Go Busters!

Today was Joshua's last day of tee ball.  It was supposed to be last week, but they canceled it because of the heat, which was good for me because I was out of town last week but here today.  Joshua has made progress since the beginning of the season.  He now will sometimes on his own get in the "ready position" he's supposed to be in when playing defense, though he still needs reminders a lot of the time. It's cute, because even when he's in it, it's not exactly right, and it results in a cute awkward stance.  He was rewarded twice today by being ready and then able to get balls that were hit his way, even if he had to win a battle with another kid to get it.  He was very excited about this, as he has expressed disappointment in past weeks when he didn't get to field any.  Like pretty much all of the kids, he still gets coached each time about how to hold the bat.  He's done really well with hitting, and has gotten many solid hits throughout the season.  We still need to work on baserunning, as he's usually tempted to run straight to second base as soon as he hits the ball.  That's something that never came up while playing with the tee in the back yard, so it was a new concept to him.

He always looks forward to the treats after the "game", and he'll usually ask me at least once during the practice or game when he'll get to eat treats.  Today it was "When we get to eat cookie-like treats?"  But after the game (which was an intra-squad game due to being relegated to a field so far away I don't think another team could have made it out that far after their practice time) he got his Capri-Sun and Goldfish.  We walked several miles (or so it seemed) back to the main area for the awards session, where the team sat and continued to munch on snacks while they waited for the ceremony to begin.

Every kid got a trophy and a medal.  Though I am not in favor of the every-kid-is-a-winner reward system later in kids sports, it's definitely appropriate at this age.  Each kid was given a verbal name for their award, and Joshua got the "Good Work Award".

The team posed for one final picture for the season along with their coaches (Coach John was the head coach, and I'm not sure I ever heard the assistant's name).  I think Joshua had the bill of his hat too low, making it difficult for him to see.  Then they did one final cheer.  For some reason, their team name is the Busters, though I'm not sure what it is they bust.  When I played soccer in the '80s, one of my team names was the Goalbusters, which kinda makes sense as a take-off of the Ghostbusters movies that were popular at the time, but I always thought it was a questionable metaphor that we were busting goals, because what exactly does that mean?  But Joshua's team name makes almost no sense, even though it sounds cool.  So, "Go Busters!" was their team cheer.

Here Joshua poses with his hardware before finding a nice rock to sit on to enjoy the remnants of his Goldfish.  It was a good season, and he learned a lot.  We have some things to work on in the off-season, meaning before we do tee ball again, whenever that is.  Overall, he didn't love it as much as we thought he would, given how much he seems to like baseball and hitting pretend balls with pretend bats and whatnot.  But I think it's something he'll grow to enjoy more, so we'll almost certainly give it another shot, probably next summer.