My First Basketball Experience

“We’re letting them win”......

I walked into the courts, filled with excitement. A man who was obviously our instructor told us to stand on the yellow line. We did. He then began introducing himself. His name was Coach Bruce.

Afterwards Mrs Tui put us into 4 groups. Once the groups were sorted Coach Bruce started demonstrating a few basketball skills. He showed us how to dribble a ball and the proper way of holding it. This was all new to me.

As soon as he was finished we played a game. Each person from each group had to dribble the ball to the cone and back. At first it was sort of easy. Until Coach Bruce announced we had to use our left hand. I found it difficult. First team to finish were the winners. My team won once. We were very happy.

The next game we played was sort of similar. Each group had multiple coloured cones they had to collect. (during this game a tall man walked into the courts. Coach Bruce told us his name was Coach Dwayne. He plays for the Auckland Pirates) We played and played. I was having a lot of fun. Even though Ofa’s team kept winning. Coach Bruce asked us “why does the white team(referring to their coloured cone) keep winning? Daniel answered “We’re letting them win”. Everyone laughed.

Later we played another game. This time we had to focus on our shooting. We challenged Agnes’ team. They won. Showing good sportsmanship we congratulated them.

After all that fun our time was sadly over. We said thank-you to Coach Bruce and Coach Wayne. I can not wait till next week when we have another basketball session.