Cooper's Comeback (7th Grade)

While you can't find a bigger fan (he knows all the stats, watches all the games) and he's got the skills, Cooper has struggled a bit actually playing on a team in a competitive setting. Even rec ball and Junior Jazz proved to be a bit too intense (he bailed on his season back in 4th grade, didn't play 5th, then couldn't quite finish the season in 6th). I was honestly surprised when he said he wanted to play again this year ... and he says he's ready and committed.

Coming in with a group of friends (basically the same team as 6th grade, although they haven't practiced or played together since the season ended last year), they are playing in the "team/experienced" division, so I hope it's not too hard (competitive teams SHOULD be playing in leagues other than Junior Jazz, but it's not always the case). All their games are  close  (Joel P.) 

I keep a playlist of all Cooper's games, 

and will also include a list and some highlights here.

Cooper clips from Saturday's game (1203). Complete game highlights on YouTube (I'll update the blog) ;)

A video posted by BlackhamBall (@blackhamball) on Dec 6, 2016 at 7:19am PST

It was a successful season! I had been a bit worried going in. This was the "Team Division" not the regular rec Junior Jazz. I was worried that there might be some superleague teams, good players and teams who had been working together for a while. Our boys were just a group of school buddies and hadn't played together since last year. But ... I think that was the case with all the teams (superleague teams had gone to the superleagues, as it should be). Our boys won all but one game. 7-1 for the season. Poor Ryan broke his ankle halfway through the season and was out (but still came and cheered). Cooper got a little extra playing time filling in (as Ryan was also point guard) so Cooper often managed 20 points in the final few games. Pretty impressive!

• Game 1  December 3, 2016
• Game 2  December 10, 2016
• Game 3  December 17, 2016
• Game 4  January 7, 2017
• Game 5  January 14, 2017
• Game 6  January 21, 2017
• Game 7  January 28, 2017

I only caught half of Cooper's final (8th) game. We had back-to-back games that day, with Colton playing before at Eastmont. On a previous back-to-back day (Cooper first) I'd sent Colton with teammates and hadn't even planned on attempting the trek (it was at Indian Hills, a little further away). But then Cooper's game wrapped up so quick that I quickly arranged for a teammate to give him a ride home and booked it the moment the final buzzer buzzed. While I missed a couple minutes, I really hadn't missed much. I had HOPED this day would be the same ... had arranged for Cooper to get a ride to his game with a teammate and told Colton's coach we'd be rushing right after. It didn't work out well ... I missed the entire first half. Here's the highlights from the second half ...

Catching up with Cooper... his final Junior Jazz game. I was late, coming straight from Colton's game. Here's the highlights I have (only half the game).

A post shared by BlackhamBall (@blackhamball) on Mar 12, 2017 at 11:20am PDT

The boys got together a few times to play ball on their own too.
I'm so grateful to this group of friends Cooper has!