While I thought there would be a reprieve from the utter craziness of AAU this Spring, the world done turned itself upside down. Instead six weeks of travel and stress, Millie's team is doing a hybrid tournament schedule, so we have NINE weekends blocked off between March and July, with only three where both Maja and Millie's teams play the same weekend. Fun o' fun!
This weekend was a trip down to King of Prussia outside Philly for the Mid-Atlantic Showdown.
PRO: It's the shortest drive, actually closer to the facility than the Valley Forge was for Cold Wars.
CON: The schedule is so vague, you think your child's Saturday games are at the King of Prussia site, but in fact it's a far off site that's thirty minutes further away, without the Philly traffic. I was none too pleased, and thanks to an early start, missed the first half of the first game.
Thankfully, I didn't miss anything remarkable. Despite being a much smaller team, and missing a ton of easy shots, they were up 15-6 at halftime. And cruised to a 34-22 victory.
Height has always plagued the team, and with the departure of Millie's school teammate, Jordan, to an elite sponsored team out of NYC, everyone anticipated some problems. With the second game, those troubles were reborn with a six-foot 12 year old girl, that could easily pass for a few years old. No one complained, so Millie's team went forward and routed them. 39-21.
Sunday was a bit of a gauntlet with a 9am pool play game, an 11am play-in game (they were already guaranteed in). followed hopefully by a 12:30pm championship. Pool play was the smallest team they played all weekend so a 41-7 drubbing was expected. Everyone prepped to play the 5th grade team of the super-tall player's organization and play a very rough around the edges local team that might give them trouble in the championship game. As luck would have it, the team easily beat the 5th graders, and the thuggish local team got beat by the 6-foot girl's team.
In the championship game, they jumped out to a 13-2 lead, and didn't know whether to go for the jugular and get the running clock going early, or mix it up with the bench players. They won 36-22, nevering reached mercy (although the scoreboard let a whole lot of extra time come off during the second half.)
I will say this: After years of top-notch guards cluttering things up, we have 5-star player who dominates the score sheet, a 4-star talent, and the rest of the girls are ready to rip peoples' heads off, dive for balls, and do whatever is necessary to win. The best part is the team passing has never been ready, and generated as many points as the individual stars.
Giant P.S. The big news that rippled through the organization was Maja and Millie's school district posting the Girl's Basketball Varsity Coach position. It's not surprising, but also wasn't inevitable this season. Either the coach decided he had enough with obnoxious parents, or those parents got to the Athletic Director/School Board. While I am certain my kids will eventually get playing time under any coach, the lack of familiarity a new regime is a concern. While it could be like every school board and already have a candidate in their back pocket, we discovered a number of uber-qualified folks that have already applied, and a short stack of others who were submitting paperwork. Guess the regular basketball rant never truly ends.
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