Keaton - Up with the 9th Graders

During Keaton's 8th grade year, he not only played basketball with the Copper Hills Prep league, but also with the West Hills school team. The official team is all 9th graders, but then Coach Heagren taps a few younger players to come practice with the team, and augment it for the Thursday night league (when the boys split into two teams to allow for more playing time). 

There were many practices after school, and early on Friday mornings. Games were Thursday nights ... the same night as my Zumba class. I didn't make it to that many games, especially after Keaton's buddy Tyler joined the team and his parents were always willing to give Keaton a ride. So ... not much video footage. You can see a small clip (HERE) ... and Keaton did score as I had my camera out!

Keaton went to watch almost all the Saturday games the 9th graders played in the official district league. Always there, cheering them on (he didn't even come to Callahan's games as often when Cal was on the team last year!) They were able to win the tournament, and the BIG trophy! Even though Keaton didn't play in the Saturday games, he still got a t-shirt with the rest of the team.

Good luck to these guys as they try out for the sophomore team next year. I know Keaton sure had a good time getting to know them and having the opportunity to play along side them this year. 

Colton - Junior Jazz (3rd Grade)

Colton was excited to play basketball this winter ... following in the footsteps of his big brothers!  For the last couple years we've always had friends and neighbors we've signed up with, but this year ... we just signed up and hoped he'd know a few of the kids on his team. There were a few that went to his same school.

As a third grader player, they had practices this year. Tuesday nights over at Joel P. Colton really enjoyed the practices, especially the games of "tornado" at the end. Sometimes Keaton and Cooper would come along and shoot around too.

Games were on Saturdays at West Hills Middle School. Luckily we got the West side of the gym, which is a little more spacious than the other side. They had one little superstar on the team (Zion), and they had a pretty good season.

Here's a highlight video ...

Team Picture

Callahan - Sophomore Year

It was finally time. Tryouts for the high school basketball team. Even though we were pretty sure Callahan would make the team, we were still nervous. HE was SO nervous! His dream since he was in 3rd grade came true. He made the team!

I knew being on the team also required a bit from the parents. There were the normal fees of course, and then the required "volunteering" for the snack bar, team dinners, lunches, donations and ticket sales. There were tons of practices for Callahan, and then of course, there were the games ...

Thanks to his former coach (Mike Heagren) for all the great photos! You can see more here. I didn't get video of every game, but I made a few. You can check out Callahan in action here (Callahan's Sophomore Year).  The highlight of the year will be this play, made in the final seconds of the game against rival Bingham ...

(Jan2015) The highlight of the season for Callahan! At the buzzer to beat Bingham... #basketballcal

A video posted by BlackhamBall (@blackhamball) on Mar 6, 2015 at 12:35pm PST