Time...Where Does It Go?

I have been reprimanded by many people for the lack of updates on our blog. It's hard to know where the time has gone between the last post and this one. The 24 hours in a day just aren't enough to get everything done and then to find extra time to blog. This is probably the busiest time of the year for me because of basketball season. Here is an update on what is taking place in the M&M World (in St. George, not the one in Vegas, haha).

Basketball season has started. It has been an interesting year so far. When I took the job two years ago, I was really excited for the future because there were a lot of young players I could work with and help develop. Unfortunately, I have had to compete with the volleyball coach who is trying to get all the kids to do club volleyball during the off season. In bigger schools, this would probably work out just fine, but in the school my size, this is terrible. Seeing how volleyball has had a consistent coach for many years and have had a little more success than basketball in the past, the kids are choosing to play volleyball and focus on that sport. The things that upsets me the most about the entire situation is that they are being told that club volleyball will help them get a scholarship to play volleyball in college. Ummm, we are a small 1A school in Arizona that has the genes of small Hispanics. I'm sorry but with the competition and height that exists everywhere but in the mind of the volleyball coach (well to be fair it is more her daughter, who "helps" coach the team), these girls are not going to get scholarships. I don't like that they are getting their hopes up for something that most likely will not happen.

Anyway, back to the basketball season. I have 16 players playing for me this year, and 9 of them are freshmen. Only 5 players have had more than 1 year of basketball and 2 of those 5 work really hard but just are not very talented. I am thinking of this year as a rebuilding year and am seeing that with so many young players, the future of basketball could be bright. I have said numerous times that if all the freshmen stick with basketball and play together for the next four years, they will be fairly good when they are seniors. Hopefully they are listening to me and they won't get sucked into other things. Despite having so many inexperienced players, we have managed to win 2 games. It is good for them to get a little success and we did have a pretty good game (and that means on paper we should have lost by 40+ points and we only lost by 20 some) against the number one team in our league. There is a lot of basketball to be played in January, so hopefully we will continue to improve and maybe pull out one more win. However, I am looking forward to the season ending so I can spend a little more time at home since basketball makes me get home late and takes me away every weekend.

Mahonri has gotten back into the swing of things with school and had a really good semester. His grades were great and he is a good student. He has also gotten a part time job and has enjoyed working where he does. He sells sports equipment and works for a guy in our ward. They have become pretty good friends. He is set up to take another full load during the spring semester.

I wish I would have taken a picture that I could post, but I do not have one. Thanks to the donation of my parents old, fake, flocked Christmas tree, we were able to set one up at our house for the Christmas season. It has been fun to have a tree to help us celebrate this season. I always enjoy sitting in the room with just the Christmas tree lights on; it is so peaceful.

We have enjoyed being able to spend time in Gunnison with our families during our Christmas break. It's nice being able to get away and not have to worry about anything for a few weeks. I begin school again on January 4 and Mahonri will start on January 11. Happy Holiday Season to everyone, and perhaps I'll make a New Year's Resolution to keep out blog updated better...perhaps.