Local spa owner Jeff McGrath enjoyed the return of the Grasshopper basketball league to Sedona.

“I thought it was a pretty good revival,” said McGrath, who coached his son, Israel, and nine teammates to an 8-1 record in the league, which concluded March 12. “A little more practice time in the gym would’ve been effective, but they started looking like they were playing real basketball by the end of it.”

From a first practice in which the team looked like it was just chasing the basketball, McGrath’s team of local fifth- and sixth-graders grew quickly.

Besides Israel McGrath and Ocean Lagercrantz, Julian Esquer also led the team in scoring.

Although it did not appear that Craig Sullivan’s team of third- and fourth-graders would have the best record in their division after an 0-2 start, they came around to the point he is looking forward to coaching in the league again next year.

“After the first two games, I was concerned that we might not win a single game,” Sullivan said. “They had very little focus and didn’t even seem like they wanted to be there.”

So Sullivan sat down his 10 players for a talk during their third practice.

“They said they were not having fun because they lost both games,” Sullivan recalled. “I gave them the options of working together to get better and win or just go out there and not even try to win.

“They all unanimously said they wanted to win and they didn’t like losing.”

Sullivan was then able to identify his stronger players and have the team play to their strengths.

Alani Kincaid and Rayden Bogran ended up leading the team to a 5-4 record.

Head coach Robert Downey led his team of first- and second-graders to the best record in their division.