4th Grade-Ultimate Basketball Championship

This past weekend, our 4th grade DAWG team played in the Ultimate Basketball Championship (UBC) at Hardwood Palace. To give you a little background on our team, we have not lost a single game in a 4th grade tournament. Our boys work very hard from tip-off to the final whistle and love the competion! Our average margin of victory playing in our age group is 20-30 points. So, we have been bouncing back and forth between 4th grade and 5th grade tournaments.


We have struggled at times against the 5th grade competion, so we go back to the 4th grade and build our confidence, but we would rather lose games and learn a lot, than win by a big margin and not be challenged. So... Ken asked us if we wanted to play in the UBC. The UBC has teams from all over CA and teams from  OR and NV attending. And these weren't just any teams, they were VERY good teams!

Our first game was against the Inland Force from Southern CA. They were the fastest team we have ever seen! We are usually the ones who own the fast break, but this team made us look slow. Now granted, we had a depleted bench (only 7 players) and some of our best players unavailable to play. We would have only had 6 players, but we had a friend play with us for the one game. We spotted them 10 points immediately and we hung on for a while, but they just out played and outhustled us in the game. Our boys ran out of steam and lost intensity down the stretch. We ended up losing 41 to 16. Ouch!

Game two on Saturday evening was a different story when we played the Fairfield Ballers. We had 8 players and DAWG team hungry to prove we belonged in this tournament. Believe it our not, we were ahead at half time, 27-0! We were not trying to show up the other team at all, our boys just had pride on the defensive end of the floor. This game ended with a 46-4 final score. I wouldn't allow our boys to fast break and we moved to a zone defense, but the boys just did not want to give up any baskets. I was proud of their effort!

Game three on Sunday morning was a game we will always remember! We played Division 1 All Stars from the East Bay and our boys were ready for the challenge. This game was intense from start to finish. They pressured the ball, ran the court and exchanged blow for blow with us. The score was pretty even most of the game, but we really struggled late in the game with the pressure and our boys were so tired. We only had 7 players for this game and I am telling you it was an uptempo game! We lost 49-43, but we had our chances. We just couldn't hang on at the end. I was so proud of our little DAWGs. They were breathing so hard, and if you could have seen them play defense you would have been amazed at how well they helped and recovered on this very talented Division 1 All Stars team. They have a very special player on their team and we just could not stop him late in the game.

In summary, we learned a ton this weekend. We have a better idea of what it is going to take to be a top level team. We learned as coaches about changes we need to make and the players have a better idea of the type of intensity, mental and physical, it takes to play the whole game. You can't beat teams like this and take plays off. We had a blast and it was such a great experience for all of us involved. I thank my assistant coaches Wayne March and Mario Periera, and all of our parents and kids for being part of a very special group! These boys have a team first mentality and I love these guys!



Coach Gillespie