Saturday is basketball day and is always an eventful day at the house. With two players and two coaches in the house along with two little non-players!

Kerrigan's team played at 8am and 9am this morning, and Raigan played at 11am thirty minutes from VA. Kerrigan's team only had five players, so that meant that everyone had to play two games. Kerrigan has not played very many minutes, due to the leg injury. One time she was running back on defense and fell down. She had bumped leg where the stitches were and is still tender. She came off the court crying. She returned despite the pain, we were very proud of her. In the second game Kerrigan played point guard, her first time to do so. Kerrigan did a great job of not passing to people who were covered, and making a strong enough pass to get to the girls.

Raigan's team knows how to stress out a coach! We have played four games, and each game can down to plays in the final seconds. Although today's game did not look like it was going to happen that way. The team that we played were taller and larger than our girls, and in the first quarter they were beating us 7-0. That was not the only reason to be alarmed. About a minute into the 2nd qtr Raigan was called for her third foul. She had to come to the bench and sit out until the final minute of the quarter. Somehow the ref heard my displeasure with the foul, He blew the whistle and said, "that is your warning, sit down and do not get up again." So I did.

In the fourth quarter we can pressure full court. In the last minute we scored four points to take the lead. Raigan hit an outside shot with 20 seconds to go that ended up being the game winner. The final score was 10-9, after giving up 7 points in the first quarter they only score 2 for the rest of the game! This was a spread attack with Raigan scoring 4, Sydney 2, Natalia 2, and Holly 2. We are very proud of our girls and what they have learned. Raigan scored her other two points on a freethrows.

We have placed an emphasis on freethrows for all of our girls. We have taught them a method to shooting that each of them use. It is amazing to see our girls all, bounce their knees three times, dribble three times and bend the knees low and not leap when shooting. We have been the best freethrow shooting team that I have seen in the league. Raigan made 7 freethrows in the first game! We have had multiple players make freethrows, and today two girls who are new players shot and barely missed. One way that we simulate the pressure of freethrow shooting in the game is that each practice, they shoot freethrows. If they miss the entire team runs the court and back, if they make it they don't have to. It has paid off in the games because they are calm and not nervous when going to the line.