The season ended with a disappointing loss, but the kids never disappointed me

We lost our 8th grade tournament semifinals on the road. We've had a great run with these kids in our parochial league.

In 7 of the 8 years, the team I coached finished 1st or 2nd. In 3 of those years, our school fielded two teams, and split the talent, and the other team finished 2nd and 3rd. Back in those days we had a good deal of talent for our level.

We earned 12 trophies for the school in those 8 years.

We had numerous comeback and close victories and highlights over the seasons.

* In a game against our arch-rival, we trailed by 2 with 8 seconds left and them shooting the 2nd half of a two-shot FT. We blocked out, had a rebound, made an outlet pass, scooted the ball in front court, whipped the ball to our wing guard who set up behind the 3-point line in the corner, shot a 3-pointer, missed, but was fouled with 0.1 seconds remaining. He drained all 3 FTs for us to win 2nd place.

* We played a team that was undefeated, and had not lost in years. We were good, but not that good, but trailed by 2 when we banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win by 1--it was the last loss that team would ever receive, and we won 1st place that season.

* We were losing by 1 and could only get off a half-court shot. We were fouled at midcourt, made 1 of 3 FTs, and won in overtime to advance to the championship of our end of season tournament.

* Two years ago, we had back-to-back games where we trailed by double digits in the 2nd half, both on the road (and trust me, it makes a difference even at this age), and won with furious presses, comeback wins, and 3-pointers notched by 11 & 12 year olds. My assistant coach for the weekend was in Florida playing in an over 40 baseball tournament against Doug Flutie, and I thought he was going to kill me if we lost both games. Fortunately, his son bailed me out by scoring double digits in the 2nd half in both games. (Thanks, Trey).

We've had games were we had 11 players (of our 12) score; we have had many games where we had one player who did not score the game before score 11-14, and players come out of nowhere to provide support.

We lost our best player (by far) before the season to an all-star team, and had our PG/leading scorer this season break his hand with 5 weeks to play. The kids never gave up, and continued winning games somehow. The scores never seemed to change much. We never were a dominant team. We didn't blow out anybody, and I'm not sure we've had any double digit wins. I know we didn't this year.

But they were kings at pulling out close wins. If the game was close in the 4th quarter, we usually won. They had great character, and great teamwork.

The little moments will stick with me. A less-talented kid who missed 3 of 4 practices due to illness, being disappointed about playing time in the next game...keeping his head up, making all 3 practices that next week, and being inserted in a game we were struggling. He made two key steals, was fouled on two drives, and hit 4-for-4 from the FT line (big accomplishment at our level) to spark the team to a come-from-behind win ont eh road.

A kid who never scored this season being put in a game and one of the other coaches telling him that we needed 4 points from him. He promptly makes a driving, contested layup, then a few possessions later, hits a baseline jumper, and I immediately jump all over my assistant: "Chris, why the heck didn't you tell him we needed 10 points from him?"

Taking practice times nobody else wanted, sometimes practicing until 10 at night, and having 33 practices attended, with half the team attending 31 or more.

Putting a short kid at PF, because he was slow, and couldn't dribble well, and seeing him develop into an all-out aggressive defender, and an offensive player who developed a quick, half-hook shot from the baseline that was deadly.

Seeing our biggest kid go from a kid who could not dribble, could not pass, could not shoot, and had hands of stones three years ago develop into a kid who in our 2nd to last game grabbed a rebound, started dribbling upcourt, met resistance and dribbled around the back to get around the defender and go up for a layup. He had seasons where he did not score. The last half of the season, his lowest scoring game was 8 points.

Watching 5 kids take the court in a game, with one of them very sick, and another of them arriving to the gym on crutches on an then-undiagnosed broken foot. Seeing the kid very sick ask if he could come out of the game, but I called a timeout instead and asked him to play one more minute. He hit the game-tying 3-pointer to put the game in overtime. We lost, but it taught the kid that he could do things he didn't think possible. He was a 5th grader, and it was his first 3-pointer he ever made.

Seeing all of the kids step up and assume more responsibility when we lost a key player to a professional soccer development club, when we lost a player to the all-star team made up of all 10 parochial school teams, and this year, when we lost our PG/leading scorer this season to a broken hand

Having kids thank me at the end of practice.

Praying before games. I know that rubs some people the wrong way, but it's important to us, and I will miss the opening prayer with opposing teams, coaches, and cheerleaders who prayed at midcourt before games.

After fighting back tears after our last game, seeing their tears, having a kid come and thank me for coaching him for eight years. I admit, I lost it then. It was a very dusty gym.

We have our end-of-season banquet in a couple of weeks, at which point the kids will be presented with their framed jerseys. As 8th graders, they get the personalized, names on the jerseys with numbers they pick out, and the jersey is placed in a nice presentation frame, retired for posterity.

There are no All-American basketball players in the bunch. But I had 12 All-American kids to coach.

I will miss them.

Hate that you guys lost the last game, but the memories will be with you forever. And you'll be all the richer for having them. And all of those boys will carry with them the memories of all the lessons & guidance that you've given them.

Well that sucks for those youngster, it sounds like you had them playing well and with being that close it must sting especially hard.

You've simply got to stop letting them go on to the next level. You need kids with lousy grades so they can stay in the 8th grade a couple of more years. Stop telling them to study so much, for Pete's sake, bunch of over achievers...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Job well done, Coach Darrell

We had team photos made this week, and then a father v son game for fun. Last time they will ever put on this uniform.



Attachment 4566


Attachment 4568

My son Collin and I.



Attachment 4567

The winning or losing fades. The experience and relationships last a lifetime.