Third- and fourth-grade teams love learning basketball skills

Windham second-grader Colby Sargent of the Delta
Properties team works on her dribbling skills as she moves closer
to the basket during Windham Youth Basketball Association's
third and fourth-grade in-house game against A-Team Realty on
Saturday, Jan. 22 at Windham Primary School.
PHOTO BY MATT  PASCARELLA

By Matt Pascarella

Windham Youth Basketball Association’s junior league third- and fourth-grade in-house girls’ basketball teams, A Team Realty and Delta Properties, went head-to-head at Windham Primary School on Saturday, Jan. 22 and demonstrated how quickly they are learning the sport.

Both teams showed they have learned a lot about the game and have made massive improvements. Each team will continue to make improvements as they progress through the season.

After an action-packed 32 minutes, A Team Realty edged out ahead 6-4 and got the win for this game.

Both teams began the game with stellar passing as they moved the ball nicely. 

However, some of the passes resulted in turnovers for both Delta Properties and A Team Realty.

A Team Realty scored, then Delta Properties did. Both teams had a lot of energy and took multiple shots on basket. 

At the half, the game was tied at four.

Everyone on both teams put in a lot of effort during the game. A Team Realty and Delta Properties are getting better dribbling and took more shots on basket. There was a lot of teamwork from each team as well.

Windham in-house third and fourth grade girls’ Delta Properties coach Chris Sargent said the girls had great defense against A Team Realty.

“The kids played their hearts out. Going forward we need to really work hard on their spacing on the court and making the easy pass,” said Sargent.

Delta Properties player and second-grader Colby Sargent said her team passed really well and she had fun during the game.

Third-grader Emily Kaffel of A Team Realty said passing, dribbling and defense went really well during this game.

“The girls are working good together,” said third and fourth grade girls’ basketball in house A Team Realty coach Aaron Abrams. “They beat a team today that they lost to last time. We had a good turnout, plenty of subs ... they all did a great job.”

Abrams added passing and working together as a team were a couple things that went really well during this game along with good old-fashioned hustle.<

Tales from the outdoors: More black bear than you want

By Bob Chapin

When my hunting partner and I began discussing a black bear hunt we wanted to take the following spring (Alaska has a spring bear hunt) to our surprise our wives overheard us and said they would like to come along. This was especially incredulous to Burt and I since we had made this exact hunt the year before with two other guys and it was a disaster. Six solid days of monsoon-type rains that wet all of our clothes, our sleeping bags, and our food supply despite having a “waterproof” tent. We didn’t see the girls being that happy, but if they were willing who were we to question them.

We all flew in on a DeHaviland Beaver, the workhorse of the north, out of Homer, Alaska, on a beautiful sunshiny day, and it stayed like that for a week. Maybe the girls were a good luck charm. We ferried our gear from the float plane to the shore and said goodbye to the pilot that we would not see for a week. As it was a no hunting day (you can’t fly and hunt on the same day in AK to preclude people spotting game from the air and landing and shooting it) we set up camp. After setting up camp on a level spot back in the trees we set about exploring the area for bear sign. We were on a long peninsula that jutted out into Dogfish Bay on Prince William Sound. It was about a mile long and a half mile wide and it allowed us an unencumbered view back toward several hillsides that terminated at the water and rose several thousand feet to the snow line. When the bears come out of hibernation, they often push a lot of dirt out of the cave they spent the winter in making a distinctive “aluvial fan” on the snow below the hole. We looked hard for any of those that might be on the hills but saw none. We spent the next several days with binoculars and spotting scopes scouring the hillsides. Finally, on the fourth day we spotted a bear. We watched that bear for over an hour trying to determine what direction it was moving so that we might intercept it. It was not moving very fast, apparently finding something to eat in the greenery that followed the snow line as it receded up the mountain on those long sunny days. We finally made our move.

We left the girls with instructions to let us know if the bear moved and started across the bay separating us from the near shore. The tide had gone out and we could simply walk across the bay except for a narrow stream which we would have to ford. We took off our boots and started across in bare feet. We weren’t three steps into this process before we saw the stupidity of it. That water was so cold we couldn’t feel our feet after a half dozen steps. We ran the rest of the way across and fell down on a dry spot to rub life back into our toes. Once we made the tree line things didn’t improve. It was carpeted with thick alders and a thing called Devil’s Club, a 6-foot stalk with nothing but prickers on it. Fortunately, there was a ridge of pine trees that rose almost to the top of the hill and we found easy, quiet footing in the pine duff and ascended quickly.

When we had climbed to a point where we thought we should see the bear we took a break. Burt sat down and I stood as best I could as the terrain was extremely steep. We hadn’t been there 30 seconds when we heard a loud Whoof and crashing branches directly above us. The bear was only about 10 paces away and coming fast downhill. Burt, who had first shooter rights, was popping his head up and down like a gopher looking into his scope and then over the top of it. I said, “Burt, shoot, shoot!”  But I heard nothing so the next instant I fired as the bear was only five feet away. I heard him fire shortly afterward and the bear veered off to my left and went down the hill past us. The hill was so steep we could not see where the bear went below us. <

…To Be Continued