Momma Chelle's Musings: Tales of a Basketball Team Mom

As many of you know, I am totally and completely obsessed with my children. You may also know that I am a bit of a control freak. Add this reality to two kids playing sports and you have the formula for a crazy team mom . . . and I mean crazy in the best possible sense of the word, if there is such a thing.

Last year Drew played both basketball and flag football and this season Dylan and Drew just finished their basketball seasons for our local community center. And I lost my mind and took on the role of team mom for both teams. This meant that I spent Thursday through Sunday dealing with basketball. I collected snack fees at the beginning of the season which supplied the funds for me to purchase snacks for each player for our eight game season, including sports drinks for the bench and water for the individual snack bags, and end of the season coach's gifts and participant mementos.

And I avoid the "easy" way out when it comes to making snack bags by going for the snack size chips or cookies and a box a caprisun . . . noooooo, I'm insane enough to try to get relatively healthy snacks. My snack bags have included such items as

apple slices
tangelos (those easy peel little oranges)
cheez-its
animal crackers
jello
pudding
applesauce
fruit cups
string cheese
granola bars
fruit snacks
go-gurt
cracker sticks and/or pretzel sticks and spreadable cheese

Oh and the insanity doesn't end there. I personalize paper lunch bags with each player's name and place an 8oz. bottle of water in each bag. If there is some item that requires a spoon, I include one as well as a napkin or two. Then I pack them in an old diaper box. I personalize each powerade and I provide a large one for Coach Dump or a large water for Coach Catoe that I put into a cooler for the bench. And I did this EVERY week for TWO teams for EIGHT weeks - through the delays caused by Snowmaggeddon and everything.

I also am the Queen (yes that would be with the capital Q) of texting and email to keep my parents updated with any and all new information necessary to prevent any unnecessary inconvenience. When the schedule was sidetracked because of the historic snow, I was able to secure the revised schedule from the Sports and Wellness Division (which runs Park and Planning sports leagues) and I passed it on to my parents and coaches as well as the rec center and the coaches from the other two Temple Hills teams in our same age groups.

And now that both teams' seasons are finally over and the playoffs have ended, I am in the process of planning our end of season celebrations during which I will present each player with the certificate from Sports and Wellness. And because you know by now that I'm a bit ridiculous, I also present each player with a personalized trophy (shout out to Mr. Red at Trophy World and his staff who do excellent work at reasonable prices) as well as a team photo page featuring the team roster and their own "trading card" picture. The coach also gets a little somethin' somethin' too as a small token of our appreciation and thanks for their hard work and dedication.

Dylan's official 2010 trading card

Dylan's 2010 team picture

Drew's official 2010 trading card

Drew's 2010 team picture

And I'm sure many of you are wondering how in the world does she manage to do all of that, work a full time job and be a mother to four, count them, four boys. Well, it is truly a labor of love. I am truly a huge fan of our local community center and its programs and league sports is just one of the offerings I like to take advantage of. I also want my kids to have a wonderful introduction to team sports and a great experience so I go, in my opinion, above and beyond to make sure I can do all I can to make it be memorable. I hope all the kids and their families enjoy the experience as much as I do . . . I have four team experiences under my belt now and the response I have received at our end of the season celebrations indicate that I must be doing something right. I get all kinds of love from the kids and the parents and families are very thankful. I also get wonderful tokens of appreciation (at least I have for the three celebrations I've organized thus far - Drew's celebration isn't scheduled yet). And at these celebrations at least one family asks "what sport are we doing next?"

Flag football, anyone?