"Okay boys, go out there and try your hardest and have a fun time." That's what I usually say before the basketball games I coach for my town. I coach a basketball team of nine to eleven-year-olds in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. It's a great league to learn the fundamentals of basketball and get an opportunity to meet some great kids who want to play up to their potential and hopefully become a better basketball players.

I went through the same league when I was younger, and learned a lot from it. The league starts when you're seven and goes to age fourteen, divided into groups of seven and eight-year-olds, nine to eleven-year-olds, and twelve to fourteen-year-olds for both boys and girls. For girls, the league continues to sixteen-year-olds.

Some great players have come from this league, some who have made varsity teams in high school and some who have even made college basketball teams.

It's my first year of coaching, but not my last. I have a great team and a lot of good players with what's most important at that age - a heart for the game. It's funny but at our first practice I was scared a little not knowing how to start, but then I thought, I've been through this before as a player. Everything came back to me and I ran a smooth practice.

Our first real game is coming up this weekend and hopefully we will pull out a win, but if we don't, we'll try to turn it around the next week. One thing I've learned so far is they're still young and all have potential in some aspect of the game, so hopefully I can help them shine and learn the game of basketball. fl