It's been too long...Basketball

I know it has been forever since I last put a post up.  Things have been really busy here in Venezuela.  Let's see where should I start.  I will start with something that transpired before Christmas break that I have not blogged about yet.  So I mentioned to the Athletic Director that I would be happy to help coach girls basketball.  I told him I don't know a ton about the sport but I do know how to get the girls in shape and it would be fun to work with someone else and get back to coaching a little bit.  He told me that would be great and he would find someone to work with me.  About two weeks later he approached me and asked if I would mind taking the assistant coaching position for Boys Basketball ( they are played in opposite seasons here for some reason).  He told me that he found a head coach with a lot of basketball experience but that he only spoke Spanish and that he was from outside the school.  Because of this he would need someone from the school to help out and translate for the kids who do not speak much Spanish.  He also really needed a female because boys basketball and girls soccer would be traveling to Maraciabo a city in the Western part of the country to play in a tournament.  He promised it would be very little work on my part.  I thought about it and decided to take it because I would get some spare money and a free trip.  

Three weeks into the season the AD informed me that the coach had called and that his work schedule had changed and he could not longer coach the team.  This is when the craziness begins!  I had now been promoted to head boy's basketball coach in an instant.  Of course the boys were not too happy to be playing for a woman and frankly I was not too fond of their crude male comments and their attitudes towards me.  These boys are considered to be the bad boys on campus.  It really took me back to my time in the South Bronx!  I implemented a policy that if they said something crude or had an attitude that we would run suicides as a team.  This quickly cut back some of the behavior.  The boys in the end came together as a team and worked hard.  Although we did not have a lot of wins I think that we accomplished something great in the end: we became a TEAM!