Sport Week in Nederlands

ADO Logo WEB[1], originally uploaded by cutjas.

This past week was filled with firsts, for me. My first time coaching a basketball team, my basketball teams first time playing a game of Basketball…ever, and my first time at a professional European Football (soccer) Match.

Let’s start with the Basketball team. I showed up to the gym with my friend and fellow coach Justin Powell. Our team as a little rag tag group of international students ranging in age from 8 – 10 years old. They come from India, Israel, USA, England, and Scotland. None of them have played organized Basketball before this team, which started 3 weeks ago. Our mission for the day was to prepare this team to play against kids that were older, more experience and basically a lot better.

We had about an hour of practice time before our first game and most of that was spent on teaching them how to set a screen. The concept didn’t really take at first and when the kids that were suppose to be using the screen to free them up actually were running away from the person screening for them, I knew this was a hopeless venture.

By this time our first game was about to start. I picked the first 5 to play and sent them out on the court like little warriors…well, more like sheep to the slaughter as it turned out. We lost, 20 – 2, but our goal for the game was not to win, but rather to get a shot off and we did that, so all the kids got a piece of candy at the end of the game.

We had a very basic defense strategy, stand under the basket, our basket, the basket we were defending, the basket the other team is trying to score on. As you can tell from the previous sentence, I had a hard time getting the kids to understand the concept of defense and offense. Eventually, we did manage to get a critical mass of our team under the basket, which I believed lessened amount of baskets scored against us.

The second game we didn’t fair much better, we lost 11-0. In both games our team didn’t give up, they didn’t pout, and they all kept playing hard, even though they had no idea what they were doing. It was a lot of fun. My favorite comment of the day was from one girl on our team, Phoebe. She told me that there were two boys on the other team that kept taking the ball right out of her hand. I informed her that this was legal and even encouraged by most people. She had a look of amazement on her face, and this was followed up by a comment from one of the mothers, who said, “well that seems a little harsh.” I realized there that we had a long road ahead of us in learning the game.

Still it was a great afternoon, I had fun, the kids had fun and even the mother’s had fun. This coming week we don’t have a game, but we are going to have a good practice, maybe we will learn that when a defensive player gets near you, its not the best option to throw the ball up in the air…

ADO Den Haag
This past Saturday I went to my first professional Football match it was ADO Den Haag vs Willem II. The game was fun; we sat near the Fanatics or Hooligans, as they are also known. ADO ended up losing in the final minute to an incredible shot, which we saw perfectly. The defender screened the goalie and the forward chipped the ball into the far corner of the goal out of reach of the goalie. At this point the air went right out of the stadium, it was a bad ending to a pretty good game.

This hopefully is the first of many games I will be able to attend. I went with a friend from the Crossroads Church, David Baak. After we went out and had a drink and listened to some good music at a local Pub.

Update:
I have found a new family to move in with. The Malon’s, I was over at their house for lunch on Sunday and it should be a very good fit. The house is further out than I live now, so transportation will be little more of an issue for me, but Steve (the dad) and Michael (the son) are both nice guys and I look forward to living with them. Thank you all for praying about this and I will keep you up dated on how thing progress.

Prayer Requests:
1) The feelings of being homesick are setting in. Nothing that isn’t manageable, but they are their.
2) I have been thinking a lot about my future and what is next. I am really unsettled about what to do after school and I hope that I can receive some direction and clarity in the coming months.
3) We start our new small group tonight, this should be a fun adventure I am very excited about doing this
4) I am in charge of planning a Christmas party for 20 – 40 year olds at Crossroads Church, we have a solid team of 9 people and things are looking good, but we still have to put everything together and pull off the event. Right now we are looking for a venue.

As always, thanks for reading, praying, and/or supporting me. I hope you are all doing well and I would love to hear from you.

Thanks,
Jason Cutshall