I could soon be playing four different sports each week. That's a record! When I was growing up I pretty much played basketball only, up to five days a week I'd have trainings or games.
We'd play in the Friday night Palmerston league, which was the one we really cared about (and won three years in a row). We were the underdog little school from the small town, who had to fight to just get in the competition each year (certain conveynors from Palmy schools wanted it to be for their city only, without outlying towns being invited to play). My mum would sit in the meetings and point out that our school never complained about the 45 minute commute each way, always turned up to games and did our duties and that we raised the level of the competition and without it, our school would be left with three other local schools to play, none of whom had a good basketball programme. They would eventually agree to let us stay and play.
We'd sometimes also play in the local league, as a mid-week training. That was against grown women - some of whom were pretty feisty. If the school team wasn't playing in that, I'd get together a bunch of friends to play. Just about every girl from our 4th form class ended up playing for us. We'd have to do score-bench and referee games ourselves - for a 13 year old girl, reffing men's games is not a fun thing! But that's grass root basketball for you. In Wellington, you never have to provide refs and most of the kids come through having never reffed a game. I think it's a sad thing. Reffing is like a rite of passage that everyone should have to endure. My brother coached us some seasons.
Then there was a mid-week local schools league that was held in Levin. It was one of those things that just kept the kids of the street, and my mum pretty much ran it by herself. It got pretty big with teams from Otaki and Foxton travelling to play. So every Thursday my whole family would be down at the stadium, playing and chipping in where we could. And dad would pick us up and we'd get Chinese take-aways on the way home at 8pm. Then mum would get us to help her collate all the scores and make the draw for next week. It was all done by hand in those days - not on spreadsheets.
On Wednesdays we always had training for the Senior A. I would bike down on mum's old bike with the basket and carrier on it, or my friend Sarah would pick me up in her mini. We would train after the boys, which meant we could sit upstairs and watch them play their pick-up game at the end of their practice. They played skins versus shirts. Exciting for teenage girls to see! Me and my brother would be allowed to take the key to the gym to trainings and were entrusted with locking up the gym and turning off all the lights. In the holidays we would have the odd sneaky pick-up game at the gym, possibly not something the PE department would approve of. It seemed natural at the time, but the school I work at now doesn't even entrust teachers to lock up the gym and would have kittens if you left it up to a student.
How times have changed.
Sports Now
Tuesdays
We've been trying out playing Ultimate Frisbee on a Tuesday. I like it because it flows pretty well and you don't have those quiet phases like you can in a netball game, if you're down the wrong end. It's also quite casual and social. I like that throughout the game when you get subbed off, you can sit and chat with a variety of people. In netball you get your one quarter off, and there might be one guy off with you. I like that we don't take it toooo seriously as we're all not fantastic yet. We yell out encouragement about small victories and trash-talk each other without actually hitting on points of pride.
Wednesdays
I play for Michelle's netball team, which has bits and pieces of my old Monday night netball teams on it. It's a good team - we all know each other's styles pretty well now and we have a lot of strengths. We're in the top grade for the night, so games tend to be challenging. I like that it's a high level of play and everyone on the team is fairly competitive, yet doesn't get miffed too badly if things go wrong. There's a sense of humour there.
Thursdays
Basketball starts up again next week. I play for a club team and there are ladies on it that I've played with for a few years now. I'm not really friends with any of them, only socialising once a season or so, but they're all good sorts. It's a nice womanly kind of environment where everyone's included. There are some pretty tough-minded women on the team. We have had a few new players recently, which has frustrated me a little. They just don't quite know where to stand on defence, which is integral to a zone. I guess it takes a while to figure out just have far out you can go when you're playing base in a zone.
Soon to Come
Lawn bowls! A game that has a slower pace and more analysing. Should be fun. I like that it crosses generations.
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