Anyone Need A Free Agent Youth

Basketball Player From Waterbury?

By Kim J. Harmon

 

There are any number of reasons why I would move out of Waterbury (not the least of which are property taxes have tripled in the last couple of years and all of our mayors seem to end up in prison) and one reason would be to get my kids into a youth basketball program like the one here in Newtown.

My son plays in a league at the Waterbury YMCA and every time I sit in that gym to watch a game I wish that there was the kind of order that seems to permeate throughout the Newtown Parks and Recreation youth basketball league.

Up at the YMCA, it is semi-organized chaos.

The coaches for my son’s current team – the Huskies – are just great (they are young with a lot of knowledge and a whole lot of enthusiasm and none of them have kids on the team) and they have put together a system that a lot of teams in the league wish they could have. The best thing is, the kids understand some of the concepts of basketball (i.e, zone defenses and motion offenses) and even run plays.

But the games – wow, talk about insanity.

Offense is often kids hoisting up shots willy-nilly and defense is more closely related to a schoolyard rumble than anything else. The action is frantic, up and down the floor, with our coaches screaming, “GET THE BALL! GET THE BALL! GET THE BALL!” And since the officiating is sometimes half-hearted (on Monday night one ref is off to the side talking to a couple of buddies while the other is showing a page of the rulebook to a player on my son’s team ... AND THE GAME IS STILL GOING ON!) the players are getting away with plays that would be considered fouls in any civilized basketball league in the world.

Down here in Newtown, basketball resembles – well, basketball.

Which is not to say that the YMCA is a bad thing. My son is having a good time and has had the experience (important, in my mind) of being on a team that won a league championship and another team that was abysmally bad.

But the experience seems so much cooler down here in Newtown – especially with the playoffs. Sure, it’s not Connecticut-Pittsburgh, but watching the Bullets and the Nighthawks or the Huskies and the Wildcats (as I did last Saturday), there was plenty of excitement for the fans and a great time for the kids.

Yep – I’d move out of Waterbury just for that.

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I know I have said this before, but it bears repeating:

The best concept of the Newtown Parks and Recreation Youth Basketball League is having the game stopped at the four minute mark of every quarter to have a new group of players from each team shuffled in.

It takes that aspect of coaching right out of the mix, limits the hurt feelings, and generally keeps the parents from complaining too much.

The only trouble people seem to have is realizing that this concept does not apply to travel team or high school sports.

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I’ll tell you, there is something – I don’t know, wonderful would be a good word – about seeing a kid who is slightly more than four feet tall (and weighing in at around 60 pounds dripping wet) toss in a couple of three-pointers in a youth basketball game.

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I am standing on familiar ground.

With the NCAA Tournament heading into the Sweet Sixteen my 13-year-old daughter – who hasn’t watched five seconds of college basketball all season – is whipping me. She still has seven of her Elite Eight teams and all of her Final Four teams still in the dance while I only have five Elite Eight and three Final Four teams left.

But she has Georgia Tech winning the championship.

I have UConn.

And that’s where I will come out on top.

I hope.

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The opening to the 2004 major league baseball season is only a few days away and, boy, I have been working hard to get myself in shape ... well, at least I have been getting my thumbs in shape.

That’s right – my thumbs. The new MVP 2004 baseball game from EA Sports was released a couple of weeks ago and for all fans of the national pastime, there is no better baseball game on the market.

Not ESPN Baseball.

Not All Star Baseball.

And certainly not MLB 2005 from 989 Sports.

I have been playing quite a bit over the last couple of weeks (with my major league team languishing in fourth place, my AAA team winless and my AA team playing well) that I am getting anxious to see the real thing.

So, will someone wake me up at 5 am – yes, 5 am! – next Tuesday so I can see the first pitch?

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If baseball is the national pastime, why is Opening Day in Japan?

You know, for years the Cincinnati Reds – in honor, perhaps, of the city being the birthplace of professional baseball (the barnstorming Cincinnati Red Stockings) – had the first baseball game of the season.

Not anymore.

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In case anyone missed it, there is an ownership group that has made an offer to purchase the Montreal Expos and bring them to Connecticut.

Am I the only one who thinks that may be the stupidest idea ever?

This is New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and New York Mets country. There is no way – no way! – Connecticut residents will embrace a new team, let along a team called the Colonials.