We're two weekends away from the conclusion of Maja's school leagues and Millie's local rec leagues, and it couldn't come sooner. I knew the schedule was a lot, but with my wife coming down with COVID and barricaded in the master bedroom, I'm now the sole Uber for the crew, and it's simply madness.
The rundown for 1/28-2/4.
For the Local Rec League, I'm officially checked out. I woke up at 7am Saturday morning to 47 text messages claiming that the Snowpacalypse, the Blizzard of the Century, and Ice Capades all happened overnight, so the games for the ENTIRE DAY were cancelled, and the much anticipated playoffs needed to be pushed back another week to accommodate the deluge of complaints on social media.
By 7:15 that morning, I was dressed and in my car, gleefully driving the speed limit around our rural township that hosts the one elementary school we used as a site. Outside of a wind-chill, everything was fine. In fact, outside of the the 7th grade league postponing the 9am and 10am games to Sunday, I could find no other organization in Northeast Pennsylvania that cancelled the entire day for weather. It's embarrassing.
I reworked the schedule, got approval for single-round playoffs for the tiny girls divisions (still with games through the 2/19 for all, even if they're consolation.), and dropped the need for trophies early right into the craven lap of the league President. I continue to ponder dropping all the paperwork, files, and binders of security clearances on the President's front porch, but I do want to try to have Open Gym Friday Nights for at least the girl's divisions.
The Saturday cancellation of Local Rec league and the 7th Grade games meant Maja and Millie could both play at West Hazleton.
This league is technically 5th-7th co-ed, but has a legacy draft that I've only seen in fantasy sports. Coaches can keep their kids season-over-season if they want, so the girls' coach has 4 total players. They played the league president's team, and let me say, those boys were a much better long term investment. That team had five large, solidly skilled boys and the girls' team just had trouble getting rebounds, or getting the ball to anyone outside of three key players (two of which were the girls themselves). Outside of Maja getting the wind knocked out of her on a freak play, the game was intense, physical, and the girls backed down from no-one, and even flipped a few of the guys during jump balls.
Millie's Travel Team had a Sunday night playoff game, against the hated Dallas (Pennsylvania) Youth Basketball Team. Despite dominating in most categories, the game was far too close for far too long. In three games this season, the travel team has allowed exactly 8 points in each contest, but scored decreasing points in all their wins.
Mountain Top 15 Dallas 8.
Practice this week for the all important rubber match of the season (and Championship) against Freeland this Sunday was a little more intense... for the coaches. It's not like 2/6 will be our final chance to beat them for a championship. We have tournaments with them on 2/27 and 3/6.... and the next six years after that. Should be fun every time.
Maja's School League
While the Freshmen team is awe-inspiring to watch, the 7th grade team alone pulled off the impressive feat last weekend.
With the early morning Saturday games postponed, the 7th and 8th grade teams were given the unenviable position of 9am - 7th / 10am-8th / 11am-7th / 12pm-8th for Sunday. A pretty easy test for a team that is 2/3 composed of AAU players. But as they unloaded the bus, an obvious omission could be seen: all of the 8th graders, save two, were missing.
Game One: 34-6 win over Lake Lehman 7th grade. Player of the game wasn't one of the AAU crowd, but Maja's friend Emily, one of the three 7th graders who just play 7th grade ball. 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 steals and a block is not a bad stat line for a girl who didn't even want to try out for basketball. Maja had 7, including a 3-pointer
Game Two: Against the 8th grade version of Lehman, the 7th graders met their biggest challenge of day, but grew an early lead to a 42-32 win. Maja scored another 7, with her 2nd 3-pointer of the morning.
Game Three: 7th Graders took the court for themselves again and routed Nanticoke 34-19, with Maja playing with the 7th Grade-Only players for the entire 2nd half. Maja scored 10, her friend Emily tired out, only getting 4 points
Game Four: Two more 8th graders finally arrived, so playing time was diminished for the 7th graders. Maja basically was in there to keep the 8th graders from doing their normal implosion of bad shots and bad decisions, scoring no points, but a host of blocks, defensive rebounds, and other shutdown defense. Despite being the 4th tallest in the group, she's beginning to understand why she's put in as the back-up Center. We won 24-12, with two of the 7th graders accounting for 20 of the points.
Freshmen: Monday was another rout for the Freshmen girls. Maja finally checked into the game at her regular substitution time, somewhere around the middle of the 1st Quarter, to an 18-0 lead. I don't think the "A" allowed the opposing team to even take a shot. The "B" team did allow some shots, but kept pouring in points to a thorough 42-18 trouncing. Even with a ton of court time, Maja nudged her season average up to 1.7 points a game, although, checking the prior posts, she's only failed to score in only 1 out of the 10 games.
Of course, weather is still wrecking havoc on games. Thursday, a thrice-rescheduled game against a much-anticipated rival was postponed yet again, for a non-existent ice storm. If that's officially cancelled, there's four more games for the girls, and if that's not the signs of the end of the road, a quick save-the-date for the team banquet.
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