We have a wonderful basketball program out of Woodinville called Home Court. I played basketball through my Junior year of high school and always loved the sport, so I wanted to make sure we exposed the boys to it early on. But even more importantly, Jeremy’s grandfather Charles Halbert played professionally. Here is an excerpt from his obituary, summarizing his basketball career (we lost Grandad in 2013):
Charles made his professional basketball debut on November 2, 1946 with the Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America which became the NBA during his career. The 6’9” 225 lb. Center played pro ball from 1946 to 1951, with the Chicago Stags, Philadelphia Warriors, Boston Celtics, Providence Steamrollers, the Washington Capitals and the Baltimore Bullets. He averaged 8.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. He returned to school during the off seasons to complete his Bachelor’s Degree. During his basketball career, he had the opportunity play against and become friends with some of the Harlem Globetrotter players.
Basketball is in their blood and I wanted to see if it was a sport they would enjoy and Saturday we had their first practice. Both boys were a bit nervous being in a new place with 18 kids and loads of parents watching. Carter permanently affixed himself to Jeremy’s side and Gavin saw him do this, so he grabbed my neck in a death grip. That is until the coaches called the kids to the center circle and had them race to grab a basketball. Within seconds Gavin was off my lap and running to join the other kids.
And he did great! He was one of the littlest guys out there (there were two or three others around his size). He worked so hard to heft that ball up to the net – he even scored TWICE! He was awesome with listening to the coaches and the other kids helped him if he wasn’t sure. And he loved it!
Carter watched the whole practice from a chair next to Jeremy. He needed to assess the situation before he was okay participating. Once everyone cleared out at the end of the practice, we grabbed a ball and let him shoot around a bit to get comfortable. And once Carter tried and saw that he could get the ball up there easily and he almost scored, he grinned and stated that he will definitely play next week.
So here are all the photos – and there are a lot. Grandma and Grandpa weren’t able to come watch and begged for lots of pictures, so you can blame them :-)
First up is the quick video of Gavin’s two baskets (complete with my cheering), then all the photos.
