Another Version

    Several weeks ago (May 5th) I shared some information about my granddaughter, Jadyn Bagby, in a musing I called They Just Keep Coming at You! The title was inspired by me watching her perform as goalie on her lacrosse team. I had witnessed her defending the goal as the opponents attacked it with shot after shot. She deflected most of them, but enough got through to render the victory to the opposition.

     This week I am considering another granddaughter, Kaley Martin. She and Jadyn are eight months apart in age, and both started college this fall. They are quite different in physical size and also in personality, and both are wonderful in my eyes.  

     Kaley is also an athlete. She is tall, and basketball has been her primary sport. She started on the high school varsity team as a freshman and was usually regarded as the best player. She excelled on defense but seemed a bit timid when it came to shooting the ball. Most of the time she passed it to a team mate, often to the despair of the coach and her family. 

     Kaley experienced a different form of They Just Keep Coming at You! She had the misfortune to play on bad teams. During her freshman year, they lost every game, often by huge margins. I recall one game where I swelled with pride when they announced the starting line-up, and I heard “Freshman, Kaley Martin.” She was high scorer for her team that night. This fact was marred only slightly by the fact that registering five points gained her that distinction. During her four years as a varsity basketball player, they never made the playoffs. 

     Despite the paucity of victories, Kaley garnered my admiration for the way she conducted herself on the court. She played hard yet managed to stay gracious with all other players. She never displayed the frustration that she surely experienced as her team received regular drubbings from their opponents.

     Kaley also distinguished herself academically, receiving an associates degree from the Lehigh County Community College two weeks prior to her high school graduation. She also pleased me with her personal decision to be baptized at age seventeen, and we have had some great spiritual discussions since then.

     Besides basketball, Kaley competed with the track team, in the shot put and javelin categories. She confided to me that she preferred track to basketball because she did not have to rely on others. She surprised me by choosing track over basketball as her sport while she pursues an engineering degree in college. 

     I am enormously proud of my five grandchildren. I have written about two of them in this venue. I will get to the special aspects of the other three sometime in the future.