Basketball

Tomorrow I’m going to do it. I’m going to play basketball for the first time in . . . nine years. Why am I doing this? Because I’m trying to have some regular activities for my Elders Quorum to participate it. We did a movie night a month or two ago, and in an effort to do Different Things, this month’s activity is basketball. Of course, it remains to be seen how many people actually show up to play. It’s totally in the realm of possibility that I’ll end up playing HORSE tomorrow with my first counselor and no one else. On the other hand, it could be that we end up playing a full on five on five, full court game going. Who knows?

Why basketball?

Well, for one thing, every Mormon church building I’m aware of has at least a half court basketball court inside it. This makes it tremendously easy to plan on having a game. No worries about finding a place, rain, reserving anything–it’s all taken care of.

Why haven’t I played in so long?

Basketball’s just not really my thing. Yes, I’m tall–but I’m not extremely (heck–remotely) coordinated. I love me my March Madness (coming up!), but when it comes to playing sports, I’m more of a watcher than a doer.

When is the last time I played basketball?

On my mission in Germany, I was the assistant coach for a youth team for about six months, bizarre as that may seem. Some previous missionaries–expert ball players–had set up that as a sort of service project for the local youth, and I inherited the position when I got transferred in. It pretty much consisted of me yelling at them to do different drills. Very little basketball was played on my part. As a side note, I also played a fair amount of wheelchair basketball in Germany. We would go and play with some of the members of the national team. Needless to say, I’m worse at wheelchair basketball than I am at real basketball–but I had more fun playing it.

In any case, if you’re in town tomorrow at 8, and you’re up for some basketball, come on by the Mormon church. I can almost guarantee you won’t be the worst player on the court. 🙂 Wish me luck!