What Basketball Gave Me

An update from north of the 45th Parallel

Basketball season is a wrap.

When it became ‘real’ that we were moving north to Carp Lake, I was anxious, nervous and a bit scared. After 20+ years in Traverse City, I was not looking forward to starting so many things over, again. My mental and emotional baggage of being the perpetual new kid all those years, and all those years ago, still live with me as a full-grown adult.

To help unpack that baggage and ease those emotions, basketball once again was there for me, just as it was all those years as a kid.

Coaching basketball is so much more than coaching basketball. It’s the part I enjoy most. Since mid-November I’ve spent 5-6 days a week in the gym with this group of girls. I don’t know how much I was able to teach them (teenage girls are hard to read), but I do know they taught me quite a bit.

My running joke with the team was that since our move I now know more teenage girls than I do adults – and that I’m not sure if that’s funny, cringy, depressing or a little bit of all three. I’m still not sure what they think. I’m not sure what I think.

But I do know I am going to miss basketball season.

As for my ‘other girls’

Jess continues to fill her phone with videos and photos of the horses, and I know her heart continues to fill with family and friends now close by – it’s why we are here, and why this makes so much sense.

Savannah made me a proud dad by playing in every single game this season and not missing a single practice. That’s a hard thing to do, it’s a long season.

Harper had all kinds of fun during her 3rd grade season, and watching Savannah on the sidelines coaching Harper and her team was the cherry on top.

Both girls continue to amaze me with how easily they’ve adjusted to their new schools, and all the new friends they’ve made.

I’ve been proven wrong so many times since the move.

So as we are getting a glimpse of warmer temps this week, and some anticipated thaw, I’m happy to report I’ve nearly made it thru my first full winter north of the 45th.

And what comes after basketball? Boating, of course