it really stinks *edited*

Ethan's playing city-sponsored basketball this summer. We paid our $40 and expected to have a nice low-key season. We knew he wouldn't be great, but it's experience and good for him to work with a team. We knew there would be kids better than him, but that's to be expected. We knew it would be cute watching these 5 and 6 year olds do their thing, make their mistakes, and hopefully have a bit of fun while out there.

What we didn't expect is for the coach to give up on the team. Scratch that, two coaches.

The first coach (and mind you, these are VOLUNTEER coaches) had swim practice scheduling conflicts with her own kids, and only showed up halfway through the first practice. That's the first and last time we saw her. After that, another gal and her 2 grown sons coached the team, and they were pretty good. They obviously knew their stuff, and the mom admitted that she also coached another team.

For about 3, maybe 4 weeks, things went along just fine. Then, after a game ended last Saturday, she told us that there had been parent complaints to the city along the lines of "why doesn't my kid get the ball more?" etc etc. Now we've been doing these city sports for over 5 years now with all three kids. The coach seriously has no control over who gets the ball, who takes it out, who passes it to whom, etc. And parents should seriously understand about that. If you want your kid to get more play time, you just need to teach him to be a better player, more aggressive, and be all that he can be, so to speak.

So I felt bad for this replacement coach who reminded us that she had a second team of her own, worked full time, played softball, etc etc, who was having to deal with these complaints. She offered up the job to any parent who thought they could do better, but in the meantime she claimed, and I quote: "I'm not gonna give up on these kids."

Yeah...that's the last time we've seen her. The kids had team pictures Monday night. Not only did half the team not show up, but neither did the coach. Last night the kids had a game. I repeat, not only did half the team not show up, but neither did the coach. How sad is that? They started the game with 4 kids and with a substitute parent-turned-coach who very kindly offered to coach for the game.

Eventually one other child showed up, so our group of 5 played the entire game, huffing and puffing down the court opposite a team of 10. They held their own until about half time (score 4-4) but by the end, it was obvious our boys in brown were tired. Final score, 20-10.

I'm proud of them for not giving up, for playing the whole game, and doing their best when even the adults around them were quitting.

Incidentally, the child in charge of treats for last night's game didn't show up. I treated Ethan to a huge bowl of ice cream.

**edited to add, E's coach called me today (as I assume she did all the parents) to apologize for not showing up for the last two events. She had excuses and complaints about the city and how the program was run, but I forgave her and appreciated her call. Hopefully the team can keep it together for the final 2 games.