Like our kids' soccer seasons, Willem's basketball season never seems to end. Willem started practicing in early November with his AAU Triple Threat team comprised of the best 4th grade boys from O'Hara and St. Paul schools. They played in 2-3 tournaments in November and December (in Salem, Corvallis/Albany, Eugene) and it was nice that they actually got to play against other 4th graders instead of boys a year older like they had to much of last year. In these early season tournaments, Triple Threat usually lost a couple and won a couple games. As the season progressed, however, the boys continued to improve and won two of the four or so tournaments they played in January/February. In March, the AAU/Triple Threat team played in the state tournament in Cottage Grove where they lost a couple games to tough Portland/Vancouver teams and then won a couple in the consolation round. After the state tourney in early March, Will's AAU team took a couple weeks off and now are playing in the 5th grade YMCA league and will continue to practice and play YMCA games until the Reno tournament on Memorial Day weekend. It has been a lot of fun seeing his whole team improve this season. Willem has really improved as well. He often scored 8-12 points, got 8+ rebounds and a couple steals per game. Though most games, the coaches split time pretty equally amongst the ten players, Willem was always in the game the last 3-4 minutes when the score was close and the team was trying to get the win in a semi-final or championship game which was super fun. Willem got to play point guard about 25% of the time (sharing with Lucas and Ryan) and also played a lot of post where he would snag lots of rebounds. In fact there were at least 3 games where the opposing coach would yell that his team needed to stop #16 from getting every rebound :)
Willem also played with his class' 4th grade YMCA team this winter where his team of ten boys from just his St. Paul class struggled more to get wins (they were about 3-7 for the season) but all improved. This team was frustrating at times for Willem with some boys who had never played basketball before but Willem did get to play a lot of point guard and he scored a lot of points (sometimes up to 22). We were also proud of Willem for passing the ball a lot to his teammates and generally keeping a good attitude.
We are so lucky Willem has awesome coaches, our friends, Donnie and Christy Hakala, coaching both teams. They are flexible with his soccer schedule and really teach the boys the fundamentals and have the right attitude about developing the kids and their skills. Willem has really loved playing basketball this year and practices/plays a ton at home.
I didn't take my camera with me to many games but here's a video and a few pictures...
Upset and a little battered after a YMCA game loss
The whole team after their last state tournament game: Aiden, Hayden, Ty, Jackson, Kaden, Lucas, Willem, Ethan, Ryan and Jimmy
