he's so painfully shy that I never figured he'd play on a team. He's had no interest in joining a team to play anything, but thankfully my husband insisted that we get him started with something. I have zero experience with organized sports, and was extremely skeptical.

We found a basketball team that is coached by the most sports obsessed man that I have ever met, and that's actually really saying something. The coach is fairly demanding. There's kind of an excessive number of practices. He makes them run laps if he catches them not listening, that sort of thing.

I'm actually astonished at the difference it's made in a very short period of time. Our son is like a different kid completely in regards to self-confidence. We still have a ways to go, but his first game he stood on the court looking lost and clutching the edge of his shirt. His last game he was taking shots, stealing the ball, and recovering rebounds. He's still not quite as aggressive as we'd like, but definitely getting there.