The Little Girl and Her Dad

I was at the gym when a group of girls, had to be 3rd or 4th grade, were getting ready to play in what I found out be their championship game.

On one end, 6 girls from one team were there.  They were playing around.  Practicing their dribbling and playing keep-away.  They were smiling and they were happy.  'This is what youth sports should be about,' is what I thought to myself.

On the other end was one girl from the other team.  She was shooting layups.  She wasn't really smiling; she wasn't smiling at all.  She had a different look; she had a focused look.  Her dad came up and started rebounding for her.  She did some layups on one side, then he pointed to the other side and she started doing lay-ups on the other side.

It was funny because then I saw the other parents start to slowly look down at their daughters' competition.  They stopped smiling so much and their conversations started to slow.  You could see it in their eyes; they knew that their team was going to be in trouble.

The girl and her dad just kept shooting.  It looked like a little routine that you hear the pros talk about.  They started in close and they moved further and further out.  They both looked focused.  They both looked ready to play.

The coach from the other team looked over and noticed the girl and her dad too.  He quickly put his iPhone down and yelled at his girls to huddle up.  He talked to them, and they stopped smiling and got serious.  They took off their jackets and they got in their lines and did layups.  But something told me that it was too late for them and their championship hopes.

The girl and her dad just kept going with their routine.  They were still the only ones from their team on the court.

This only lasted for a couple more minutes.  The girl's coach came in, said high to the dad and gave the girl one of those secret handshakes that you see on TV.  Then a few of her teammates showed up.  She smiled and gave her teammates hugs.  Her dad smiled and slowly walked to the side to sit with his wife and other kids.

Watching this scene unfold gave me a few different emotions.  I became a fan.  I became an immediate fan of this girl and her dad.  I became so much of a fan that I stayed and watched the whole game, and I was impressed with what I saw.

The game started, and it didn't take long to see that the girl was the best player on the court.  She was a solid ball-handler, she was a tough, tenacious defender, and though she didn't make a lot of her shots, you could tell that she ha spent a lot of time working on her shot and her game.

What first impressed me was when during the first possession, she didn't just try to go one on one.  Most girls who were that good would just try to take her girl t I heard her coach yell, 'Move the ball,' and she did so willingly.  She moved the ball side to side trying to find the open girl.  When her teammates missed, she didn't frown, she just tried to get the rebound or get back on defense and tried to get a steal to get her ball back.  And when they got the ball back and her coach yelled again, 'Move the ball,' she did so again without hesitation.

What impressed me second was that she never tried to do too much.  She went and made plays when she was supposed to, passed when her teammates were open and cut when it was time for her to cut. 

The little girl was everywhere on the court.  She would find who the ball-handler was from the other team, and she would point and tell her teammates, 'I have her; you go get her.'  She knew her role was to stop the other point guard.  Then when another girl from the other team made a couple of shots, she went to go guard her.  She made it her mission to guard and stop the other team's best player.

As the young kids say today, 'She didn't run from the smoke.  She ran to it.'

She didn't play great.  She had some turnovers and some missed shots.  With every play, I would look at her dad to see his reaction to her and I would look at her reaction to him.  I saw him give her 'that look' three times.  The first time was in the first half when she tried to force it through a triple-team and was called for a travel.  This is something that every other girl on the court did, and her being the best player on the court, it would have been understood by every parent in the gym for her to force it.  But not for her dad.  When most parents would yell, 'Keep shooting,' he mouthed very seriously to her, 'Don't force it.'  Then she went back to making the right plays and her team continued to pull away.

The second time was when she gave up an open jump shot.  She wasn't playing close enough to her goal on defense, and her girl made a shot.  Her dad stood up and gave her the look.  I guess for him, the offense was one thing, but the defense was much more serious.  He didn't say anything, but she just nodded her head and tapped her chest to say, 'I know.  My bad.'  She then got three steals in a row, the last one leading to a lay-up, a timeout from the other team, and her yelling out, 'Let's go' in way that everybody in the gym felt it.

The third time she tried to shoot the ball from too far out.  She wasn't the only girl out there shooting out of her range, but when the other's would shoot it, you could hear moms and dads yell, 'Good try' or 'Keep shooting.'  I hear her day yell, 'Get closer!  That is not your range.'  Instead, her dad pointed at the rim and mouthed, 'Get closer to the basket.'

The girl's team ended up winning by 10-15 points.  She probably wasn't the leading scorer on her team, but she was the best player, and her attitude and her skillset can follow with her and will allow her to continue to excel as she grows and gets older.

This experience opened my eyes up to a lot.  It taught me about the value of preparation.  I saw firsthand what championship preparation looked like from a young athlete.  It wasn't what I see in the videos with two and three balls and a million cones and dribble moves.  It was shooting the same layups and short jump shots over and over again.  It was shooting game shots.  It was being focused.  It was getting there early and getting ready to play.

I saw what the power of a dad (or any parent) can do for an athlete.  Showing her how to prepare.  Making sure that she was there early.  Teaching her what it looks like to get ready to perform.

As I wrote earlier, when I saw the girls from other team laughing and playing before the game, smiling and happy,  'This is what youth sports should be about,' is what I thought to myself.  I meant that.  But after the game, they weren't smiling and laughing anymore.  Most of them were crying.  They were crying because they lost their championship game.  

Then I thought back to the work the little girl was doing before the game started.  The focused look she had, getting there early, doing her work early, and then smiling with her friends, and I thought, 'This is also what youth sports are about.  Learning how to show up early, learning how to prepare to perform, then going out and doing the little things the right way all game.  Having a support system around you to help you prepare, help you stay focused, to celebrate your success, correct your mistakes, and support you through your struggles.'

This was fun to watch.  Congratulations to that little girl and her dad.