Life With The Myers: Basketball and Bribery

Maddie warming up.

Dave and I are competitive. We've always been- growing up we both played lots of sports and we both like to brag about high school state championships that were won and college tournaments that were played. Naturally, we'd have competitive kids right? WRONG. Somehow, we've been raising two little girls who are pretty non-aggressive in the athletic department.

This was Maddie's first year playing basketball. We were thrilled that she was willing to try it out and we saw future potential for sure. We were able to coach her team which was good fun but with that came challenges we hadn't thought out. For instance, our girl not wanting re-direction from us, storming off because we were "wrong" and needing a drink every 30 seconds. She came in not really knowing anything about the game and left understanding offense and defense and being able to dribble the ball. The girl didn't like to shoot. At. All. Which is where Dave and I began to wonder where we went wrong! But she was a top notch defender; never losing her girl.

Maddie getting her defense on.

Maddie and her coaches.

This was Taylor's 2nd season of Upward Basketball. She ended her last game last year finally shooting (a lot) and scoring and she was very excited to be playing this year. She started off strong in her first game and then for some reason, lost the spunk and we were seeing that non-competitiveness in her again as well. Now, you are probably thinking...."These people are horrible! Putting so much pressure on their kids to do well". It wasn't like that at all. I promise. It was more Dave and I having these conversations privately trying to figure out how to get them to be more aggressive. And then, one day it came to us. The girls were telling us about a friend who was earning money for scoring at her soccer games and the light bulb came on in me. It's horrible and you know where this is going right? Yep. We bribed them. With money.

With 3 games left in the season, we told the girls that for each rebound they got we'd give them a dollar. For each basket? $5! Sounds like a lot. But they hadn't done either in a few games. We only owed Maddie $3 at the end of the season (which for her was A LOT of rebounds!) but Taylor? OH MY! Apparently the girl will shoot, score and rebound for money! I had to go to the ATM to get her the $32 bucks she earned in 3 games. She was aggressive, shot and made baskets and most importantly she was an active member of her team.

We aren't proud of what we did. And honestly, we just wanted them to feel successful about what they were doing.

At the end of the season we saw two girls who are beginning to love the game, who made new friends, became good team members , who laughed and enjoyed themselves. All that's most important.