Playin’ Basketball…

In small towns with monetary concerns, football is usually a non-issue.  Soccer and basketball are where its at, all you need is the space, and Westport has got it!  And basketball, my friends, is a long-lost love of mine, lately returned.

My fourth grader is playing in his first ‘real’ season, and his first competitive games, and happens to be on a team with skilled older boys and a wonderfully patient ( at least from the bleacher perspective) and knowledgeable coach Brian P.  Sitting in the bleachers in the not-long-for-this-world Middle School, the echoes of my own past and that of my family’s are loud and wonderful.  My dad was a high-school player, as well as a college player, and a lifelong devotee of the Celtics.  My memories of the eighties are not complete without flashes of kelly green and some magic of Larry Bird.

What is now lost in the NBA, or seen only rarely, abounds when watching young kids learning the fundamentals.  Passing! Teamwork! Leadership! Flow! Love of the Key! Rebounds! Fear of the Key! Sportsmanship! Coaches who choose NOT to run up the scores just because they can?! Unbelievable!!

The earnestness with which the youngest play is thrilling and reminds me of all that is good in the world, and especially in our small towns.  Our community schools and their sports are just incredible.  Echoing bounces, backboard bangs, cheering fans… all we are missing is Cousy.

 

the season is winding down, but boys and girls play in the elementary years through high school . . . the boys at WBBL… the girls at Westport Recreational League, and high school schedules can be found at the High School’s website. or at miaa… 

 

Come see for yourself!

School is ON!

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We packed two kids onto buses this week. Happily, they rode off to Westport Elementary School and to the Alice B. Macomber Primary School.   The boys are flush into their second day as I type, one in fourth and one in first grade.   There is much to love about this school system, Westport Community Schools, and there is much for me still to learn.

We moved here from Pawtucket, Rhode Island when my oldest was about to enter first grade.  The school system in Pawtucket was not good, he started his first year in a class with over forty kindergarteners and one teacher.   They remedied this, but it took two weeks.  The building itself was a shambles and the administration was weak.   The playground was asphalt and the slide was broken the entire year.  My husband and I walked the halls of Westport Elementary and both got teary when we recognized the energy of a good place, a place where kids can have fun, the adults are educated and caring, and there is SPACE for growth and development.  Three years later, we still feel the thrill when we walk into the buildings.  We feel like we are doing right by our kids.

AH.  It was a very good day.  We were so relieved and happy.  We are still very proud to have our kids in the Community Schools.  The teacher go above and beyond all the time, sometimes with very little acknowledgment.  Even the women in the offices are pleasant and helpful and full of personality.  (I have no knowledge of the middle school or high school but I am assuming the best, based on everything I have seen thus far:)

Please get involved.  Each school has a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and there is the Westport Music Boosters (LOOK ON FB) group which sponsors and supports the Music Programs in the schools.  The Westport Education Foundation and the Council on Aging have put together another Walk for Westport which will be a fundraiser for both organizations.  A perfect split!   (I’ve got to do some research on the Council on Aging, they’ve got a lot of offerings that I don’t know about yet… look for a post!)  This year will be the first time we have made it out there, as it has always conflicted with soccer… I am really looking forward to a walk by the beach.  The kids’ll bring their bikes, the babe will be stroller-ed and I expect to see many elements of our community out on walkabout.  Its going to be fun, and potentially awesomely beautiful.  This town is just incredible, heartbreakingly beautiful.