Hoopin' it Up!

For months, Ryan and Ryley have been talking about her finally getting to play basketball in January.  Well, January is here and basketball has officially begun.  Ryan is coaching and is A LOT more enthusiastic about this sport than he was soccer - probably because he's actually played it before!  And Ryley's loving it, too.  She's the youngest player on our team because we decided to go ahead with a 5 and 6 year old team, since she'll turn 5 in a matter of days.  And so far, she's proving she can hang with the older kids just fine. 

We've practiced twice, and today was our first game.  It was our good luck to have a double header on the first week.  Of course, I have TONS of pictures to share of the very first practice and games for Ryan to coach and Ryley to play in - so please indulge me as a share some here!

At practice, the team works on lots of different important skills - dribbling....

...shooting....

...how to tell a good fish story...  well, not really, but that's what it kind of looks like! 

Ryan's actually working with them on defense and guarding.  And most importantly, the kids chose their team name during this first practice - the Thunder Jets!  Not sure what exactly that is, but it sounds really cool!

Today was the big day - the team's first two games.  I have to say - I was a little bit nervous about how they would do, especially Ryley.  But I was so pleasantly surprised - all the kids did great and it looked like their hard work at practices paid off!

Here's the team showing off their defensive skills...

...and here goes Ryley, dribbling down the court...

...and getting five from Daddy, oops, I mean Coach Ryan, for a job well done.

Ryley's getting into the action again, throwing the ball in to her teammate....

..and taking the ball down the court.

Here's one last picture of the team huddle - Go Thunder Jets!