We experienced our first season of organized school basketball with my son this year while he played on his junior high team. My daughter has kept us driving rural roads on Saturdays for elementary recreation league game matchups.

We’ve experienced many years of Saturday rec league basketball with the kids. We knew going into this season, we’d probably have one or two practices a week, games always on Saturday, parents taking turns providing snacks and drinks after every game and a possible tournament to end the season.

Junior high basketball was a whole new world for our family this year, but one we all truly enjoyed. Aside from a lot of freezing, dark mornings getting my son to town for his 6 a.m. practices five days a week, we saw a lot of community culture and pride while driving down many smalltown Main Streets or while sitting inside a lot of gymnasiums.

We discovered that like our town, sometimes the only place to stop and grab some food after late games was at a gas station. This is, if the town we were in had a gas station.

We also discovered that many of the schools that are part of the league that our school is a member of have a fantastic base of supporters. These supporters show up to the home games and make the trips to the away games as well.

One of the standout supporters for my son’s team attended as many home and away games as he could this year. When he was younger, he and his family dedicated their summers to chasing wheat to harvest. Later, he chased his kids and grandkids at many sporting events.

Now that his grandkids have graduated, he dedicates much of his time attending games to watch local kids play. During the home games, I can glance down to the front row of the seatback bleachers and spot him near midcourt. During away games, I can scan the gymnasium to find him sitting courtside either on the front row or at the end of the bench with the boys keeping the books.

He’s always there providing words of encouragement, on-point stats for the team and a presence that beams with pride for the kids from his hometown.

His presence isn’t just seen or felt at the junior high games either. You’ll see him at all the high school games and he will even be in the gym many Saturdays to cheer on our town’s kids during the elementary rec league games.

By all accounts, he’s their biggest fan, and the kids see him and love him for it.

As a parent, I see him and appreciate the continuous support that he provides, and I love how the kids interact with him and recognize that he comes to see them play for their little town’s school.

If you ask me, there’s a lot of blessings being part of a small community, and the support that’s provided to our kids is one of the greatest.