Kaitlyn has been a four year started at point guard, which is interesting, because neither Gary nor Tracy are particularly athletic. Watching Kaitlyn play high school basketball has been a joy of mine, although I haven't gotten to see her play as much as I would have liked. This year, her senior year, I've committed to seeing as many of her games as I possibly can.
Kaitlyn loves the game of basketball, although her love of the game has waned a bit over the last couple of years due for reasons I won't go into high now. This is my view from afar and my view only, but Kaitlyn's love affair with basketball ended prematurely.
Several years ago, before she was in high school, I nicknamed Kaitlyn "the Short Answer," in a transparent attempt to convince her to shoot more. If Allen Iverson was "the Answer," I wanted Kaitlyn to be "the Short Answer." Although I still wish she would shoot a little more, she is the consummate point guard. She has great court vision, is an exquisite passer and almost always makes the right play. She's an excellent ball handler. She plays hard on defense and is almost always in the right place at the right time. What she may lack in quickness or athletic ability, she makes up for with a high basketball I.Q., near perfect positioning and a keen sense of anticipation.
In many ways, she's the basketball player I always wanted to be but never was when I played many, many years ago.
Kaitlyn probably could play basketball for a small college - at least I think so - but I think she's ready to be finished with basketball. I think she wants to focus on her studies in college and, really, just being a college student. There's nothing in the world wrong with doing that, particularly since playing basketball in college would take up an inordinate amount of time. She's a brilliant student and is looking at academic scholarship money wherever she goes to college which, of course, is fantastic. To say I'm proud of her would be an understatement.
Her Independence HS girls' team has struggled this season, as in the past three seasons. They have a new coach. Hopefully, they'll finish strong in district play and maybe win a couple of games.
Okay, back to the game against Brentwood HS. It was her team's best game of the season at least among the games I've seen. I was proud, really proud, of how hard Kaitlyn and her teammates played. They were playing against a better team, for sure, that was better coached. Still, they fought hard and actually had the ball down by four points at the end of the first half. Rather than wait for the last shot of the half, however, one of her teammates drove the lane and missed a shot early in the shot clock. A player from Brentwood HS rebounded the ball, drove up court and was fouled as she made a layup. Just like that it was halftime and Independence was down by seven, when they could have cut the lead to two points with better clock management.
The second half was similarly well played. Independence HS fell behind by double digits early, then Kaitlyn and the other guards began trapping Brentwood HS's ball handlers as soon as they crossed midcourt with the ball. The result of their aggressive defense was several turnovers by Brentwood HS and the lead quickly evaporated with Independence HS cutting it to four, then two points. Kaitlyn and her teammates could never get over the hump, though, and ran out of gas midway through the fourth quarter. Kaitlyn fouled out and Brentwood HS pulled away, ultimately winning by 10 points or so.
The officiating was objectively horrendous. Because the game had been moved to Thursday night, the regular TSSAA officials weren't available and there was one, maybe two, fill in referees. We were sitting almost directly behind the Independence HS bench, along with several family members of Kaitlyn's teammates. As the one referee - who clearly was a fill in - continued to make bad call after bad call against Independence HS, I got angrier and progressively louder in voicing my displeasure. I wasn't the only one complaining about the officiating but, in truth, I may have been the loudest.
At one point, after a bad call, I yelled "When do the real referees get here!?!" That drew laughs from the crowd and, it turns out, a few players, too.
After I got home after the game, my brother-in-law, Gary, called me. He told me that in the locker room, after the game, some of Kaitlyn's teammates were asking whose father was the one in the suit yelling during the game.
"That's not someone's father," Kaitlyn said. "That's my uncle."
"He was awesome," the girls replied.
And I've been chuckling about it ever since.
Kaitlyn loves the game of basketball, although her love of the game has waned a bit over the last couple of years due for reasons I won't go into high now. This is my view from afar and my view only, but Kaitlyn's love affair with basketball ended prematurely.
Several years ago, before she was in high school, I nicknamed Kaitlyn "the Short Answer," in a transparent attempt to convince her to shoot more. If Allen Iverson was "the Answer," I wanted Kaitlyn to be "the Short Answer." Although I still wish she would shoot a little more, she is the consummate point guard. She has great court vision, is an exquisite passer and almost always makes the right play. She's an excellent ball handler. She plays hard on defense and is almost always in the right place at the right time. What she may lack in quickness or athletic ability, she makes up for with a high basketball I.Q., near perfect positioning and a keen sense of anticipation.
In many ways, she's the basketball player I always wanted to be but never was when I played many, many years ago.
Kaitlyn probably could play basketball for a small college - at least I think so - but I think she's ready to be finished with basketball. I think she wants to focus on her studies in college and, really, just being a college student. There's nothing in the world wrong with doing that, particularly since playing basketball in college would take up an inordinate amount of time. She's a brilliant student and is looking at academic scholarship money wherever she goes to college which, of course, is fantastic. To say I'm proud of her would be an understatement.
Her Independence HS girls' team has struggled this season, as in the past three seasons. They have a new coach. Hopefully, they'll finish strong in district play and maybe win a couple of games.
Okay, back to the game against Brentwood HS. It was her team's best game of the season at least among the games I've seen. I was proud, really proud, of how hard Kaitlyn and her teammates played. They were playing against a better team, for sure, that was better coached. Still, they fought hard and actually had the ball down by four points at the end of the first half. Rather than wait for the last shot of the half, however, one of her teammates drove the lane and missed a shot early in the shot clock. A player from Brentwood HS rebounded the ball, drove up court and was fouled as she made a layup. Just like that it was halftime and Independence was down by seven, when they could have cut the lead to two points with better clock management.
The second half was similarly well played. Independence HS fell behind by double digits early, then Kaitlyn and the other guards began trapping Brentwood HS's ball handlers as soon as they crossed midcourt with the ball. The result of their aggressive defense was several turnovers by Brentwood HS and the lead quickly evaporated with Independence HS cutting it to four, then two points. Kaitlyn and her teammates could never get over the hump, though, and ran out of gas midway through the fourth quarter. Kaitlyn fouled out and Brentwood HS pulled away, ultimately winning by 10 points or so.
The officiating was objectively horrendous. Because the game had been moved to Thursday night, the regular TSSAA officials weren't available and there was one, maybe two, fill in referees. We were sitting almost directly behind the Independence HS bench, along with several family members of Kaitlyn's teammates. As the one referee - who clearly was a fill in - continued to make bad call after bad call against Independence HS, I got angrier and progressively louder in voicing my displeasure. I wasn't the only one complaining about the officiating but, in truth, I may have been the loudest.
At one point, after a bad call, I yelled "When do the real referees get here!?!" That drew laughs from the crowd and, it turns out, a few players, too.
After I got home after the game, my brother-in-law, Gary, called me. He told me that in the locker room, after the game, some of Kaitlyn's teammates were asking whose father was the one in the suit yelling during the game.
"That's not someone's father," Kaitlyn said. "That's my uncle."
"He was awesome," the girls replied.
And I've been chuckling about it ever since.
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