Because the Music City Marathon was moved to mid-November - this morning, actually - I find myself at Sump Coffee in One Nashville Place. Not one of my regular Saturday morning coffee haunts. Sump, out of St. Louis, makes great coffee, though, so I'm good. Tucked away in a corner with only a couple of other early morning coffee lovers in the shop.
J.P. made the MBA 7th grade basketball team last week and had his first scrimmage game yesterday afternoon after school. His team got smoked by the 8th grade B team, which was to be expected. J.P.'s group only has had four practices and, as a result, they haven't had time to learn the offense. Realistically, at this point, J.P. is probably the sixth man, playing point or two guard.
He missed all four shots yesterday but handled the ball well against pressure and made some nice passes. As always, I'd like him to be a little more aggressive, and confident, but that will come with time this season. The thing I'm the most excited about, for him, is to have the opportunity to play basketball and be coached, hard, for the next three months. I'm curious to see how much he improves just by having the basketball in his hand every day.
Basketball ends in mid-February, then it's on to baseball. I feel fairly confident he'll make the middle school baseball B team, particularly with his pitching, but we'll have to wait and see.
It's funny, now, that one of my biggest concerns about J.P. switching schools from USN to MBA was that he might not good enough to make any of the sports teams. That hasn't proven to be the case, though.
I felt like, academically, the challenge and the change would be good for him, and it has been. He studies, hard, every night, and is self-motivated. We never have to tell him to go study. And, so far, his grades have been good, all A's for the first quarter and at the mid-second quarter, too. No small feat at MBA. The school work is hard but J.P. takes a lot of pride in being prepared and doing well in his classes. He's a rule follower and thrives in structure, which he gets in spaded at MBA.
His success in sports, relatively speaking, has been a bit of a revelation.
His success in cross country was unexpected, at least the level of success. As I've written before, I thought he would do well but I didn't think he would win meets. I sure didn't think he would win meets convincingly.
When he decided to try out for the soccer team, I was a bit surprised. He hadn't played soccer in a couple of years, in large part because the experience he had playing for Coach Gordon at FCA wasn't a good one. The team was disorganized, several of his teammates quit, and the coaching was subpar, at best. I continued to be surprised, pleasantly, when he made the middle school soccer B team.
While I'm not the biggest soccer guy, for sure, I love watching my sons compete, in anything. J.P. played well, especially as a defender, and his team was undefeated. Just as he always has in soccer - and in basketball - he saw the field better than most of his teammates, as a result of which he moved the ball and passed it extremely well. He was physical when he needed to be, which always has been my favorite part about watching him play soccer. His ball skills need work but for having been away from the sport for a couple of years, he played well.
For a large part of the fall, he's been doing one-on-one basketball workouts with Coach Amos at MBA. I think the workouts have helped him tremendously. He recognizes what he needs to work on and he has a better understanding of what Coach Amos wants him to do and how he wants him to play. This, of course, is helpful, as Coach Amos is one of the middle school basketball coaches.
J.P. has far exceeded where I was as an athlete at his age. His versatility across a variety of sports - and even within each sport - is impressive, and I'm a pretty tough critic. I'm not sure there are many other boys in his grade who have played three different school sports, and may well play a fourth one, in 7th or 8th grade.
I'm very proud of him, again, because of how hard he works, academically and athletically. J.P. has an inner drive that I'm not sure I had at his age. A determination. A toughness. I like that, No, I love that, to be truthful. Sure, I want him to be more confident, to be more vocal, when he plays sports, but I think that will come with time and experience.
I wonder where he will be in two or three years. Probably, by then, he will have narrowed down his sports participation to a couple of sports. But, for now, I'm going to enjoy the ride, and appreciate the opportunity to watch him compete with his classmates.
MBA has been a great experience for him, so far. Everything Jude and I hoped it would be, and that's huge, for him and for us, as parents.
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