Another basketball season is in the books for Bren, and what a season it was! Brenson played with a new club this year, and it was definitely a season full of ups and downs.
I've probably said on here before that one of the best things about homeschooling is that we get to make all the decisions regarding academics and extra-curriculars for our kids. At the same time, this is also one of the most difficult things about homeschooling. For the past two years, Brenson has played basketball through the Claremore Rec League in the INBC. While those experiences have been okay and have fit our needs at the time, now that Bren is in 7th grade we wanted to find him a team he could really grow with and, *hopefully* continue to play with through high school.
After a lot of research, talking to other people, and discussions in our family, we decided to have Brenson play with NOAH Basketball this year. NOAH (Northeast Oklahoma Association of Homeschools) is known in the Tulsa area as being the "premier" homeschool sports club. We have competed with NOAH in cross country and track & field for several years. Their programs are well-established and have a *mostly* good reputation. Even though we knew it meant committing to practices and games in Tulsa and Broken Arrow, we were excited to be part of a program like NOAH.
Practices and scrimmages began in November. Bren practiced on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with most games being on Saturday.
The way the teams were split up was a bit confusing. NOAH was part of the INBC, and Bren was part of the 7th grade boys team for all their league games. For all their games against other homeschool clubs (and for Regionals and Nationals), the 6th and 7th grade teams were combined into one 12U boys team. This was often difficult as they didn't typically practice together, they weren't being coached the same, and more often than not the 6th graders didn't get much (if any) play time.
Brooke's volleyball practices were also on Tuesday evenings with games on Saturdays, so I didn't attend any practices with Bren and missed a good number of his games. Brecklyn would often go with Chris and Bren, and she was a great little spectator.
Bren's team had a good bit of experience and talent, but they struggled to play together for most of the season.
The coach also tended to really play favorites, and Bren wasn't on his list. Although Bren played most of the minutes of most of the {27} games, there were some games where he sat on the bench nearly the entire time with no explanation.
Unfortunately, we found his coach to be temperamental and unpredictable. He lost his cool during several games, and we hated the way he would scream and tantrum at the boys.
At the same time, practices were often canceled (or coach wasn't there), and they often didn't seem beneficial when they were held. We spent much of the season frustrated with how things didn't seem to be conducted with intentionality.
However, we tried to keep a somewhat positive attitude and cheer our boy on!
We had known from before the season began that NOAH planned to take teams to the Regional Homeschool Tournament in Lawrence, Kansas and to the National Homeschool Tournament in Springfield, Missouri. We planned to go to both tournaments and had even reserved lodging for both places. Sadly, communication from the club was lacking at best. We asked questions, but no one seemed to want to give us answers. There were several games where our coach was absent, and no one bothered to communicate that to us or anyone else. The complete breakdown of communication in addition to the struggle with the coaching had us questioning whether we wanted to travel out of town to represent this club.
Ultimately, we decided that Bren would play in the Regional tournament in Lawrence, but not the week long Nationals tournament. It was a tough decision, and one we wrestled greatly with. In the end though, it came down to us not wanting to prolong the season by committing to a week of frustrations, poor behavior from the coach, lack of communication, and unjust treatment. We felt relieved once we made the decision and have no regrets.
Regionals was a three day tournament (Thursday, Friday, Saturday - February 20-21), and Chris took Brenson while I stayed home with the girls. I had decided to stay back in order for the girls to not miss track & field practice, as well as a few other activities we had going on. However, it turned out that we had ice and snow on the ground - as well as frigid temps - during this time and all other activities were canceled anyhow.
One of Bren's teammates, Daniel, rode to the tournament with Chris and Bren. Their first game was at 10:05am on Thursday, so they left our house at 5:30am to get there in time. Chris sent this photo after about an hour on the road :-).
While there were 15 boys on the 12U team, only 5 boys ended up going to Regionals. This was in large part because other families were feeling much of the same things we were about the poor coaching and lack of communication. On the way to Lawrence Thursday morning, Isaac's family's vehicle broke down. Chris was in a town nearby when Isaac's dad sent the message that they would not make it for the first game. Chris turned around, backtracked just a bit to pick up Isaac, and got all three boys (Brenson, Daniel, and Isaac) to Lawrence in time for their first game. Isaac was the only 6th grader who travelled to Regionals, and he did a great job playing with the other boys.
The boys won their first game and played a second game later that afternoon.
They won their second game, as well! Not bad for a team who only had 5 players!
Daniel was staying with some family friends from Omaha during the tournament, but traveling to and from games with Chris and Bren. At some point on Thursday, the family friend invited Daniel, Chris, Bren, and Isaac to join their team (the Omaha Roadrunners) to take a tour of Allen Fieldhouse at KU. The boys played a game Friday morning (which they lost), then went on the tour.
Brenson, Isaac, Daniel
Bren, Isaac, Daniel
Chris and Bren
Daniel, Isaac, and Brenson
💙💛
Chris, Bren, and Isaac grabbed lunch after the tour, then dropped Isaac off with his dad. Bren was tuckered out on the way back to the hotel!
On Saturday morning, the tournament was held at the Hyvee Arena in Kansas City.
It was quite the facility and definitely unlike anywhere Bren has played before!
The boys held their own for a the first half of the Saturday game, but did not win.
Chris said they were just gassed from not having any subs during the tournament.
However, they finished 4th overall (out of 14 teams) in the tournament. We were happy for that!
After a weekend of hard ball, Bren was ready to head home!
Having Daniel ride with Chris and Bren was really nice for Bren because he and Daniel got along great. They talked and joked the entire time, and it was just a good experience for them both. They have a similar personality and were definitely leaders on the team.
Daniel and Bren . . . the "tall boys"
The guys got home from Regionals around 6:30pm on Saturday, just in time to continue the INBC post-season tournament on Sunday (February 23). They had played their first post-season tournament game the Saturday before Regionals. Bren did not play as we had already planned to be in KC that weekend, and the team lost that game. There were two games scheduled on Sunday at 12:00pm and 3:00pm, but Bren only played in the 3:00pm game due to church services. They won both games, which meant they played again on Monday evening. The boys easily won that game and advanced to the post-season semi-finals!
The semi-final game was on Friday evening (February 27) in Broken Arrow. None of the girls wanted to go to the game, so we let them stay home while Chris and I took Bren. The game ended up being pretty crazy, and I was glad the girls weren't there! The entire game was rough and dirty. There were so many fouls called and many, many sneaky things that were missed. Bren really started to lose his cool during the first quarter, and coach pulled him out to collect himself and calm down. Thankfully, Bren got himself under control, and when he went back in the game he played really solid. The other team's coach received two technicals and was ejected from the game, which got the crowd in an uproar. I told Chris that the game couldn't end fast enough! After all that, our boys won 26-6!
On Saturday (March 1), we had a game against another homeschool club scheduled for 1:00pm. After that, our boys played in the INBC championship game at 3:30pm. Coach was very mindful about resting our starters during the first game to preserve their energy for the championship game. Bren and Daniel were pretty much never out of a game at the same time, so it was funny to me to see them on the bench together during the first game.
They talked and cut-up and were thoroughly enjoying themselves!
After the boys {easily} won their 1:00pm game in Tulsa, we drove straight to Collinsville for the INBC championship game. Daniel rode with us. We arrived at the gym about an hour early, then game start was delayed 45 minutes. The boys had energy to spare . . . they were geared up to play!
Our boys did fantastic during the first half of the championship game. We ended the half up 26-6, but things quickly fell apart in the 3rd quarter. Bren ended up not playing at all during the 3rd quarter and only played a few minutes in the 4th. We have no idea why. What we do know is that it was an intense game! We won with a final score of 34-31.
INBC 7th Grade Boys Champions!
Cris, Aiden, Brenson, Ryder, Daniel, Clive, Coach
The final 10 days of the season were intense, but we were thrilled with a championship win!
The boys' overall record for the season was 17-10, with a 5-3 INBC regular season record. Bren worked extremely hard this season and overcame more adversity than he should have had to deal with. It was nice to end our season on a positive note after so much frustration and disappointment with how many things were handled.
With that said, our hope going into this season was that we would find a club and team where we could stay and Bren could grow. It is very unlikely that it will be this club, although we aren't slamming the door on it completely. There are a few players that we would really like to see Bren play with again, so we will see what happens. No matter what, we are proud of Bren for how he handled things this season, and we look forward to his continued growth as a person and as a player.
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