Surprises

I mentioned earlier that Allie's mom flew out from Wyoming to surprise her for the game on Thursday night. With some difficult weather and such, she was running a little late and didn't arrive at the start of the game. Probably was a good thing. Allie ended up picking up a foul in the first minute, and her second about three minutes later. With two personals, I was forced to take her out of the game. I motioned for her to come sit next to me because I wasn't very happy with the way she took an unnecessary risk that resulted in the second foul.

"Do you know why you have to sit here?" I asked. "Because you were upset with missing a shot and you took out your frustration by playing recklessly on defense. Now you have to sit here while we hope the team can keep it together." She was staring at the floor by now. At this exact moment her mom walked into the gym across from our bench. So I continued, "And besides, it's a shame your mom comes all this way to see you sit on the bench with two fouls!" She looked up at me and asked "What did you say?" I said "It's a shame your mom came all this way to see you play and now you have two fouls," while pointing across the gym at her mom.

The absolute biggest smile I've ever seen exploded on her face as she looked back at me, then her mom, then me, then her mom.

She went back into the game with about 13 minutes left in the first half. I don't think she picked up a foul the rest of the game.