JV-Varsity Basketball Season

It's a wrap on Matty's first (maybe only?) basketball season at Liberty. As of today, the varsity team is still in the State Championship bracket. They have played very well in the past few weeks and beat several strong teams to make it this far. The next game is this coming Wednesday, 3/4, at noon in the Tacoma Dome. Matty will be there with the team, but he will not be wearing a uniform. 

Matty started practicing with the varsity team in mid-December. While he practiced with the varsity team and dressed for the varsity games the majority of the season, he only stepped onto the court during varsity games a handful of times, and it was usually at the very end for a minute or two. Regardless, it was a great experience for him. He was a starter on the JV team and really developed as a player this year. "Playing up" gave him the challenge and drive to be better. 

When the time came for the King County tournament, schools are only allowed to roster/dress 12 players. Unfortunately for Matty's basketball ambition, he did not make the roster of 12 (we believe he was the first one out). Fortunately for our family ski trip, he was able to come with us. Had he been on the roster of 12, we would have left him behind for the week so he could be at the practices and games. Coach Omar told Matty that he still wanted him to attend practices and be at the games (wearing the team suit and tie), but we opted to pull him for the week of our ski trip. This was a more difficult decision and discussion than I am explaining here, but it is not necessary to deep dive into the basketball dynamics. Haha.  

We returned from our ski trip a week ago, and Matty returned to basketball practices. The team played in the first round of state yesterday and won. Matty was there, in his suit and tie, recording the game with the team iPad. Even though the team won and moves on, Matty is not going to practice with them anymore because baseball tryouts start tomorrow. No downtime! 

Matty had a great freshman season in basketball. Having him dress for varsity games was never on our radar. We had a hunch he would play on the JV team, but we were surprised that he was one of the five starters and even more surprised when he was asked to practice with the varsity team. 

As of now, Matty says he doubts he will play basketball next season. He missed a lot of baseball this winter due to basketball, including a Perfect Game tournament in Arizona, so he says he does not want to miss baseball next year. Time will tell. 

We laughed when Matty made the HS instagram post about varsity basketball. He played in that game for about 30 seconds. Lucky kiddo!

Varsity basketball suit and tie

We took lots of pictures of Lucas and Matty because it is so special that the two of them played varsity this year. They have played sports together since preschool!