to go for it!!! If the coach tells the kids to "go easy" on a team (as he does when they are creaming them), Jonathan listens and takes it to heart, while the majority of the other boys just go for it and don't listen at all. It's hard to teach him when it's OK to bend the rules a little bit. I want him to be obedient and good mind you, but he often takes what adults say too literally/ seriously. Parenting is hard.
The only bad thing about school sports has been that the middle school gets out way earlier than my elementary school. I have had to really book-it to pick him up on time. Also, his games started at 3:45 and I can't even leave work until 4:00. So... I missed all the away games because they would have been over by the time I could get there. My mom went to a few. They take a bus luckily. Then for the home games, I'd miss the first quarter, which was always just ending when I'd arrive. He usually played in the first qtr., so I'd get there and he'd just be leaving the game. I'd see him again in the 3rd quarter, though, so that was good. Had he played Varsity, the timing would have been perfect (4:30ish). Oh well! He had a great season, so that's all that counts.
I only took these 2 crummy pix all seaon. Too hard to get a good shot from up high in the bleachers in a gym. He's the blond one in the white jersey.
