I've mentioned before that I love my husband for lots of reasons. Sometimes I overlook reasons I love him and then I'm reminded when something special happens, like at our son's basketball game on Saturday...
Our 11-year-old's basketball team started their playoffs over the weekend and were playing in the first round that afternoon. Three of the team members' dads are coaches, including my husband who happens to be an assistant.
Our team has had a great season (5-2 overall) and we were playing against the best team in the leaugue, the team that is undefeated. One of our better players wasn't there on Saturday, which was unfortunate since he leads us in scoring and is the best ball handler on the team.
The game was so exciting! It was close the entire time and eventually went into overtime, not once but twice. Double overtimes are nail-biting, heart-pounding, gut-wrenching times for me. Our kids played really hard and did their best, but they lost the game in the end.
Now to the special thing that happened that reminded me once again why I love my husband so much...
In our basketball league there are rules about kids sitting out a certain number of quarters so that everyone gets a chance to play as well as rest. The group of kids who were on the floor at the end of regulation play were the same kids that played in the 1st overtime. When the game went into the 2nd overtime, the coach was having difficulty deciding whether to leave the lineup alone or make substitutions. There were three kids sitting on the bench who hadn't played since the 3rd quarter, which meant they were "cold." And the three players these kids would be substituted for just happened to be the three coaches' kids.
The coach looked at my husband and told him he couldn't make the decision. Here were these kids who'd played so hard and their dads were sitting there on the bench as well. I'm sure it was a tough decision. The coach asked my husband to decide what to do.
My husband made substitutions and allowed the three kids who'd been sitting out for a long time to play. The other team's coach kept his same lineup in, not substituting one player. Who made the smarter move? I don't really know, but I know who made the best move. We don't know if we'd have won the game if our lineup hadn't changed, but that wasn't the point. The point of the game for kids this age is learning and having fun, and the only way to do that is to allow them all equal playing time.
A few people had something to say about my husband's decision after the game. One coach from another team said he'd have left in his best players and a parent on our own team couldn't believe what he'd done. My husband just felt it was the right thing to do and he wouldn't have felt good about continuing the game any other way.
So there you go... another reason to add to the mound of reasons I love my husband. He's a real stand up kinda guy!
2 comments:
He sounds like a super guy! :)
Give him a hug for me!! Our boys have always been on noncompetitive teams if there is such a thing. In all these years have we have only had a coach a couple of times that actually treated everyone fairly. Isn't that the point? I really appreciate that he stood up and made sure it was fair!! Can you move here next?!
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