Sharks Win -- Hot Dog!

Sharks Off The Schnide. Sharks Tank Jags. Winless No More - Sharks Bite Jaguars. Sorry. Had to come up with some fake SI.com headlines for Tyler's hoops team, who put together a surprisingly complete game on Saturday. The final was 27-11, with seven different players scoring. To put that in perspective, we had seven points the week before in a 9-7 loss.

Yes, Tyler sat out the first quarter due to his, ahem, violation of team rules, but he played well the rest of the game, hit his only two shots and celebrated with everyone else when it was done. The pressure is now off -- a winless season has successfully been avoided, which keeps my record in tact of winning at least one game with every youth team I've coached (though I've had multiple one-win teams).

With things going well on the court, one thing I need to work on is bench etiquette. Specifically, I have one player who insists on sitting in the stands with his father when he is not in the game. One time on Saturday, I turned around looking for him to point something out, and it turns out he was at the concession stand buying two hot dogs for his dad. Which is actually an improvement from my second-third grade team, during which we had a player on Saturday eating a hot dog on the bench during the game. My co-coach, who is a little more intense than me (and I'm not one to be accused of being passive during the games) took the hot dog out of his hand when it was time to sub, told him to wipe the ketchup off his face and marched the remainder of the hot dog to his dad in the stands. I've yet to have one of these dogs, but the taste must be legendary to be interfering with both of my games.

Will's Bobcats came up with a well-earned 18-18 tie against a much bigger opponent, so we were pleased all around with the hoops on Saturday. The best part of both games, or all the games, really, is when Mia runs up to me after the game and wants me to pick her up. I love swinging her around, and very quickly the winning-and-losing gives way to the socializing with the parents in the snack room. Some of the kids get caught up in the result, but most shake it off quickly and are happy to hang out, eat some Cheetos and wait go home until the parents are done gabbing. Or they're ready to hit the hot dog stand.