This past Sunday, Spencer, Adyia and I assisted our coach Niall and the Northwest Area Board with putting on a under 12 Urban Hoops Basketball Blitz here in Letterkenny. This blitz was an end of season tournament where boys and girls of the region can come together to compete while having fun playing basketball. The main emphasis on the day was to ensure the players had an exciting day playing basketball. With over 100 kids in attendance made up of a mix of boys and girls basketball clubs and associations from all over the region playing together to compete against one another. The idea of bringing boys and girls together from all parts of the county to play alongside one another was a terrific idea as seen through the success of the event. The smiles and the excitement seen on the players eyes was a testament to how the day went.
The boys and girls were split up onto 3 courts with 4 teams to a court. As three games were going on simultaneously, the two other teams on each of the courts waiting to play their games, were dancing to the music and cheering on their teammates with their newly made friends. In between the set of round robin games, we broke up for a game of hot seat which was played on each of the courts. For those of you that don’t know the game hot seat, learn it fast! It is a game that every young Irish basketball player loves to play. Similarly played to knockout, a game that a lot of us grew up on when we were first learning to play basketball. Hot seat is a game that I learned in one of my first few coaching sessions here in Ireland. Every new shooting game that I try to implement, kids just want to play hotseat instead. After some thrilling hot seat competitions, champions were established, and we continued on to play our last few sets of games. Throughout the day, coaches were going around seeing which teams had the most team spirt, and I can tell you there was a lot of chanting, cheering and dancing going on in the gym. Kids were having a blast and I was too. There was one kid on my team little Bobby, he stood barely over 4 ft tall and was the hype man of our team. He never stopped talking and was always cheering our team on.
The whole atmosphere was electric, as it was great to see boys and girls of all different skill levels, from different parts of northwest region of Ireland come together to play basketball games for 3 hours. The gym was packed full of coaches, parents and kids who seem to thoroughly enjoy the day. We concluded the day with prizes for MVP for each court, defensive player award, contest champions and team spirt awards. After experiencing a day like that, it reinforces the joy and excitement I get out of the game, knowing that basketball is an amazing sport that can be enjoyed by those of all ages.
