All 5 Rebound

A really sweaty gym, Sunday, 1:30p, Glen Mills, PA. The 7th grade girls team had won two games on Saturday which means one more win and they’ll play one more game for the championship.

Most of our players at this age play one or more sports during the same season. For this, we were shorthanded on Sunday with just six players. Playing fast, hitting ahead, and pressing for the entire 28 minutes can be very difficult to maintain that type of intensity and focus. With only six players, we had players asking to be subbed out.

We go into halftime down 21-17 and I watch a girl say to the other one, we should tell him not to press. We had a brief chat as a team and I said to the girls, trust that if we keep playing the way we want, the other team will crack first. All we have to do is be tougher than them for longer than them. We won the second half 15-9 and won the game by one, on a free throw by Clara and a hit ahead pass by Tessa. The girls were spent. Off to Wawa for refreshments and a 60 minute break the families went.

During warm-ups of the championship game, Coach Meg tells me that the team we are about to play beat the team we just beat by one… by 30 points. We huddle and I asked the girls if the wanted to conserve some energy and play zone which we hadn’t done all weekend. They nodded their heads and then looked at Coach Meg. I did too.

She says, “let’s play man and attack them.”

And so we did.

Our opponent from Jim Thorpe, PA was tall, fast, and really physical, and… they had ten players.

We got the ball inside to Lizzie early and often. She kept getting knocked to the ground by a taller, stronger and more physical player. After two quick fouls, a substitute came in and Lizzie got knocked down some more. Fortunately the referees caught most of the fouls. Lizzie kept getting knocked to the ground so many times that the other parents were accusing her of flopping. We held a slight lead at halftime which then grew into a 12 point lead.

Our girls were playing great, tough, gritty basketball.

When the game got tight in the second half, the girls began to hit on the box outs even harder and kept winning individual 50/50 battles. All five players began boxing out hard, sealing their opponent and going for every rebound. On way play, the rebound bounced on the floor twice before we gathered it because we drove the other team so far from the basket. They fed off of the box outs and their parents cheering them on to the point where they didn’t look tired. We were tougher for longer than the other team. It showed on every box-out.

After watching the layup lines, many might not have predicted this outcome.

Coach Meg’s message to attack set the tone for the girls and the game. It continued when Lizzie kept attacking the basket and getting back up off the ground, over and over. The girls were more resilient for longer than their opponent and kept fighting longer… for every rebound.

These kids are lucky. They play a lot of sports and play something almost every weekend. For them it was just another Sunday afternoon and meaningless game…. until it wasn’t.

I hope they don’t forget how they boxed out, and I hope they don’t forget how much fun they had.