Upward!

For the last two months, Lamont has been a basketball coach and referee for the Upward Sports program at our church. He coaches (with a friend of his) a team of 5th and 6th grade boys, and has refereed dozens of games from kindergarten through 6th grade. The kids in the program are ridiculously adorable and it's been so much fun spending parts of our Saturdays at these games!

I had never heard of Upward Sports before now, but it is such a neat organization. They do multiple sports (not just basketball) and also cheerleading, all for ages K-6. The kids have so much fun, and they get to feel like superstars...at the start of each game they run out through a big blown-up arch while an announcer calls out each of their names just like they do at a college game, and the kids just beam about it! They pray before the game, and at halftime dozens of different folks from the church have taken turns spending a few minutes sharing something about how the Lord has worked in their lives. The whole community is involved with their children, so it's a really neat ministry.

Lamont's team, the Mavericks, has had a losing season. To be precise, they had lost every single game...until this week. The team is undersized, has only 6 players to all the other teams' 8-10, and though the boys do have some real talent, they have generally lacked the drive to just go out and give it their all despite the disadvantages they're facing. But this week they came out with smiles and energy and determination, and not only did they earn their very first win, but they earned a final score of 26-12! Nice job, Mavericks! Lamont is insanely proud of them, and I'm insanely proud of him. :-)