The "E-Girls"

This season, I got the chance to coach this

lovely bunch of grade 5 and 6 girls with Sarah. 

{Sarah and I met playing flag football at Corban,

and have gotten to know each other better since being here}

headed to their first game!

After practice one day, with cookies from coach Sarah and I

On the bus headed to their first tournament.

I wish I had a video from our first day of practice. With the exception of two girls, none of them had ever played basketball before. . . it wasn't pretty. We had to start with the very basics: how to dribble, what traveling was, what offense and defense meant, etc. But by the end of the season, these girls could make their lay-ins (this was big!), run plays, and we got a win! 

It's hard to have organized sports seasons in Indonesia, because half the schools here run Jan - Dec, so their school years look different. Then, half the schools that do match with ours, don't have girls this age that want to play. We only got to play four games, which is a bummer because they were just starting to peak when the season ended. 

After their first tournament game.

On Thursday, we had our end of the year team party. I finally got in the school's indoor pool. Last year it wasn't heated, so that was pretty much a no! These pictures are from a different day. . . sadly, I forgot to bring my camera for our party! But I stole this picture from Sarah!

We brought a beach ball, and had a blast splashing around. The party finished off with the classic team awards. After coming up with about eight awards, Sarah and I had to start getting creative. We managed to award each girl a certificate for something different! :) And don't forget the food part. . .we had lots of that too! 

As much as I enjoyed coaching the girls this season, even two days a week sometimes felt like a big commitment some days after working! I give props to the coaches who coach every day of the week. I sorta wasn't looking forward to another coaching season after Christmas. BUT, I'm excited because I found out most of my basketball girls are joining soccer next season, so they'll make it worth the time! :)

Oh, and I'm sure we'll be the "E-Girls" again. They said, "the boys are the Eagles, we want to be the E-girls instead!" so there you have it. 

"E-Girls"

KV Eagles!

Check out our school's new sports logo!

We're the SPH Eagles of Kemang Village!

And the best part is that Chris designed it! 

He's designed three different jerseys for our three teams this year! They got delivered just in time for the first tournament today!
(well, most of them. it's jakarta, so things like that happen)

Story time: 

When Chris and his brothers were younger, they would occasionally hang out at Corban (western baptist then) after school hours while their dad (marty) was grading or attending late meetings. Their mom (linda) would draw large blank helmets on computer paper and let them draw away! It started out as just copying NFL logos onto the helmets  and progressed into designing new team logos/jerseys as they got older. Chris is always the first to notice a team's new jersey design, and clues me in on the pros and cons of each. It's only fitting that he gets a chance to design his own! They look awesome! Here  are the boys sporting their away jerseys. 

The grade 7-9 boys team coached by Chris and Karl

All the 7-9 players

 Each of the teams played three games today (against the other SPH schools). The girls won all three of their games. The boys played some better competition and won one of three. It was a good day overall for Kemang Village basketball, and I give SO much credit to all the coaches! They have been working so hard with these kids, and its really showing.  The level of the game is rising for both teams, and you can just see the kids having fun and feeling proud of themselves. We love it! 

ps. I'm coaching the grade 5-6 girls team. For the most part, none of them have ever been coached before. It's been awesome to see them improve in just five weeks (two practices a week). I don't think we'll get to play any games until November, but I'll let ya know how that goes when the time comes. Right now we're just working on the basics :)
(and waiting for our cool uniforms designed by Chris!)