Girls youth basketball, my suspicions are confirmed.

I've seen a lot of girl's youth basketball in my days... my daughter played, my granddaughter is now playing, I've had nieces who played, cousins, friends and daughter's of friends.

Girls are vicious. Allow me to explain.

I was watching my granddaughter play yesterday... in her game there were many 'held balls'.. many. Without exception this infuriates girls. They take it 'personal'.. or so it always seemed to me. Dirty looks, sometimes some elbows thrown. ALSO... there is no 'forgiveness'.... a fight over a held ball means a 'feud' until the game ends.

That was on my mind near the end of the first half yesterday as several 'held ball' encounters looked to me, from the stands, like they had nearly come to fists. And the dirty looks never stopped.

At half time the officials came over and sat right in front of me. We started a conversation... lots of laughing, congrats on some truly talented players from both teams... and I DID NOT BRING THIS UP.... at one point the 'head official' turned to the other and told him he needed to be quicker with his whistle during held balls because, his words, "Girls take it personal and they'll start fighting".

Confirmation.

Now an actual 'fight' I have only seen once... involved my daughter, by the way... she really didn't like an opposing player fighting with her for the ball. Fights rarely happen... but dirty looks, and dirty 'play' after held ball encounters are quite common place. In my experience, boys can fight for the ball as viciously, even more so, but once the whistle blows it's nearly always smiles. Not with girls... daggers, they shoot daggers from their eyes.

So ok, not fair of me to pick on 'girls'... so I'll even it up. Badly missed shots, horribly bad - boys tend to ridicule and taunt a teammate who misses a shot badly. Not girls... they get the giggles when it happens. Doesn't matter if it's for the 'game' or not. Good attitude, I think, because it doesn't mean they aren't going to be as aggressive as soon as the ball is in play again... it just means 'it was funny'. - JamesJM