Bring a Parent to Practice Day!

I remember weeks into a winter season of closed practices a few years ago, I huddled up the grade 5-6 group and said, “Maybe I’m being too tough on your parents. Should we let them in?”

I received a unanimous, “No.”

Even a kid who’d never said a word all year shook his head and gave me a firm, “No way.”

“What about for a few minutes more than the last 15 minutes that we normally allow at the end of practice?”

“No, thank you. We’re good, Mo.”

So now we have a weekend where it’s bring your parents to work day (work sounds so much more serious than practice or training, so let’s go with it). The success of the role-reversal event depends on the attendance and energy of the parents or stand-in parents, and kids. Most kids love the idea of partnering up with their parent just so they can yell at them to “Hustle” and “Pass!” The kids love to see their parents fail. “See, now you know how I feel out there!” and/or a “See how hard I work for you every day.” Some kids get so embarrassed by their parents’ mistakes. Yet there are also these sweet moments where you see parent and child teaming up for a little 1-2 punch, giving their best effort in the name of the fam, and smiling through a great bonding moment that will give them bragging rights at the next family dinner.

We do this as an annual fundraiser for our scholarship players at Mo’ Motion and for our sponsored teams in the GBA. An anonymous donor has been kind enough to donate three tickets to the Miami Heat vs. BK Nets game and match the donations up to $7K. In addition, several parents like to get behind what we are doing for our Cubs girls’ sponsored team and our growing population of male Senegalese players.

We’ll shoot more photos this weekend of parents earning their Mo’ Motion sweat. A few years ago, a dad said that he’d actually make a larger donation if I didn’t take his photo or post it publicly.

Here’s the RUMBLE highlight video of how we roll from 2011. It was by far the most enjoyable Parent Challenge. Unlike most recent events where we mix up the parents and kids, we had so much support that the kids wanted to be the adults and the adults got to be the kids. The kids ripped into their parents and their parents were too busy catching their wind to talk back. It was fun, funny and all for a great cause.

To donate: Click here

Here’s are a bunch of throwback challenge photos plus a link to the RUMBLE highlight reel. Almost every team grades 4-10 is booked for a fun sweat this weekend or next. Everyone will sign a release form and we will say a group “You’re Not 18 again” reminder/prayer right before warm-ups.

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