5th Grade Boys Basketball

My philosophy on "playing time": I want every kid to play and enjoy the sport and the experience. But as I have always done when it comes to "playing time". I will not put a player in a situation that they are not ready to handle. Players have different "God given" skill levels and players enter a sport with a "potential" skill level that they can reach. It is my job as a coach and teacher to "develop and advance both the god given and potential skill level within a player. This process could be within the time of the season or could be over a full or couple of seasons. So, depending on what current level a player is at; this will determine WHEN and HOW MUCH a player plays within a given game and/or season. I have found over my 21 seasons of coaching, if a player is put in a situation that he or she is not ready for and the outcome of a game is because that specific player was not able/ready to handle the situation, the emotional scar can be much worse on a kid than not just getting to play in a game for a few extra minutes. I try to be conscious of this when we are in a very competitive game. A kids peers can be tough.

Rams open season with 22-6 victory.

The 5th grade boys started the season with a strong defensive effort against the St James Chargers. The 1st half ended with the Chargers having no points on the scoreboard. Every pass and dribble by the Chargers was contested by the Rams stiff 2-1-2 zone defense. On the offensive side of the court the Rams did a good job of working the ball for some good inside shots and kicking it out for some good looks from the outside. The Chargers then tried to go to a man 2 man "D" ; Rams spread the floor and made the Chargers pay by getting some easy layups to close out the game. GO RAMS!

Rams take second game with St James (white)

The 5th grade Rams entered the Chargers gym for the second time in 3 days for a contest with the St James White BB team and for the second time used the exit door with a victory. The Chargers were definitely ready to put up a better fight the second game and was giving the Rams a bit of a challenge early in the contest. The Rams stayed patient and worked through some questionable calls and "no calls" and got some things working early in the second half to put some scoring distance between the two hard fighting teams. Bench play from the Rams was good again in the second game. Thompson, Exley, R. Ducey and Remler all gave some quality time on the court with some scrappy "D" and strong rebounding. The Rams next game will be at rival BSS Sat. morning.

RAMS CAN'T OVERCOME TURNOVERS IN ONE POINT LOSS TO BSS

THE 5TH GRADE BOYS HAD ANOTHER GOOD DAY ON THE DEFENSIVE SIDE OF THE COURT, BUT THE "D" COULD NOT KEEP UP WITH THE OFFENSIVE TURNOVERS AND COLD SHOOTING. THE RAMS COMMITTED 26 TURNOVERS SAT. MORNING AT THE BSS GYM. RAMS GOT DOWN EARLY IN THE GAME AND PUT BSS IN THE BONUS FOR THE ENTIRE 2ND QUARTER OF PLAY. ALL THE RAMS COULD DO WAS TRY AND KEEP THE SCORING GAP WHERE IT WAS GOING INTO HALF TIME. THE RAMS STARTED THE SECOND HALF WITH A 1-3-1 HALF COURT TRAP THAT HELPED THE THEM CHIP AWAY AT THE IRISH LEAD AND WITH ABOUT 2 AND HALF MINUTES ON THE CLOCK THE RAMS WERE ONLY DOWN 3 POINTS AND HAD A GOOD CHANCE TO PULL THIS GAME OUT. WITH A COUPLE MORE TURNOVERS SOME COLD SHOOTING AND SOME MIS-MANAGED CLOCK IN THE LAST MINUTE OF PLAY BY COACH KING, THE RAMS CAME UP JUST SHORT. ON THE POSITIVE SIDE;IF THE RAMS KEEP UP THE GOOD "D", KEEP UP THE HUSTLE AND LIMIT THE UNFORCED ERRORS, THE BOYS CAN LOOK FORWARD TO A SOLID SEASON.

Rams seem to be strong "Road Warriors" .

The again visiting Rams entered the house of the purple and gold Calvary Cavaliers for a Monday contest. The theme seems to be consistant for the 5th grade Rams.... good "D" will help you get through the tough periods of play. The Rams inside "D" lead by G. Ducey and L. Remler did a great job of taking away the inside game of the Cav's and forced the purple and gold to start shooting from the outside. Tison, Chapman, King, Lowenthal, Thompson all did a good job of making the outside shot from the Cav's a difficult task, especially in the 2nd half. .

This game was close the entire way and was in doubt the entire four periods of play. The Rams got the fast break game going in the 2nd half and really put some pressure on the Cavs coming down the stretch run. Lead by some key free throw shooting by A. King, the Rams were able to hold off the Cav's press and draw some key fouls. Coach King was again pleased with the players coming off the bench. Strickland, R. Ducey, S. Exley and B. Jones..... all gave quality time on the court.

RAMS end 5 game road trip with win at St James (Blue)  

If you play the St Peters 5 grade Rams, you better bring your offensive "A" game.

   More good defense and strong rebounding pushes Rams to a 4 and 1 record. L. Remler(6), G. Ducey(5) and A. King(9) all had a very  good rebounding night. The Ram's 23 to the chargers 10 team rebounds  helped the Rams gain a lead on the Chargers which they  never relinquished. M. Lowenthal, D. Tison and A. King all had 4 steals and B. Chapman pitched in with 2 steals of his own. The offense was very balanced on this Tuesday night and the Rams seemed to find comfort with the spread offensive set "shotgun". M. Lowenthal got a nice pass from D. Tison in the corner and hit a "nothing but net" shot. That shot gave the Rams a good lead going into the last 3 minutes of play. G. Ducey, D. Tison and B. Chapman are getting good looks at the basket following good ball movement. Coach King and Coach King are getting more confidence in the play from the bench; all good teams have good bench play. The players on the bench should expect to see more and more playing time. The Rams are looking forward to playing at home Thursday night vs the St Andrews Saints.

White Uniforms?

Triple/Double-Twelve points, eleven rebounds and 10 steals was the combination for D. Tison to lead the 5th grade Rams to their home game victory Thursday night. This was also the first night the Rams got to wear their home white uniforms. The Rams with two starting players out of the game, rallied as a team and came up with a very good team effort to take the Rams record to 5 and 1 on the season. Tison and G. Ducey got things going early on the scoreboard and the Rams kept up their usual harassing defense.(Lowenthal -11 rebounds). .

G. Ducey made a few nice inside plays early in the game which opened up the outside shot for the blue and gold Rams. Ducey and Lowenthal hit a couple of shots and then Tison and Chapman hit a couple. and it seem to really get the visiting Saints out of position on defense. Players off the bench played an even more important role this Thursday night. Zach Strickland, M. Thompson, Sam Exley, B. Jones and R. Ducey all kept up the good play from the bench. In the later part of the game, L. Remler really put in some quality time and was key in getting the ball up court vs the Saints press. Great team effort...Go Rams!

Rugby Anyone?

The St Peters 5th grade boys made thier 4th visit to the Chargers gym this past Tuesday night. Only two people in the gym knew that we we had made the trip to watch a rugby match breakout. The players should have been in the stripped shirts instead of the two men "in control " of the game. These are the games that are hard to watch by anyone. Jump balls, loose balls, free throws, and bodies all over the floor was the theme for the night. ....neither team could reall y get any kind of rythum going. The Rams point men B. Chapman and A. King did a good job of getting the ball inside to G. Ducey and L. Remler (making his first start of the season) early in the game and when they werent getting hammered when trying to get a shot off, got the Rams on the scoreboard early. Neither team gained more than a four point lead throughout the game. M. Lowenthal also got in the scoring game early with two nice baseline shots of his own. Chapman and King did a nice job of weaving thier way through the St James press and getting the offense set up. Both teams scored half thier points from the free throw line and this game was really hard to keep on track. In the end, thats what sealed the game for the Chargers. St James got to the line down a point and hit both shots with 5.4 seconds left on the clock. The Rams inbounded the ball and King streaked up the court  and was knocked off his feet at the half court line with ball going out of bounds..... foul? ...foul?.....  NO

Coach King said after the game: " Just have to put a game like this behind you, cant judge a teams play on this one", "both teams did the best they could".

When you're HOT you're HOT & When you're NOT you're NOT

It was just one of those nights for both teams. But both teams were not on the same page. The 5 grade Rams visited the Calvary gym for the second time this season and the Cavs got HOT! The Rams NOT! The 1st quarter of play seemed like any other quarter of play in a game but the second quarter changed in a hurry. With the Cav's holding a 4 point lead after the 1st quarter.... the Cav's heated up. With some good ball movement the Cav's were getting some good looks at the basket and they made them count. The purple and gold hit 4 in a row and made 5 out of 7 shots in a short span in the second quarter. The Cav's last shot of the half was a near half court "nothing but net" with time running out. But the Rams were only down nine going into the 3rd quarter thanks to some good play from G. Ducey (7 points) and D. Tison. If the Rams could come out and make a little scoring run; right back in the game, but is just wasn't the Rams night. The Cav's basket seemed as big as a 55 gal. drum and the Rams basket seemed to have a lid on it. The Cav's hands did seem to cool off just a bit in the 4th period, but not cool enough.  Just one of those nights...The Rams are 5 and 3 on the season... two losses by one point. Rams are in good shape heading into the final two games of the season, at home vs SCPS.  GO RAMS!

NO BOOTY for RAIDERS

The Rams were invaded Monday night by the Red Raiders of Savannah Christian and the boys in blue and gold did a nice job of defending the home court. The Rams came out of the gate with a 1-3-1 half court trap and got things going crazy on the defensive side of the court. The Rams were making life difficult on the Raiders offensive set and the Rams were capitalizing. Forcing turnovers and getting some nice steals, the Rams moved out in front of the Raiders 12 to 6 late in the second quarter. G. Ducey and B. Chapman seemed spark the offense after some nice "D" from D. Tison and M. Lowenthal. Both Tison and Lowenthal had multiple steals on night to get the ball moving in the Rams favor. The Rams also did a good job of controling the boards led by G. Ducey and A. King. R. Ducey also put in some scrappy play coming off the bench.  The Rams finished out the first half with a nice shot from AKing with 2 seconds on the clock which gave the Rams a 14 to 6 half time lead. Some good "D" from both teams in the second half which yielded  little scoring until the Raiders came up with some timely steals with about 5 minutes left in the game. The Raiders had 6 un-answered points and pulled within 1 point with about 2 minutes to play. The Raiders got to the free-throw line a couple of times in the last seconds of the game, but could not convert. The Rams took control of the ball and ran the final seconds off the clock.

RAMS CAP SEASON WITH SOLID 27-20 VICTORY

The Rams Tuesday night home victory vs the Savannah Christian Red Raiders capped a solid 7 win vs 3 loss (two by one point) regular season for the boys in blue and gold.

The St Peters 5th grade basketball team finishes season with 9-3 overall record vs opposing 5th grade teams.

GREAT JOB!!!!!   RAMS

ONE DOWN - TWO TO GO

The 5th grade Rams advanced into the second round of play in the  year end tournament.

The coaches pre-game talk was all about rebounding. If the Rams control the boards, everything else will fall into place. M.Thompson (12), G. Ducey(8), L. Remler (3), A.King(3), D. Tison (2), R. Ducey (2), B. Jones (2), S. Exley (2), B. Chapman (1)......35 Team Rebounds .... MAN! a coach loves when a team listens. 

The Monday night game vs the Chargers started at a snails pace. Neither team could find the hoop, until M. Thompson drew a foul, off a rebound, and hit two free throws to start the scoring. The Rams got into the press game to see if they could spark some offense and it seemed to get the pace of the game going. G. Ducey got into the scoring act with the next basket in the paint and the next trip down found himself at the charity stripe for two free throws. Ducey had 8 points to go with his 8 rebounds for a solid night. Thompson wasn't through either, he hit a couple of nice 10 footers on the night for a season high 6 points along with his 12 rebounds and some good hustle on the "D" side of the court. The ball handlers did a great job on the night only giving up 2 turnovers and B. Chapman found his shooting touch hitting 2 shots for a 4 point night. The Rams went to the spread formation and D. Tison got the drive game going with some nice passing and a good down the paint drive for a basket. L. Remler put in some quality time on the court with his 3 rebounds, good "D" and hit a nice 8 footer for his first basket on the season. R. Ducey got in on the action with some solid "D" and a steal along with 2 rebounds. Also made a nice job cutting off the baseline and creating a Charger turnover to gain ball control for the Rams. B. Jones got in on the shooting act with a couple nice shots, just would'nt go down for him. One "rattled" the rim.... We'll give him 1/2 point on that one. A. King was having to deal with the Chargers "Box and One "D" all night and did a good job of dishing the ball to his team mates. He also chipped in 5 steals on the night. S. Exley also found himself on the court a good bit Monday night and continued his good "D" play. Along with his two rebounds , he chipped in a steal, and with some good hustle, got two "tie ups" which switched possesions. The Rams led at half time 12-7 and pulled away from the Chargers in the second half only giving up 6 points, final score 27-13.

Tues. Game vs Calvary 8:00 / Calvary Gym

If you have any questions or comments for me, please do not hesitate to contact me. Cell 547-9367 or Home 898-8999 e-mail - kingsav@bellsouth.net