Catching on

Posted on January 31, 2006 by Matt Todd

At a basketball birthday party last week, I saw Aiden defending one of his Tar Heel teammates. Every few minutes or so, Aiden would steal the ball from the guy. After a while, I asked him if he knew what he was doing…

Aiden: No.
Me: You were playing defense. Did you know you were playing defense?
Aiden: No.
Me: Did you know what defense was?
Aiden: No.
Me: Well, you know what?
Aiden: What?
Me: You can do that in a game. That’s playing defense! Think you can do that?
Aiden: YEAH!!

Well, I guess it sunk in. Last night, Aiden stole the ball once, grabbed a rebound, caused a jump-ball, and ran his rear end off playing defense. He’s come a long way since the earlier games when he’d back away from the guy with the ball and jump around, calling it defense. It was pretty cool to be sitting with the parents when he stole the ball. They cheered him on almost as loud as I did!

Coach said he played a great game. One of the dads gave him a new nickname because of his tenacious defense – “Raidin’ Aiden,” or maybe “The Aidenator.”

We just have to work on his role on offense. It’s amazing to see how his body language has changed on the court the past few months. Maybe that will translate into some more self-confidence off the court.

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Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"