When there's not two kids playing basketball at rwo different locations, there's a lot less drama.
But not all the drama.
With Fall-In! on the same weekend as the end of Millie's season, I took a day or two to recover, than scanned social media and the tournament apps to better recollect the last three tournaments of the fall.
Except that I could only find two...
It seems like everyone wiped the Fall Mayhem Classic at Spooky Nook from their collective memories.
Part of it was that it was an ill-run tournament, with poor time management, and lackluster communication. Part of it was horrendous officiating at all age levels. I was at Maja's volleyball game, trying to get video, and repeating texts from my wife about how uttlerly clueless the refs were, and the veritable pile of technical fouls being handed out, not only to our team, but the other coach, who had been far less animated! With that knowledge it wasn't a surprise that Millie's team was down at halftime... but not by 19! They ended up rallying in the 2nd half, coming up short by one, 45-44.
Maja and I missed the second game while driving down to Spooky Nook, and we arrived to chaos. The team had been soundly beaten a second time that morning. Accusations and murmurs abounded. Coaching was questioned, playing time debated, and the most common excuse, 7th and sometimes 8th graders playing in the 6th grade division. Millie's team does not handle true adversity well, but the only folks who handle it worse are the parents.
Given the fact that she was playing against veritable giants, I wasn't surprised that Millie saw limited action, but others felt it a slight against her. Needless to say more unnecessary drama was made and the evening was otherwise a mess.
Sunday pool play evolved into play-in games, and a rematch against the second team they lost to. This time, the team beared down and ground out a 7-point win, resulting in a championship game rematch against the first loss. Having not seen any play Saturday, I realized the championship game was against a team they hadn't played in a year. Their girls had grown A LOT, and recruited some new friends and proved to be more worthy adversary than rule-breakers. Millie's team kept with four until the final minutes, losing 39-32.
The next tournament was a shorter drive out to the Mecca of basketball in Central Pennsylvania: The Lewisburg YMCA. With player conflicts, they filled one of the tournaments with a special request from some of the 5th grade AAU players. It seems at least three of the 5th graders drive over an hour (full interstate) to make practice twice a week, because the local programs cut them, and with the help of only four of the sixth graders, they were going to prove their prowess.
Against the 5th/6th grade teams from Danville and Lewisburg on Saturday, there was little challenge, 44-4 wins and 34-13 wins with the 5th graders taking most of the playing time. I'm sure a little revenge was sweet, plus they don't get to practice with the 6th graders, and they took both games to get up to the base speed level of the older kids.
After a quick commute Sunday, they faced a Nittany Valley team that was bigger and stronger, but could not keep up with the girls, another 50-19 blowout.
Instead of a rematch in the championship game, the tournament organizers distributed medals and organized a fourth game against the 7th/8th championship, plus a few other girls to fill in for the girls who couldn't stay. These girls were at least a proper travel team, and the age and size difference could not be overcome. Compared to the prior tournament, no one whined and complained about a 30-point loss to the older girls, especially when they still put up 29, (59-29).
The final scheduled tournament of the year was the post-Halloween, Zero Gravity Spookfest at the Nook. Of course, this interfered with our trip to Fall-In!, and, as I mentioned in my Fall-In AAR, filled my Saturday with great basketball against a lackluster (26-9), and a rough team (41-9). The two games on Sunday sealed the championship (41-17, 52-28).
Of course on Wednesday I discovered that the girls had been invited to two special tournaments, a showcase tournament in March (which conflicts with the big local tournament for Millie's school team), and another next week in Spooky Nook.
The travel never stops. Can't wait for the 6th grade local league at Kingston Rec to start in a month.
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| Millie versus a "Normal" tall girl. |
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