Freedom at last! After 14 weeks of winter/school league basketball, the book on this season can be closed!
Week 13:
Local Rec League: The imposing tournament disaster I feared produced a bountiful harvest. With some teams in the loser's bracket in each division requiring three wins just to make to the same-day championship game, not one, not two, but all three divisions had teams run the gauntlet to only fall in the championship. I took most of the heat before the games, as I swung in to insure the brackets were posted. I sympathized with the parents and coaches' frustration, explained that although I was the scheduler, that I was the lone dissenting vote on the process and to express displeasure to the other board members. The other board members were either not at the games, or simply did not care. Utter ridiculousness and mark my words, there shall a reckoning with participants next year, and a culture shock in 1-3 years as the boys, girls, and coaches fleeing for other programs end up the starters at the Jr High level and some of these kids whose parents think they're talented, never see the court after 6th grade.
The worst part, my wife's childhood best friend has two kids in the program and was stuck at the school for nine hours because both of her kids' teams ran the gauntlet, only to end up with runner-up trophies.
No one expressed interest in tournaments with Maja's 7th grade classmates, so we shuttled her to the West Hazleton games in between the games for Millie's team's tournaments.
Two weekends ago was the Freeland Tournament. Freeland is an old coal mining town on top of a mountain, only accessible by the long approach on a steep state highway. For being on top of the middle of nowhere, they managed to pull in some quality teams. Obviously, the arch-rival Freeland team that they've battled all winter was there, but they also brought in a team from Dunmore. Dunmore is a basketball factory up near Scranton. It's girls program that has the #3 college prospect in the country and their second best player on the team scored her 1,500th point this season.
Outside of the fact that none of the girls are 6'4" like the prospect, the 5th grade Dunmore team already has the potential to be better.
Take that scary fact and add that Freeland lost to them by 13 earlier in the day, and the Millie's team was missing one their bigs and one of the "bulldog" players, replaced with two the local Catholic league players, and we were a bit worried.
We were pleasantly surprised when it was tied at halftime. The new girls took a few minutes to acclimate and still weren't as fast as the girls they replaced, but they found their groove to offset some earlier turnovers. Ultimately, Dunmore took 20 more shots and slowly pulled away in with 24-17 win.
Of course the next game was against the rival Freeland team, still nursing their wounds from their loss and waiting to exact revenge on someone. What's normally a slow brawl turned into a run-and-gun game with over 100 shots between the two teams (usually it's under 80). Freeland's speed and accuracy was better and they won 35-29.
Knocked out of consideration for the championship, Millie's team took their troubles out on the Dallas girls for the third game. Usually we despise the Dallas school teams, for a mixture of success and obnoxious attitude, but I've taken some sympathy for the 5th team. Millie's team has won every encounter with them, but with the exception of the first time they ever played (16-4), Dallas has been a thorn in the team's side. They could never beat them convincingly, most games ultimately won by 5-6 points, pulling away in the final minutes. Even with the new girls feeling the effects of a third game in a day, the team built a steady lead in the first half and shut them out for most of the second, finally obtaining a solid victory 22-12.
For a tournament, it was going to be a relaxing Sunday with no games, but three of girls on Dunmore are on Millie's AAU team, and two of the Freeland girls are joining the team this season, so of course we drove back up the mountain to see the championship game.
Dunmore got the lead from the start and slowly rolled that lead bigger and bigger, winning Championship game by 15. Freeland is a team of guards in desperate need of a center, and the Dunmore's methodically worked the boards.
I thought we'd have a free Sunday afternoon, but I became the driver for Millie for even more basketball. The local Catholic league had their championships, and not only her two newest friends on it, but the other guard on her tournament team, Lia, might be the best player in the league.
Played at one of the local Catholic junior highs, the stands were packed (but masked) and the snack bar rivalled some of the AAU tourney sites. But the basketball, that was uninspiring.... and yes, I putting that descriptor on 10-11 year-olds.
For all the hype I've heard about this league, and unsolicited scouting from some of the random parents, I realized not only was Lia the best in league, but Lizzie and Kyra, our tournament additions for Freeland, were easily #2 and #3. After a slow and sloppy start, Lia took over in the second half and her team won handedly.
Everyone was very appreciative of Millie (and me) coming to support the girls (as they have done going to Maja's games).
Millie may have enjoyed the popcorn and giant popsicles the most. Part of me is happy we're Protestant.
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| Giant Popsicles, 10/10 |
Week 14:
With my wife away with friends to see a concert, I had the pleasure of transporting children to the fabled Back Mountain Tournament.
I hearken back to exactly a year ago, when Millie played in her first tournament at the same event. It since moved out of it's COVID restricted confines to play at the local Penn State satellite campus (two courts) and the local high school that's only three minutes down the road (three courts).
Another tournament, another tight win over that Dallas team 17-11 Saturday morning, followed by a ridiculous game in the afternoon against a team from Lebanon (Pa). While some of the teams in their program performed well, this team was not ready for the 90 minute drive. Millie's team shut them out in the first half, and had obnoxiously overt interference by the refs in the second half just to put points on the board. While I'm not a fan of refs under-calling travels and minor calls for the losing side of a blowout, I understand that may happen to some degree. What's completely unacceptable is the losing team tossing the ball out of the boards, only for the ref to soccer kick it back into play to that team and see them score, as everyone else in the building stood in disbelief.
While that action didn't affect the standings (They maxed out the point differential early), the close win to Dallas forced them to play a play-in game for the championship against a local team they hadn't played before, Newport.
Sunday morning, we showed up early to cheer on the local boys who usually showed up to cheer us on, then walked to the next court to play Newport.
Newport had played Dallas on Saturday, and had the same six-point win against them, so I anticipated a close game. After some back and forth for the 1st quarter, Millie and company simply pulled away. 27-16. Things got a little heated as the team pulled away, but it seemed like a good enough warm-up to play first seed Freeland (of course) in the championship.
The few heated moments in the last game must have still been warm in the girls' minds as they went off to start the game. Millie hit a three, Lia stole the ball and drove in for a basket, and Millie got fouled and hit two fouls shots for a 7-0 lead before the Freeland coach could call a timeout. That early haymaker was enough to built a comfortable lead and absorb the late rally to a 27-20 victory.
Not too much chest-thumping from Dad, each girl played to their strengths as best as they possibly could. Still alot a work for each girl to improve upon, but with spring sports and AAU coming around, we've got time until next year.
And anyway, most of the Mountain Top girls are playing AAU with the Freeland girls, in various programs. Time the bury the hatchet and conquer the world.
Early after games both Saturday and Sunday did not mean another afternoon of rest for day. For both days Maja and Millie wanted to stay to see their teammates for school and AAU play in their respective age groups, so we didn't get home until 9pm on Saturday, and home with food until 8pm Sunday. No chance for that elusive gaming with exhausted girls, but at least it's a good pre-season warm-up for AAU travel.
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| Some of Maja's Freshman teammates formed a 9th grade team. |
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