Project 365 {2013} - Day 229

 

For the last 10 years, I've ran a basketball camp for the top basketball players in Georgia. When I first started running the camp, I really had no idea what I was doing. I packed a 140 players into a small gym, did everything by myself and asked my family to help me. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

Now that I work at Suwanee Sports Academy, a 7-court sports facility in metro Atlanta, I have more resources for running my camp. This year we had 150 kids over the course of three separate days.

We were lucky enough to have an old friend of my, Dennis Felton, run our camp. Who is Coach Felton? He most recently worked for the San Antonio Spurs as the Director of Pro Player Personnel. He was also the head coach of the University of Georgia's men's basketball team.

It was a great opportunity for our players to be coached by a great coach. The camp was great and the little camp that couldn't that I started 10 years ago continues to evolve into one of the elite opportunities in the country. What a ride it's been, too.

This post was written by my boyfriend, Justin D. Young. :)

Pump That Tiger Spirit Up!

Let me just preface this post by saying, I never, ever thought in a million years I would have a daughter in cheerleading. But alas, a few months ago Maryn came to me and asked if she could do it. It is not competitive cheer, so there is no make-up and glitter and all that. Just little girls learning some cute, age-appropriate cheers. So I put my preconceived notions aside and consented. Maryn has had a lot of fun with it and now even Brynna wants to sign up for it next semester.

After several weeks of practice and learning the ropes, Maryn cheered at her first basketball game on Saturday. It was pretty dang cute seeing her out there all silly and having fun! You could tell which cheers were her favorites, because I had heard her around the house every now and again cheering under her breath. Through it all she had a grin on her face the whole time and almost a Mary Catherine Gallagher type enthusiasm! Justin and I loved seeing her so happy and just kept stealing glances and smiling at each other.

Justin (who spent many years covering college level basketball recruiting) texted his brother, Kevin, at one point (who is a D-League basketball coach) and said "I am at my first basketball game where I am not here for the ball, but for the cheering." It was kind of funny how these little girls have softened my big manly man! ;)

Another funny part was before the game, while the girls were out in the hall warming up, some of the 3rd Grade basketball players were standing behind me and I heard them saying things like "Hey man, we have our own cheerleaders!" To which another boy said "No way!" "Yeah we do man, go look!" They all scooted over to the door and looked out in the hall and giggled and said "Aw man, we DO have our own cheerleaders!" It was pretty cute that it made them feel so special. In fact they smeared the opposing team, so I would like to think it was all that support that helped fuel the win! ;)

I also heard a boy saying to his friends when he saw Brynna, sitting with Lauryn and Devyn, "Hey that's Maryn's sister! They have FOUR girls in their family!!" Nice to know we are a memorable group! I also overheard a boy behind me pointing Maryn out to his Dad telling him "Hey, I know that girl! She is a friend in my class!" Despite being raised in a house full of girls Maryn gets exhausted with the ins and outs of 3rd Grade girl drama and has told me that she has a lot of "guy friends" since the girls are a headache sometimes. So it was cute to see some of those "guy friends" excited to see her too!

Overall, I am glad that Maryn went out on a limb and is trying something new that she enjoys and that she is broadening her ol' Momma and Dad's horizons!