RTOC/Allstar Weekend

On Saturday, Joshua's championship team, the Celtics participated in the Regional Tournament of Champions in Elk Grove. They ended up losing to a CYBL team by 1 point in overtime. All I can say, is that they were robbed, due to unfair calls by the ref! With 4 seconds left and the score tied up, our guy went up for a last second 3-pointer and was fouled! He should've been given the opportunity to shoot 3 freethrows to win the game, but the ref did not honor that! Boooooo!!! Pretty unfair, but what can you do? Apparently, absolutely nothing. Well, the main thing is that the Celtics played hard and had fun.

On Sunday, Joshua and Bryson competed in the Allstar Sunday game. Each team in the division were allowed to send 2 players to represent their team and form the Allstar team. The Celtics got to send two players and a coach's pick. The parents voted to send both Joshua and Bryson, and the coach's pick was Kovey.

I'm happy to announce that the Hotshots Allstars defeated the CYBL Allstars! Woohoo!!! It was a great game and a great experience.

Congratulations to the Celtics and the Hotshots Allstars!!

Happy 9th Birthday Joshua!

Today is Joshua's 9th birthday. We can hardly believe it.

We'll be having a small celebration this weekend, due to the RTOC (recreational tournament of champions). Next weekend, he'll be celebrating his day with his good friends, Bryson, Jackson, and Alex. This year, we'll be taking them to Skyzone and then the boys will be spending the night...fun, fun, fun!

Happy birthday to our "little Joshie" who isn't little anymore! May your 9th year be filled with happiness, fun, laughter and good times! We love you!!

We're Officially In Business!

We are the proud owners of our own youth basketball training business. Our business name is, Next Level Basketball Trainng. All of you who know Lance and have kept up with the blog know what an awesome basketball coach he is. He's got it all: passion for the game and coaching, heart, knowledge, patience, experience, and a positive attitude. I've encouraged him all along and put the vision in his head of one day being a full-time coach. Within the last year, he's had so many people give him praise and positive feedback on his coaching ability and style.

After seriously talking about it, drawing up plans, goals and so forth, we took a step forward and followed through with our ideas. In a matter of just a couple of weeks of planning, calling, etc. we came up with the business name, a website, and a schedule. While Lance of course will be doing all the coaching, I will be the "Co-CEO". I'll handle the details of making the calls, coming up with ideas, follow-ups, marketing/advertising, and getting clients.

Last night, was our first training session. Lance trained a 5th grade boy who signed up for 10 sessions. It was a great first session for sure!

We're really excited about this and know that it will be fulfilling and well worth the time and effort that it will take. We'd love for it to become a full-time position where Lance can go to "work" in his basketball gear and help the kids get to their "next level"! In the very near future, we are also planning to start up an afterschool program and have camps and clinics year round.

What's in YOUR drink?

Joshua came home from his best friend, Bryson's house one day a while back and asked if we could make a fresh fruit smoothie. Apparently, Bryson's Mom made one for them, and Joshua loved it! And us, never being ones to deny our children a request to eat fresh fruits – agreed to make a stop at the store to get the ingredients. Frozen strawberries (unsweetened), blueberries, bananas and some apple juice (we add less than a cup of juice to make 4 glasses of the smoothie).

First off, in 1998, the FDA confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetables provide the same essential nutrients and health benefits as fresh…just in case you were wondering (Man, how does he know this stuff???). Moving on…

“Get to the point will ya’!?!?!” Ok, Ok…for the past couple of months, we’ve been having the smoothies regularly (not every night, but at least three times a week) and we add a tablespoon of milled flaxseed to each cup. The point is, our kids (and adults included) are having a healthy “snack/dessert”. Most know of all the nutritional benefits of the ingredients (the vitamins, the fiber, the antioxidants, omega 3’s, etc.), but in case you didn’t here’s some references.

Strawberries
Blueberries
Bananas
Flaxseed

So, if your kids won’t eat fruits and/or veggies but will eat the fruit popsicles, this might be an alternative.

Just FYI – we buy frozen strawberries (about $6-$7 for a big bag, and frozen blueberries). Easy to store, easy to make. Enjoy!!!

CHAMPIONS!!

Last weekend, Joshua's team, the Celtics played in their final game of the season. The Celtics beat their opponents once before this season, but we all knew that it was for championship and that this would be a very exciting game. I'm happy and proud to say that the Celtics won!

It was a very close game in the first 4 periods (they play 5). The other team was playing very good defense, especially on Joshua! Because they remembered that Joshua was our sharp shooter,their coach was prepared. Although Joshua is the smallest kid on the team, the opponents had him on lock-down! He was double-teamed and at times, triple teamed for the whole entire game! Basically, Lance said Joshua was the "decoy" for that game. Since the other team was focused so much on shutting Joshua down, they left 2 or 3 players wide open.

The Celtics ended up winning the game by 15 points! It was a great game! Congratulations to Coach Lance and his 3rd/4th grade Celtics, summer champions!

Next up, the Recreational Tournament of Champions!