I got to Logan's house a few minutes later than I thought. Pulled in and his mother's car was gone. She took him to basketball practice.
I realized once the tryout started that she sent him in long pants with nothing to drink. Thank god she at least remembered to bring the basketball shoes I bought him last night.
Suffice to say that this sort of thing is an open sore spot and I really don't want to get started...
Logan did just fine in the tryouts. This is how it breaks down near as I can figure.
15 kids, total. 3 of them stand no chance at all. 4 of them are absolutely already on the team.
8 kids, total, will make the team.
Meaning that there are basically 8 kids fighting for 4 spots at this point. Honestly, I didn't see that much difference between those 8 kids.
This could go either way.
Logan is already signed up for rec league basketball. So, worst case, he'll be doing that.
So, a few thoughts:
1. Logan never did like sports like soccer and hockey, both of which he played for a couple of years. He was okay in them, but it was clear something didn't quite click.
I think he doesn't like the fact that you sort of have to get in there and swarm and fight and that once the game is going, you have positions, but for the most part, you get in there and just make things happen.
I used to say that Logan was simply too polite for games like soccer and hockey. He waits his turn. He doesn't push his way into the middle of things.
Basketball is like that, too. A fluid game. So, it already is one that I can see he might not like as much as baseball and football.
2. A few times over the Summer and in the Fall, I asked him if he wanted to go shoot hoops. He said no. In the Spring, I got him to go to the playground and shoot around once or twice. Basically, he didn't put in much work on this in the off season.
The 4 kids who will certainly make the team? They obviously did.
So, now, there will be context next year when I ask if he wants to shoot around. He's going to be able to make the connection between work in the off season and success at tryouts. If he still doesn't want to, that's fine. If he wants to, I'll be there for him.
4. I did get a little overbearing on him. Didn't mean to, but I often forget just how sensitive he is. For some reason, on defense, instead of crashing the boards for a rebound, he was just standing at the top of the key. I kept telling him, "rebound! rebound!" See item #1. It was like he just didn't get it. Might have been that he was smothering in those long pants. His hair was damp and I think he was overheated.
So, afterwards, I told him he did well, but pointed out some things to work on. First, that he needs to square up his shoulders before shooting. The level of competition in this tryout is tougher than anything he's seen and he let people put him in awkward positions making bad shots.
Next, I told him that he can't just stand around the top of the key when the shot is being made. He has to crash the boards. I told him he'd never make the team if the coaches see him standing outside when others are going for the rebound.
I tried not to be too harsh with him. Though, I think I was still a little angry that he was there in long pants and it probably crept into my tone of voice.
He thought I was angry. I could tell that he was feeling a little hurt, and I said, "Logan, I'm not saying this to give you a hard time. You did fine. This is just something you can do to be a little better for the next time."
Looking back, it's been a horrible, frustrating few weeks at work and I'm probably letting it seep into how I talk. I apologized to him later. He was clearly a little down and said that he was a little sad because he thought I was angry. Told him yet again that I wasn't mad. Reiterated that I thought he did just fine. Was just trying to help.
He said I sounded angry and I said that was my fault. I shouldn't sound angry, and I really wasn't.
I try not to be one of those hockey-dads who is always browbeating their kids when the kids are trying to play sports. It's especially not needed with Logan. He's a sensitive kid and is totally coachable. You don't need to yell at him. You tell him, and he does it.
I feel guilty because I should have been working with him on this all year, not trying to cram prep him the day of the tryout. Again, though, I made myself available to him. He didn't want it. I've never considered sports to be something that kids should be forced to do.
5. As Logan goes along in sports, I hope his age becomes less and less of a factor. As I've said before, he's 2 weeks away from the cutoff for his grade. He was also 2 weeks preemie, which means by his insemination date, he's absolutely the youngest he can be for his grade, or the oldest he could be in the next grade.
It didn't make sense to hold him back. He is just fine academically. He's also darned good in sports. However, at this age, some of the kids are 9, 10 or 11 months older than he is. This means that he's playing against kids who are as much as 10% older than he is.
There is a lot of development that happens at these ages. For instance, when you see the 5th graders, it's like they're not even from the same planet as the 4th graders.
Granted, he can usually overcome the age issue, but not always. It may very well be that he doesn't make this team, but if he were competing against kids the next grade down, he'd be absolutely dominating them.
As he gets older, it won't be such a factor. When he's 15, some kids might be 5% older, but at that point, age, alone, won't confer quite the advantages that it does, now.
So, he has one more day of tryouts. He may make the team. He may not. Hard to tell at this point. I'm ready to accept it if he doesn't.
6. Next year, I am absolutely going to put my foot down that Logan won't be at any Fall baseball workouts. Last year, it was ridiculous. The kids were practicing like crazy all through the Fall and Spring. This year, I think the coach got some pushback from some of the parents, and he cut back to one or two scrimmages per week. However, Logan should have been concentrating on football and getting ready for basketball tryouts. A couple of nights a week isn't the end-all-be all, but honestly, I want the kid to have the opportunity to breathe. So, once you get to where you're doing 2 nights of baseball and 2 days of football, I really don't want to try and cram one more sport in there for the other 3 days. He's got homework to do, and he has friends in the neighborhood to play with.
We'll see how it goes. I think one or two of the other baseball parents might have gone on a little protest strike because I swear there were a few of them who never showed up to anything. I'll be joining them next year if Logan wants to try out for this team again.
7. The last note is that maybe he just can't be the best at everything. He shows true talent at baseball. Has shown true talent at flag football. However, he also put a ton of work into baseball, starting at a very young age. Flag football is a rough analog of actual football, but things may change next year when he's in pads.
Although I want him to play as many sports as he can at this age, the reality is that once he gets to high school, he might very well have to pick just one sport and work at it year-round.
So, maybe basketball will be like soccer and hockey: games he did fine in, but didn't quite excel in.
Which would leave him with only baseball, football, skiing and swimming to keep him busy... and if I can get my business turned around, I want him to learn to golf one of these years.
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