Turn and Shoot

So Brooke may turn out to be the most athletic child in our family. Anything sports she LOOOVES! We had a White Elephant party at Christmas and I opened a deflated football from Uncle Patrick. Pretty soon it was inflated and Brooke was playing catch with Uncle Patrick in the family room. She couldn't get enough of it.

Well now that Brooke is six, she is old enough to play basketball through the Rec. Center. She had two practices last week and her first game was on Saturday. At this age the girls need to be "coached" about the most simple things, like which way to run and several reminders about dribbling and not just running around with the ball. The other team had one girl that could really shoot and she seemed to have the ball most of the time and most of the time when she shot the ball she made it. Brooke was one of the point guards and would take the ball down the court. We were impressed that she was sharing the ball and passing to her team mates (she doesn't like to pass when we play as a family).

During the last quarter we still hadn't made a basket and you could tell the girls were discouraged. We were on our end of the court and something was called on the other team. Like I said the girls can get confused and before we knew it both teams had run to the other end of the court. Brooke's teammate threw her the ball and then took off to the other end. A light when on in Brooke's little mind. She looked at the stands where everyone was yelling, "Shoot, Shooot, Shooooooot!!!" She smiled and turned to the basket and shot the ball. AND SHE MADE IT! I really wish that I would have got it on video. It was so perfect!

At one point during the game Brooke came over to tell us that they hadn't scored yet. Rex started to quiz her, "Does your coach want you to pass the ball when you get down to your side?" Then he gave her just a bit of fatherly advice: I think you should bring the ball down and just go straight to the basket and shoot it.

Later that day we saw Brooke's coach (she's good friend and a member of the church) and she let us know that when she was talking to girls during a halftime she encouraged them to find someone who is open and pass to them. Brooke said, "My dad says that I don't need to pass that I should just shoot the ball." Neither of us knew quite what to say, but we did learn that no secret is safe with Brooke.