Can I have a whinge??

Why not. It's my blog!! Okay so last night Sarra had her basketball finals at Elphin Stadium. She plays for the Devils club and they play every Wednesday. After I signed her up and paid the $220, I found out they had moved training from Friday to Sunday. See a dilemma unfolding?

I had a word to the coach and said look I am happy to pull her out of the season because she cannot train on Sundays but if you don't mind her playing just the games, then we will continue on. Coach said, 'happy for her to continue, maybe do some drills at home'. Righto I thought, not too bad, after all it is only 9yr olds playing.

After a couple of weeks, the coach told me that some of the parents were not happy with Sarra going on first as she didn't go to training. We came to an arrangement that Sarra would have less court time because of her missing training. I said at the time, look if Sarra is hindering the 'team focus' because she is not understanding what you guys did in training and it is showing in the games, then I understand if she needs to be pulled. NO, the coach said she was fine to continue but I noticed that from then on she was very negative toward Sarra and would yell at her if she fumbled a pass etc, in fact she yelled at everyone, the players, umpires and even the parents doing bench duty. Some of the umpires refused to umpire the games she was coaching.

It became very clear that she had a band of 4 favourite players who were the talented ones. These girls were never subbed off and would get more and more exhausted as the game went on. I was kinda okay with this, up until last night. Sarra was getting some court time, maybe 3 min in the 2nd and 3min in the 4th quarter and I felt like I couldn't complain because she never went to training. What she did do was never miss or be late for a game, ever!

So lat night we turned up to the do or die match. We had to win to get into the grand final. Sarra sat on the bench in the 1st quarter - normal, sat on the bench in the 2nd quarter - okay it was a final and the scores were close.

Sat on the bench in the 3rd quarter. Sat on the bench in the last quarter. No wait, the coach sent her on for the last 7 seconds, yes that's right, the last 7 seconds in the last quarter. It was the cruelest most insensitive thing to see.

I watched my daughter get colder and colder by the minute and I was itching to go over there and yank her out of that stadium but I felt restrained to see how it played out. And what I saw was a brave little girl, who cheered her heart out for her team and kept her spirits up and a smile on her face even though I could see how disappointed she was. I was so proud of her!

I am not one to cause a scene and I rarely raise my voice. I am good at controlling my anger but I was seething. After the game, when everyone left, I approached the coach about why Sarra got absolutely no court time whatsoever. We had driven a 70km round trip in the rain, on a cold winter's night and I was furious.

She said it was club basketball not a social roster and because Sarra didn't go to training and was not one of her top players and the game was tight and it was a finals, she didn't get to play. I looked at this person as my daughter stood beside me in tears and looked into her cold dark eyes, that had no sensitivity to crushing the confidence of a 9yr old girl and all I felt was pity!

When I got home I rang the club president and raised my concerns with him. He is going to have a chat with her and ring me back because the club certainly does not accept that happening. Anyway the season is over now but maybe some good will come out of it in that we can prevent this from happening to some other child, who may not be the best dribbler, who may not perform the perfect layup or be the most consistent rebounder, but has the biggest heart and simply just loves the game.

By the way Sarra is a really good defender. Oh and they lost by one goal.