Taking Shots

Ammon played on the Salmon Middle School's 8th grade boys basketball team this year. The season lasted 8 weeks: from the beginning of January to the first of March. They played 4 home games and 4 away games, and at the end of the season they competed in an all-day District Competition.

 

Ammon had a good season--at one home game, he scored half the points for the team in the first half of the game. That was a fun one to watch for sure! His favorite shot was the 3-pointer, and he made several of them which was exciting to see! Josh also refereed the home games, and drove the bus for almost all the away games, so he was able to be with/watch Ammon the whole season.

 

These first few photos are from our home game against Firth. They were a rough team, and the only one we lost against during the season. One of the kids on their team fouled Ammon pretty hard, and then the kid's dad (who was sitting in front of us in the stands) started yelling at Josh for calling it. Then Kathy (who was sitting next to me) started yelling at the guy. That was an interesting game...

 

These photos are from the game they played at Leadore. Ammon and two other 8th graders joined up with the 7th grade team to play, because Leadore only has one team with a lot of young players, so our entire 8th grade team didn't go. That was a hard game for Ammon because he was playing with members of a team that he'd never practiced with, and the Leadore kids range from super tall 8th graders to very short 5th graders.

 

At the home game on Valentine's Day, our school had a contest where the audience was given paper to make paper airplanes with, and then at half-time, they could shoot the airplanes onto the basketball court. If the airplane hit a heart target, they got to win the prize that was on the heart. That was so fun for my boys! (even though we didn't win anything!)

On Valentine's Day, our home game was against Challis. This was Josh's least favorite game to ref the whole season. A majority of the Challis ball players are also wrestlers, and they manhandled our team the whole game. Even though we beat them by a long shot, it was a very physically challenging game.

On Saturday March 1, District Competition was at Firth High School. Josh drove the bus, so I drove the younger boys down in the van myself. It was a super snowy day, and the roads were really slushy and icy. My parents had stayed the weekend with us to see Ammon receive his Eagle Scout award, and they followed behind me down to Firth (over 2 1/2 hours from Salmon). When I got to the freeway, I white-knuckled it, and went in the non-plowed passing lane to pass several slow cars. That was when I lost my parents. I drove on until I got to Firth, and barely made it in the gym when Ammon's first game started. After a half hour without seeing my parents, I started getting worried. I texted my mom, and she called me back saying they'd slid off the road. When they took the Firth exit from the freeway, the incline and ice pulled their car down into the borrow pit and they were unable to make it back onto the road, so they were waiting for a tow truck. Finally, in the last few minutes of Ammon's first game they arrived. The District Competition was 3 back-to-back rounds of basketball. They played Challis in the first round and won.

 

 

Their second game was against Ririe. It was a close game, but Salmon came out as the winners. My parents stayed to watch that game, and then they left to drive back home to Tremonton.

 

 The 3rd round was the championship game, and it was against Firth. It was an ugly game. At half time, we were leading the game. But in the 4th quarter, they took a big lead. The refs were awful and tried to kick my husband out of the game (for making a 'traveling' gesture!!!), the scoreboard official screwed up twice and then yelled at our crowd for catching his mistake, the scoreboard official and the refs kept playing this whistle-beeping game which annoyed everyone, and the scorekeeper kept erasing her team's fouls. It was unpleasant, and I realized why Firth has such a bad reputation in Southeast Idaho. They have poor sportsmanship. I felt bad for the boys for enduring such a difficult situation, but they played their hearts out and they received 2nd place in the district and we were very proud of them.

They had a great season overall. Their coaches, Boyd Stokes and Trent Beyeler, did an excellent job. It was a joy to watch the boys grow and develop their basketball skills over the season. I can't wait to watch them in high school next year!