The first player moves back to the end of the line. For now, she has survived.
The next player isn’t so lucky. He misses the free throw, and before he can retrieve the ball to make a shot, the next player up to the line sinks his.
Shoulders drooping a little, the first boy moves dutifully out of range, awaiting the next round. He will join a new game only after one of two final players misses a shot, then gets “knocked out” by the competitor’s made free throw.
Sometimes the triumphant Knockout winner is handed a Gatorade. Always, he or she earns respect-until the next game.
During the last two months, coach Kyle Wren and other parent volunteers have used acronyms, memory tricks, games and good old-fashioned repetition to teach Rangely children the fundamentals of basketball.
In October, 22 Rangely kids making up two second- and third-grade teams and one fourth-grade team joined Vernal’s Uintah Recreation League to start applying those fundamentals.
Throughout November and into December, the teams played two different competitors each week. Skill levels range from kids who had played since they could first heft a ball to children completely new to the sport.
The Rangely teams more than held their own. The two younger teams, the Bucks and Pistons, went 8-1 and 7-2, respectively, while the fourth-grade team, the Nuggets, went 4-3-1.
It’s the second year Wren has gathered teams for the Vernal district’s mostly-volunteer, mostly-parent-run program. A Little League baseball coach last year and a point guard in high school, Wren decided to coach basketball when his son, Kevin, got old enough to learn the fundamentals.
Wren believes that grasping those basics now will contribute to kids’ success in the sport in middle and high school.
“The main thing is getting the kids exposure to playing basketball more,” he said. “There are other leagues that play longer and more competitively. For our kids to be more competitive down the road, they need more opportunities to play.”
But while Kevin, now nine, and Miah, eight, have played on their dad’s teams for the last two years, Wren wants more than to simply teach his own children to hone their abilities. He wants groups that help kids develop a skill set and discover elements of their own personalities—together.
“They’re learning how to play with other players, how to interact socially with other kids,” Wren said. “I could see growth in both (second- and third-grade) teams this year. Both had different styles of playing. Miah’s team had a more methodical approach, while the other team was more scrappy, had a different style.
“Through that, they both developed their own team unity,” he said.
Kids working together toward a common goal offers practice for situations beyond the athletic arena, he said.
“It’s important that kids experience that,” he said. “They carry those skills on throughout their lives. They’ll be working in teams all the time as they grow and become adults.”
One player’s experience imitated older brother Troy’s place on Rangely High School’s basketball team. Seven-year-old Clay Allred loved the competition of the sport and the fun of practices and, mom Julie said, he learned some things, too.
“The basic skills of dribbling, passing, working as a team improved a ton from the beginning to the end of the season,” Allred said. “Kyle had control, but he didn’t yell a lot and he showed them what they needed to know. The ones that needed to improve on certain things, he talked to them about it. The kids respected him.”
Wren used a variety of tricks to get kids to work with him. He modeled correct techniques, expected kids would listen, mixed up routines and used games like red light/green light to practice skills. But without the help of other family members who coached and traveled, Wren said the season would have had a very different feel.
“Parents took their kids to practice on time, and we had very few who missed a game,” he said. “It’s a sacrifice for the parents to travel that far that often. It’s a big commitment.”
Wife J’lyn, coaches Casey and Natalie Ducey, Jimmie and Crandal Mergelman and Bill Zadra also kept the season running smoothly, he said, while the Western Rio Blanco Metropolitan (WRBM) Recreation and Parks District supported the teams by loaning out equipment.
Throughout the season, younger kids spent the most mental energy trying out basic but challenging skills such as how to dribble and pass, to start, with a bit of shooting thrown into the mix. Matching colored wristbands helped players identify who they were guarding on man-to-man defense, while a shorter court and eight-foot hoops made play more manageable.
For fourth-graders, Wren said, coaching and play was more nuanced. Kids played on a full court, learned more plays and practiced a fast break to get shots on a 10-foot rim.
“It’s amazing what a difference a year makes,” he said. “That age group is fast up and down the court.”
Next year, Wren and other parent coaches hope to have as many as four teams in the Uintah league, including a fifth-grade team. Between adding more kids to the Vernal roster and WRBM gearing up for basketball programs starting next month, Wren believes kids are becoming better prepared for the future—athletically and otherwise.
“There’s huge growth,” he said. “It really does help. I hope the kids can take that to the next league or to the playground. Either way, they’ll know how to play.
