Lotsa 3-Point Shots

Ammon was on the High School JV basketball team this winter. Now that our school has dropped to the 2A division in Idaho, our basketball team consists of just Varsity and J.V. (no more C team). There's a big group of boys that are Ammon's age that have played basketball together since 5th grade, and they were all on the J.V. team together. They are all freshmen now and they made up the entire J.V. team. Unfortunately, most of the schools we played against had older J.V. teams, so that meant our freshmen boys played against juniors and sophomores in almost every game during the 3-month season. Our boys played good, and we were very proud of their abilities, but because of the circumstances, they finished with a losing season. They won just 2 of the games, and were super close in 2 other games (which was SO exciting to see!!!). 

Ammon started off the season with some cool, new basketball shoes that he ordered online. He also wore his sports goggles that he got last year (which are shaded and look like sunglasses). 

Halfway through the season, one of his new shoes broke where the laces are held, and he got some new athletic shoes. Also, after having his glasses come in contact with the basketball multiple times, I finally convinced him to try out contacts (which he said he NEVER wanted to wear, but surprisingly really likes them!). He wore his new shoes and new contacts the second half of the season. 

Ammon's main contribution to the team was his Sa-weet 3-pointer shots. He aced at least one in almost all of the games! It was always so thrilling for us when it happened!

The first game was a home game against Butte on December 5. He nailed the 3-pointer!

The second game was another home game against Teton. He had another 3-point shot that swished right into the basket!

The third game was yet another home game, this time against South Fremont. 

He aced this 3-point shot again!

Then our next game was the first away game of the season and also the first game after Christmas Break; we played against South Fremont again--during which Ammon's shoe broke. Josh drove the bus for it, but I stayed home with the other boys, and I was kind of glad because I'd never experienced an earthquake before and kind of always wanted to, and we felt an earthquake in Salmon that day, from the epicenter east of Challis! 

The 4th game was a home game against Challis and WE WON!!! We were all so happy to have finally won our first game!

The next game was another home game against North Fremont.

The next game was at Teton on Jan. 10. Josh drove the bus again for it, but I was unable to go. They barely lost in overtime 48-46. That was an excitingly close game!!

The following game was at Butte. It was during this game that Ammon hurt his knee, and couldn't play in the last quarter. 

See that ref? We can't stand him. 

The next game was at home against Firth. We don't like their team or their school. 

The next game was at Challis. We already beat this team once, and the boys were hoping to beat them again, but they lost this time. Ammon hurt his knee again during this game, and was out the whole 2nd half of the game.

Two days later, they played at West Jefferson, and it was another super close, very exciting game. Ammon was a starter in this game, but I was doing some errands and shopping in Idaho Falls, and totally missed the first quarter, and unfortunately didn't see that!

Our next game was at home against Ririe, and once again Ammon was a starter during the first quarter, and I missed it AGAIN because I had some work meetings I was at and didn't make it there until the second quarter.

Their next two games were away at Firth (ugh!) and North Fremont. Then they played their last home game on Feb. 11 in Salmon against West Jefferson. This time, we beat them and WON!!! It was so close: we won by just one point! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of this game because the coach "forgot" to play Ammon. It was the first game he had never been played, and I was so upset about that! He handled it much better than me. Also, remember the ref I pointed out in an above photo? He kicked Josh out of this game for "excessive hand gestures". All Josh did was stand up and clap loudly, and then make the "I'm watching you" gesture (by pointing at his own eyes then pointed at the ref), which the ref felt was threatening. Josh has paralyzed vocal cords, so he uses exaggerated hand movements because he can't yell (which I told the ref after the game). We were both SO irate during this game, and couldn't even enjoy the win!

The final game of the season was at Ririe on February 11. I drove down to see it, and was so glad that I did! Ammon started and ended the season with awesome 3-point shots to contribute to his team's score, and I am so proud of his ball-playing abilities.

He was coached by Boyd Stokes again this year. Boyd coached them as 8th graders last year, and his two sons coached them the previous year when they were 7th graders. We were so glad to have him coach them again, he is an awesome coach! Although the boys didn't have a winning season, they sure fought hard, and we look forward to the awesome seasons they will have when they are upper classmen!