Congrats to the boys

Addam was very disappointed at not being able to go to Gosford for the weekend challenge, and even more so when he found out that the boys won the whole shebang.
But at least his foot is back in order and after a game on the weekend it seems quite clear that he can get back into training.
I have to say, I was the worst dad I've ever been at that basketball game, and I am still really ashamed.
Addam had a shocking game and there I was yelling from the sideline like a complete idiot.
I think it was the peak of some frustration that had been building over the last week with other things, but I lost it. I feel awful for Addam and the people around me.
I don't ever want to be that kind of parent again.
Nuff said. I'm glowing with embarrassment just thinking about it.
Anyway back to the boys, they shot a really great percentage throught the whole competition and played some really basketball from all reports.

The weekend went like this:
Saturday:
Norths Bears (us) 70 v Coffs Harbour Suns 25
Norths Bears 52 v Sydney Comets 41

Sunday:
North Sydney 57 v Newcastle Hunters 57

Grand Final
Norths Bears 78 v Hills Hornets 53

Four games and an injury

Addam and Roisin meet Jack the Razorback and two cheerleaders before the Razorbacks Hawks game.

















A team photo after the City v Country game. You can see the difference in size of the team, except for Jonah (dark blue No. 8) who is a very big under-12 indeed.























Addam goes up for a rebound during the Metro game.



What a week it has been since the last post.
Addam has been struck down with an inflamed tendon with some fluid in the tendon sheath. It was the result of too much training and sitting in front of the computer in a funny position.
We have been advised by a doctor that he should take it easy for at least two weeks.
It went a long way to explain why he was moving so slowly and often in pain over the past week.
Addam was selected for the Metropolitan team for the city versus country game on Saturday night. Unfortunately the country team was made up of under-14 players while the City team was under-12s.
Despite that, it was still a surprisingly close game.
But before that he played on Friday at Bankstown.
His team came very close to victory against an opponent that often beats them. Addam was slower than usual but he still put up 12 points, picked up a couple of blocks and pulled down a bunch of rebounds. Towards the end of the game was the first time we really noticed his limp.
But by the next morning it had gone again.
On Saturday he played not only the Metro game in the evening but also a club game at North Sydney. His team romped home but Addam was well out of sorts and very moody.
The Metro Game caught him at his worst, which was a real shame because he was clearly trying but unable to keep going.
Addam struggled getting up and down the court and was obviously limping in the second half, but he wanted to stay on. He picked up 6 points but he was clearly hindered.
He stayed with his friend Roisin to watch the Razorbacks win against the Wollongong Hawks and didn't get home to midnight.
It's kind of lucky we did, because according to the news reports that may have been the Razorbacks last game, full stop.
They have until Thursday, February 15, (tomorrow) to get a backer or they are out of the NBL for the next season. That usually spells the end for any team.
The problem with the late night was, as we found out earlier that day, we were playing at Manly the next day and had to be there at 8.30am. We got up at 6.30am to make it.
So with no sleep and carrying an injury it turned out to be a pretty tough Sunday for him.
Again he struggled and with the lack of sleep as well as the injury he was very moody. He got pretty upset when he was called for his fourth foul early in the second half and I had to try and calm him down.
Norths won but all-in-all it's been a pretty tough time for him.
When we got him home that day we checked the foot again. That was when we found the tendon - the one that lifts the big toe - was really rough and creaking.
We shot off to the doctors to get a referral for a scan and x-ray.
The scan was quite clear. It showed the inflamed tendon and the fluid in the sheath.
This means that we miss out on the weekend at Gosford, which is a real shame because we were all looking forward to it.
Hopefully Addam will be back on deck next week.
In the meantime we intend to take it nice and easily.

Back after holidays

The two teams after the game at the Entertainment Centre.
Picture: Basketball NSW

Addam drives past Jonah Bolden while looking for the open man.
Picture: Basketball NSW



Hi All,

It's been a long time since I was here, what with the holidays and all.
Addam has had a pretty interesting month or so.
After playing at the Entertainment Centre as part of the Metropolitan Development League (he top-scored for his team) he was selected to be a member of the city team.
He was one of only two players from Norths to be called up, the other was the dynamic little point guard Scott McMurdo.
The team includes three boys from Sutherland, Kyle Morris, Joshua Gibbs and Dominic Gilbert; two from Bankstown, Jonah Bolden and Jayden Gibbeson; one from Manly, Tom Savage; Sukham Binder from Hornsby; and of course the two Norths boys.
Apparently the boys will be up against an under-13 team from the country.
They will play as part of the curtain raiser before the Razorbacks v Hawks game at Homebush.
The Norths boys have also just started training for the division-one rep season.
Their coach, Ollie, has focused on the fundamentals and fitness which is helping Addam immensely.
He's really working hard at the moment and we're very pleased with him.
We've got some incredibly tough competition this year, so it is hard to judge how this team will go.
But the one thing for sure is that Addam will definitely improve this season, as he won't be locked into one spot and the team will be constantly working on their foundations.
And that is what we really wanted.
At under-12s the object is not to win but to get better and Addam really feels this as much as recognises it intellectually.
When he walks out of a game where his team has won but he hasn't played well, he is not nearly as happy as when he has a good game and his team loses.
The win / loss equation is becoming secondary for him, which is great.
And you can tell it is genuinely the case just by the look on his face.
We had a Bears breakfast on Sunday when all the teams were announced, which is a great idea.
Everyone comes together and plays around.
They keep the ceremony brief and then it's on with the rest of the weekend.
Anyway we have the Metropolitan Game this weekend and then we are off to Gosford the following weekend.
Sutherland started training much earlier than us and have already had their first weekend away for competition down in Melbourne.
They will be tough to beat this year, but it will be nice to catch up with some of the guys from last year when we meet.
Anyway, that's enough for now.
We'll post regularly again now that the season is starting.

Addam makes division one

Addam looks our way during trials.















Addam stretches during trials.


The results of the past few months training were put up tonight and, as we suspected, Addam made division one for North Sydney.
You would expect him to be delighted, and he was to a degree.
The minus?
He will have to travel down to Melbourne for a competition sometime around April. The problem is the boys will travel by plane and Addam is terrified of flying.
It's a long story but I think it trails back to 911. He was young but his memory of those planes crashing into the Twin Towers is still strong.
Sadly, none of the other Cool Cubs made division one but many, if not all, have made it into division-2, so this bunch of nine-year-olds are very promising indeed.
The team for division one is:
Addam
Christopher Georgiou
Jordan Cook
Lachlan Estok
Matthew Millikin
Mitchell Howden
Scott McMurdo
Scott Muirhead
Shane Wong
Will Clark.

If you want to have a look at all the rep players go here

Congrats to all and we will see you in the new year.

Cheers

Alvin

Congrats and wait for it, wait for it

Hi all,

I was just flicking around the Sutherland and Bankstown sites to see who made it into Division one for the clubs.
There were quite a few who Addam knows and likes, so I thought we should put up a little congrats for all concerned.
Across at Sutherland we have to give a big , "well done and see you through the season" to
Thibaut Potin, who was always going to be the first pick for Sutho, the dynamic Jack Gogoll, Lachlan Banks who was on last year's winning team with Thibaut. I'm sure I know the rest on the under-12s but I just can't put faces to names.
It was also grand to see that some of the guys in Addam's first ever rep team made it into division-2 in the under-14s.
A big shout out to Luke Skorski, Geoff Gerlach and Zac Akkaway who all made the grade and congrats to Lloyd Perris who moved straight into division-1.
It was also great to see that Marcus Vella, Ridge Barredo, Adam Joy, Aaron Caldwell, Kurt Joyner, Louis Potin (great to see you back!!), Jack Suva, Geoff Tai and James Trimble all made squad. We hope to see you around some time this season.
Across at Bankstown, Alex Theuma, Filip Ivanovic and Kristian Illoski (aka 3-point Kiki) made it into div-1.
Congrats to you all.
This afternoon the announcements for rep team places at North Sydney take place.
I'll let you know how Addam goes, although it seems very likely that Addam will have a division-1 spot this year with the North Sydney Bears.
I'll let everyone know as soon as it is confirmed.

Cheers

Alvin

Back again

These last few weeks have been very hectic, mostly to do with work.
Anyway, here we are back again.
Since last time I wrote here Addam has had a few more training sessions at North Sydney and has played another game at Bankstown.
The team lost the Bankstown game but the refereeing was much better. We had one of the refs from earlier weeks who has a problem with our big Ellie. After he called a foul that was clearly not, I called a time out.
I went over to the referees and said that if this was going to be a repeat of last time then I would go straight to the court officials.
After that it was excellent. Certainly there were some bad calls, but they went both ways.
We got smashed by the opposition but it was played in a good spirit and all the kids walked away happy, which was a lovely change.
We had an On Fire game the following week but, as mentioned before, Addam did not play following our earlier decision. There is no reason to play nasty teams where the possibility of injury is so heightened, especially with reps and the metro games.
Back at reps, Addam has really taken his play to another level.
He doesn't know it yet, but Addam has already been selected for division one by the coach Olly.
Olly chatted to me about how intense his training sessions were and explained that some parents found the going a bit tough at first for their kids.
He doesn't know Addam, he will thrive on this, although he will whinge at first. Then he will consider it a challenge and excel.
I can't wait to see his face on Thursday when he finds out.
I'm going to give a Christmas party a miss just to see that smile.
He played a magnificent game for the Cool Cubs on Saturday. The team beat a team that has always defeated them with some great defence and passing.
Addam was often the first to each end of the court, which was a great change. He rebounded and had an outstanding offensive game, with shots from the outside, drives and a couple of three point plays. He missed only one from the field and hit all five from the free-throw line. I suspect he scores well over half of the team's 35 points.
The other great thing was that players on both sides played hard, but still smiled, chatted and enjoyed the game.
Anyway, that's it for now.
I'll catch up again soon, probably after the Thursday celebrations.

Playing catch-up

Well here we are again.
It has been a long time between postings.
There has been a lot happening.
Addam was injured during a game against On Fire and was told by the doctor that he couldn’t play for a few days. That meant he missed out on another Cool Cubs game and also the Metros on Sunday.
As a result of that game we have decided not to let Addam play On Fire games as they are always aggressive, nasty and considerably more dangerous. Nathan was hurt in the game and the refereeing targeted our bigs again.
Addam’s first game back against Bankstown Strikers was nice in terms of play but dreadful in terms of refereeing yet again.
Ellie was fouled out minutes into the second half and the bias against our team was beyond belief.
It was the final straw.
This is our last season with Bankstown at either club or representative level.
We tried to see if we could play under-14s at Sutherland instead, but we were told that unless he is playing under-12s we can’t do that. Sadly under-12s are on Wednesday and there is no way we can make that, so Sutho is out at club level as well as rep level this year.
We are going to start looking for another Friday game that is a little bit tougher.
Training with the North Sydney has been impressive with lots of work on fundamentals.
The final line-ups will be decided in a couple of weeks.
There is more to write but I have to get moving.
I’ll write more tonight.

Metro training

We couldn’t make the game on Saturday but we found out that the Cool Cubs won very easily against an all-girl team full of tall timbers.
Unfortunately for the girls they had a terrible shooting game and the boys fired up in the second half.
Addam and I were having our photos taken for a gaming article in Radar, that came out in the Sydney Morning Herald today.
We are indeed monkeys.
Sunday at the Metropolitan training camp was another day of fun for Addam.
It was also another interesting day with a Sutherland coach coming up to us and chatting about whether Addam would be trying out for that club this year, even though we had already told them he wouldn’t.
He asked if we had any problem with the club and I said no, that for the most part it was because we were unable to make it to the club anymore for club games.
He took us at our word and that was the last we saw of him.
Addam seemed to get on fine with the guys from last year’s team, shooting around at the beginning and playing dodgeball a little later on.
When the teams were divided up Addam and Thibaut were put on the same squad.
The team lacked height and was generally weaker than the others and it showed.
In the first game, Addam was the leading scorer.
Thibaut and Addam really passed beautifully and they seemed to be pretty happy to be together.
The selection of the rest of the team was a little odd but it is hard to tell how these things work from the sideline, so it was probably just a little unfortunate that they picked up players who needed a lot of work on the fundamentals.
I got a look at the tall timber that Sutherland picked up from North Sydney. He was solid and had some nice skills. It will be interesting to see how he goes in the rep season ahead.
Addam has started eating like a horse again and I suspect he is close to another growth spurt.
He’s 150cms at the moment so he certainly is likely to be a bit taller when the season starts in late March / early April.
We have our first training with the squad at North Sydney this Thursday. Addam is a good chance to make division-one if he keeps working the way he is at the moment. As long as he keeps working on his defence and rebounding he should be fine.
I’ll let you know how the sessions go over the next few weeks before decision day on December 7.
Cheers
Alvin

Addam makes reps

Hi all,
The results of the rep trials for North Sydney came through today and sure enough Addam was selected.
He was in fact top of the list but that’s only because Addam came before Andrew in alphabetical order.
Our first training session is next Thursday.
We find out which division Addam has made in December.
Meanwhile, tomorrow we have another game with the Cool Cubs and then on Sunday we have a mighty long training session with the Metro program.
I’ll let you know all about them as they come through.
Cheers
Alvin

Trials at North Sydney

Guess who Addam's favourite player is.

Just balling around

Waiting in line during a drill

Well, what a great day.
The best thing about Addam's trials was that he had fun.
From the moment he got in he was smiling.
After he arrived, he went accross to the court where everyone was shooting around. He quickly hooked up with the Cool Cubs and then a couple of guys from lasy year's rep team who were now in under-14s challenged Addam and one other guy to a game of two on two.
It wasn't long before they were laughing, trying different tricks on each other and generally having a good time.
When Addam dropped a three on them, there were high fives all around. When they ankle broke Addam he laughed just as much as they did.
It was a great start and it just kept going like that.
He trialled beautifully, getting through all the drills easily and really concentrating.
When it came to the half court games he linked up with three of the other Cool Cubs. They played really well and Addam's rebounding, passing, dribbling and decision making was almost flawless.
What really struck me was the way that all of the teams - some random collections of players, some made up of mates who got together - spread out and passed. The games were so entertaining and the skill level was really high. Even players who didn't have a high skill level in the drills seemed to instinctively move to open spaces rather than towards the ball. It's very clear that a passing game is absolutely fundamental to North Sydney.
Most of the kids here really like each other.
I would say Addam is almost a certain starter to make the first cut.
Those who made the squad will find out on Wednesday when it is put online. After that, the groups train together until December when a final decision is made. All squad players go to a team.
There will be one first-division team and two second-division teams.
If Addam keeps playing at this level he will have a great shot at a division-one place.
Another interesting note, of all the big men, Addam was the only one who was bottom age. Every other big man will be moving up next year to under-14s.
It was a really lovely day, and not just because he tested so well, the look of joy on his face for much of the trials was the best thing of all.
Anyway, we'll find out on Wedensday how he went.
Till then.
Alvin