A Winter Escapade

 Another weekend, another saga of craziness.

An ice storm is coming, and with no gaming over Valentine's Weekend, it's a day to rant a bit and use the back catalog of gnome art.

Basketball:  Thanks to COVID, my normal soap opera of volunteering on the local community basketball league's board of directors has taken a much needed hiatus.  Let's not even talk about the literal soap-opera-esque drama occurring between a number of the members, I'm just happy it doesn't involve me. 

We've kept a small group of kids together through the Summer and Fall through a variety of off-the-book programs, and once indoor sports got the blessing of the PA Department of Health gods, I tried to organize a 6th grade team for at least my older daughter Maja, but enough parents didn't want to deal with enough other parents to make it happen.  

Since I am the peacekeeper of the group, and since Maja is very good point guard for her age, she was asked to join not one, but two of these splinter teams.  Surprisingly, the line-ups are pretty similar, just some folks don't want to deal with other folks.   As an aside, a 3rd and 4th grade team was assembled with my younger daughter Millie, helping to lead the charge. 

Fast forward to February.  6th-grade team #1 has been pretty ugly, playing in a pretty elite Scranton league where Maja would be the only player on our team to start on some of the other teams.  She's also the only 6th grader on the team, the rest are good (and mostly short) 5th graders, plus Millie.  This was the first team to form, and getting Millie any playing time was part of my negotiations.  

My sixth grade point guard is stuck playing center and power forward and trying to enjoy it as best as possible, even if the assigned point guards can't usually get the ball into her.  Millie's time is limited, simply just based on her size disadvantage, but she's the team enforcer, ripping balls out of much bigger girls' hands and forcing jump balls of a tenacity of a small, but vicious, dog. 

6th grade team #2 has us teaming up with the coach I had a run-in with last year.  The player that was center of attention in that fiasco is gone, and we spent enough time over the Summer programs to ally ourselves (and get her a position on the board to boot!)

That league is at our local CYC in Wilkes-Barre, isn't as flashy as the Scranton league, but some the other organized  teams we're playing against are driving from an hour away to get playing time, and some of the more local teams have 3-4 girls on them with AAU experience. 

Maja is largely a center with more freedom and leadership roles (she's been able to knock down three pointers when needed). Millie has a more prominent role as a bench player, and her enforcer skills are better appreciated.  

Finally, the 3rd/4th grade team has a whopping six girls on it.  A lot of potential girls had COVID-leery parents and some who tried out ultimately didn't make the cut.  Competition is at the CYC and also involves an elite team from New York State secretly making the border crossing to play.  

Millie (Rainbow Socks) in the 6th Grade Scranton league

So, it's much too late for the short version, but last week(end), 6th Grade Team #1 won their first round playoff game.  Maja played like a fiend, scoring half the teams points, getting assists in most of the other scores, and rebounding like it was in her blood.   Millie had extremely limited time, but was on the court for the last twenty seconds, forcing a jump ball that ended the opponent's last minute rally.  One more week of play at least for them!

Maja's Jump Ball

6th Grade Team #2 is only on week three of their schedule.  They're 0-5, and vastly undersized.  They lost again Sunday, but played their opponent far better than their first meeting, and better yet, they're all learning the game (and plays).  Despite their size, I think they (and the other girls we're playing against) can give the local junior high teams a run for their money.  The older girls are lacking an aggressiveness this team has in spades.  Maja also has a few friends on the other teams, so I think she enjoys her 

Millie guarding her friend Grace (stolen from my wife's social media)

The 3rd/4th grade team is also on week three, and actually won their first game!  Still not sure how Millie, the second smallest of the bunch, leads the team in rebounds, but with knack to dive on loose balls and pass them without getting called for travelling is pretty impressive.   

Box it Up: No, let's not talk about my wife's inability to order a reasonable amount of take out food.  (As I am no longer a human garbage disposal at meal time,  the number of take out containers clogging up our fridge is pretty stupendous after the weekend.) 

I managed to get one of the 80-figure Chessex carrying cases this past week, and gleefully added the completed Gnomish Space Marines (troops only thus far).  It brought back such found memories that I snagged up two more at half off retail, even with hefty shipping included.  Might was well use one to pack up everything loose before the oversized kittens finally destroy something sitting on a display, and shelf, and the other to prep the Tomb of the Serpent campaign figures.  Don't worry those who wargame on the cheap, I'll still be using hardware/fishing tackle containers for Gnome Wars and bulk figure storage and transport. 

And with another purchase on the fly, I'm reconsidering my "must have" list for my virtual Cold Wars dealers hall.  The more things change...

Make it Through the Day: And here's hoping I've recovered from my testing week at work to survive until my 9pm Star Wars game.   Of course they demanded to visit the only island on the map, and I am too eager a GM not to provide an extra adventure to an already convoluted story.

Here's to a successful week of gaming, writing, and painting.