Basketball

Mic plays basketball.  I was told before her first game that she needs another coach because her current one is having knee surgery in the middle of the season.  then i watched her first game.  it was torture.  Especially because parents aren't supposed coach from the sidelines.  We have to sign a pledge about this when they join a team.  So poor mic had to endure a barrage of insights about her game from both brent and myself after the game.  It was torture for Brent too.  So he decided he would help coach.  But he's not been the main coach until just now.  That made it a little better--Brent could just be my voice.  It was kind of strange, I think, how long Brent and I could go on talking about the games--some I didn't even watch, he just told me about them.  But still watching her games have still be a torturous experience for me and then I realized something.  I HATE sitting on the bench!  I want to get in and play myself.  When I watch a game and my team is just not that aggressive I want to get in and do something about it.  So I started looking around for a women's league.  All I could find was a co-ed one.  That is a little intimidating to me.  Besides I want to play--not just run up and down the court watching guys hog the ball.  Last week I got Brent to go to the church to play with me.  It was fun.  I got to work a little on my left side which feels a little rusty.  But there was some sort of impact between something hard and bony on him (an elbow maybe?) and my jaw.  It was a little painful to open my mouth wide for a few days.  Which makes me think, maybe I'm too old.  Maybe my body can't handle basketball anymore.  Maybe that is a risk I'm willing to take.  We all know who my father is.  I've been thinking it would be fun to play a little 2 on 2 with another couple.  Then maybe if I get my confidence and ability up we could join a summer outdoor league.

Thinking about basketball has caused me to reflect.  I loved playing basketball.  I changed schools just so I could play.  It was a part of me.  Now outside of my immediate family nobody even knows I played.  And some of them don't even really know this side of me.  Or they forget.  ("Sarah is the athletic sister") I think it is strange that things that I was so passionate about like basketball, running, and Japan, have become a much more hidden part of myself.  Those things are still there--they're just buried under my more obvious layers.  Why is this?  Maybe those interests are more self-centered.  I guess you could say a newer more important part of me is my family.  My time and energy is focused there and so that is what people who know me now see.  But sometimes I miss the old me.