And then there was baskeball . . .

After one Sunday afternoon basketball practice, Emilio reported to the Junior High gym a block from our house for a "Scrimmage Festival" sponsored by the Lady Cougar Booster Club. The parking lot was full, the concession stand was busy, I paid $5 for my ticket and $3 for Pablo's (Nina and Mari had Girl Scouts), and we took our seats in the the crowded stands on the east side of the gym (no one was allowed on the west side, pictured in the video). This is the inaugural season of this intramural league organized by the Public Schools and due to a late start, jerseys won't be delivered until later in October. All the players are 5th graders. No official score was kept (except by the players!), and each coach used a substitution matrix to ensure that everyone got a chance to play (though Emi ended up playing almost 2/3 of the game). The game itself was played in two 20 minute halves, with clock stopping every 5 minutes for substitutions.
Emi started the first half at shooting guard and perfectly executed a backdoor cut evident in the photo above. During the initial five-minute segment, he was 1-3 with a rebound and a steal and we led 4-0. He didn't get any stats during his second 5-minute run, but he started the second half at point guard and had a flurry of stats that I soon lost track of. The highlight video below includes his first basket and a little taste to the style--including a wicked cross-over--that he displayed at point guard, including a couple of breakaway baskets he scored in the fourth-quarter on a run that narrowed a 15-point deficit into a 3-point deficit by game's end and contributed to the team-high 8 points Emi scored.

I may have created this video in part because the videographer was shouting encouragement to the player in one of the clips.

I feel point guard is Emi's his natural position on the court at this point in his career (that is, half-time of his first scrimmage).

Air Jordan 2K16?


This one went in.
Next games are October 29th at 11:30 (followed by a soccer game at 1:00!), November 5th at 11:30 (with a soccer game at 1:30!), November 19th at 11:30 and November 26th (Thanksgiving Saturday) at 9:30 and 10:30. All are Saturdays. (There is also a game on November 12th at 11:30, but we won't be able to make it because Emi has a soccer game in Shawnee that day at 1:00). And I suspect that Emilio will sign up for a Boys and Girls Club basketball season if one begins after soccer season ends.