Basketball Tryouts - Outcome :(

Well, basketball tryouts for the Sonny Hill Developmental League are over. Ronnie did his best. But, unfortunately his best, this day, was just not good enough.

We got to the Mallery Recreation Center in the Germantown section of Philadelphia after the coach had rescheduled the tryouts. There were already about 25 kids there, most without parents and probably all neighborhood children. The tryouts were for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade kids. What was interesting to me was that about 1/4 of these kids had facial hair. My son is 12 years old, skinny, 5' tall, and about 90 lbs soaking wet. While his dad is only 5'9", and I am 5'6", my brother is 6'1" and my husband's two brothers are 6'5"l. For this kid's sake, I hope Ronnie's lucky enough to eventually take after his uncles, as far as height is concerned.

Of the kids there, the boys that he was playing were quite a bit bigger than Ronnie is. They definitely all had more meat on their bones and were just stronger and more aggressive players. Usually, he's the smallest player. I think that fact definitely affects his game. When he plays the neighborhood kids, who are all his friends and older than he is, he plays with confidence. The fact that he is smaller than most of the players that he knows does not appear to affect his game. The last league that he played in, he was also the smallest; I think what shook his confidence was that he was smaller than the other guys that he didn't know - and they were definitely much stronger. That definitely affected his game.

Ronnie's performance in these tryouts was nowhere near as good as he usually performs in the neighborhood, or even in our backyard, for that matter. His energy level wasn't the same and he just wasn't "all over the court" like he usually is. He just didn't have that hustle and energy that we're used to seeing. Being a little guy has its advantages: he's faster than most and he's really good at getting down low and stealing the ball when you least expect it. This day, he just didn't perform like that.

Afterwards when we got the bad news, I asked him why he just wasn't as energetic as he usually is on the court. He told us that both his knees were hurting him. He had complained about his left knee last summer and we took him to an orthopedist and had the knee X-rayed. The physician stated that the knee looked fine, no sign of abnormalities. He figured they were probably just growing pains and nothing to worry about. But Ronnie has complained about them since then, every now and then. I have noticed that he wears an Ace bandage on not one, but both of his knees. And he seems to complain about them more when the weather is cold. But then again, he wears wristbands and arm sleeves, too (he thinks they make his arms look bigger, isn't that cute?). Unfortunately, the day of the tryouts it was 27 °. The day before, our area was hit with an ice, sleet and snow storm. So after about 15 minutes into the game, he slowed down tremendously when his knees got stiff and a little painful. This definitely affected his game. He was so disappointed in himself.

But, all is not lost! There is another tryout later in the month for the Sonny Hill League and for two other leagues that we have heard about. We have an appointment to have his knees examined before then. This time, we'll ask to have them MRI'ed and hopefully we'll get a better diagnosis. By the summer, Ronnie should be all better and playing better than ever!