Winless but spirited 10-year-old girls attract a coach

What a Team! They did it! They made it through the full basketball season. They didn't win a game all season, as a matter of fact, most games were blowouts. How does an all-girl 10-year-old team go winless? Here are the possible reasons: They named their team the Pink Lollipops.

When 10-year-old Lisa's parents went to sign up, they were told there were no teams taking in new girls; the existing teams had been together for the past three to four years.

There were no other all-girl leagues close to where they live.

Lisa wasn't very good, but wanted to play just for fun.

The only way to play in this league was to create their own team, which they did.

This new team consisted of Lisa's sister, (8 years old) and her school friends who had only touched a basketball when they help their brothers pick up the toys in the backyard.

They could only come up with six girls for the team.

The combined experience of those six girls after the first practice was a total of six hours.

They couldn't dribble, pass, shoot, play defense, or rebound. But they were great at fouling, double-dribbling, traveling, and they broke the league record for three seconds in the key.

When asked what color uniforms they wanted, they ordered pink.

They smiled way too much! The end of the season party was a pajama sleepover with the feature movie "Bambi", rather than going out for pizza and playing video games all night.

They had a blast, and have all decided to play again next year! Hey, I want to coach that team next year even though I don't own a pink T-shirt!

If you have questions or comments for Tom Kuyper, e-mail him at Tomkuyper@athletesintraining.com.