Mom's practice - it's all about the shirts

The new head coach of Ranger basketball held a mom's practice at the beginning of last season. And as I reflect back on it now, I bet the coach was more nervous about the meeting than we moms were. He'd faced the moms before. He knew what we could be like.

Ostensibly, we were there to hear about his coaching philosophy, tour the locker room and receive matching shirts. Coach even brought coffee and doughnuts to that Saturday morning meeting. But the real reason for the meeting was to get us to brace ourselves for the coming reality - some of our kids weren't going to start or even play much. And we needed to get comfortable with that.

This photo shows what we looked like that day.

But I wonder what we looked like to the coach? Perhaps a pride of lionesses ready to pounce if our cubs were to get hurt?

It's the coach's job to pick the best players for the team, but I bet if he had taken a secret ballot that day, most moms would have ranked their own kid as one of the best on the team. Probably nature's way of insuring our offspring grow into adulthood. But it can't be easy for a coach, who sees our kids and their talents realistically.


Lionesses we are. Lionesses we must be. At least we all have matching shirts.