Hey gang...quick story and life lesson. So, last night, my daughter Kayleigh played her last high school basketball game. Season didn’t end the way they wanted but, of course, for all but one team it ends with a loss. 
Of all the gifts the game of basketball gave me, the greatest was to share 13 years of learning it with my daughter. I’m going to miss the car rides, the practices, and watching her play.
When she started I coached her K-2 YBC team — the Fearsome Marysville Suns. It was not, of course, elite basketball. They wobbled up the court, and by year’s end some would pass and play defense.
I was in politics then, and I had one rule. Nothing, ever, would interrupt those two hours a week of coaching my daughter (or her big brother, who also played then). Ever. Coached right up to her middle school team, and no political emergency ever took me from a game.
My rule that coaching 6year olds irritated some. I once drove home from Moncton listening to CBC journalists rip me for not doing interviews on the day’s lead. Some jackass from Rogers put an empty chair on when I declined. The Premier’s Office pushed me hard at times.
I remember one day, after I’d spoken out with doubts about the NB Power sale, I left the office having been told that I might be out of cabinet the next morning. The Center was meeting to decide. I went to Devon Middle School and I coached my son’s Nasis team. We won.
Here’s what I want anyone who’s starting out with young kids to know. I don’t remember what any of those meetings or interviews I missed were about. But I remember every game, every car ride, and every conversation with my kids that happened because we had basketball in common.
Time will fight you for every moment worth savouring, folks. Pick the ones worth fighting for.
I’m a bit blue today, because that chapter with Kayleigh and I is over. But I know she and I got everything from it we could have dreamed, because I never shortchanged it. I miss the little girl sometimes. But I got to see her turn into the strong young woman she is now.
Time will fight you for every moment worth savouring, folks. Pick the ones worth fighting for.
