And with a bit of a whimper, the regular season for Varsity is over, meaning the triple-header games of Freshman/JV/Varsity are over...
Local Rec League: I continue to show up to support games, although it's mostly because Maja is reffing and still can't drive. Without parental interference, the system runs itself most of the time, and I've already targeted the future problem parents for the complaints in the Biddy divisions.
We're in full swing of the playoffs, yet most teams haven't had a practice in two weeks because the elementary school is putting on their play, thus using the cafeteria/stage/basketball court. If the remainder of the board had agreed with me, most of the Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade divisions would have had three free throw shooting competition/pizza party already, and we could have opened up 15 additional hour-long slots to accommodate this schedule change. Since I'm no longer the complaints department, I'm enjoying other folks getting the wrath.
Local Rec League Travel Team: For the first time in four years, we sponsored a 6th grade girls team to play other local programs. Between a tournament and the regular season, they ended up going 4-6. It will be fun to see them, as well as the other girls, make the move up to Junior High ball next year.
7th/8th Grade Junior High: The teams Millie does not play for finished their seasons last weekend. Despite only having one player from the talented travel teams that dominated the last two years (the rest are playing Freshman exclusively), 7th grade held on to a winning record, going 10-9, and coming within two of an upset playoff win.
The 8th graders, who had most of the good players move up to exclusively Freshman, fared poorly, going 3-15. The lone good player on the 7th grade team? She was the second-best player on the 8th grade.
Between these two teams, I see no 8th graders making the transition to JV (they will get murdered in the summer league). The rest will get dumped into bench positions on Freshman. I do see the best player in 7th moving up to Freshman only, with the rest moving up to 8th, then 9th the following year.
Good news is, with a glut of players above them, the 6th graders moving into 7th next year should all be together.
Freshman: Why all the hub-bub above teams? Because Millie's Freshman team has two true Freshmen, six 8th graders (2 starters), and four 7th graders (3 starters)... and they just finished the season 18-1, against 8th/9th grade competition. They took some lumps early, but as the other teams improved, they rose to the occasion. With Millie at point, a 6'1" center and three girls who scored at least 100 points, they were a force to be reckoned with. Four of the six 8th graders are almost guaranteed JV as Freshman, so that leaves two 8th graders returning, who will be great next year, and the five 7th graders (4 current players, and the girl from 7/8 moving up), to form the core
Junior Varsity: Last year, mutinies and injuries in Varsity, stripped the JV down so much, they played their last 8 games with only five players. This year, the injury bug hit JV itself, getting them down to 6 players, but a part-time Varsity bench player for two quarters a game. JV stats are always sketchy, but I think they pulled out an 8-9 record... with Maja as the starting center! When her friend, the actual center on the team, went down with a concussion mid-December, Maja was the only one willing to fill in the role. It's been painful, watching her get beat up by clumsy giants on the other team, but as I watched the last two games of the season this week, I realized she was doing exactly the basic orders she was given: box out players on rebounds and lure her defender away from the ball. Her boxing out abilities neutralized the biggest girl on the court usually, which gave them a much better chance of rebounding. She did have a monster game with 18 points, plus this week's games had her with 6+ blocks at crucial times, and two fouls total.
Varsity team had a great run, going 15-8, but a costly loss on Monday is the season why the winning team is in the league playoffs, and they have to wait a week for Districts, then hopefully State seedings. Not bad for a team with 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, and 2 Freshmen in the starting line-up! Maja ended the Varsity season with a whopping two points, and a hosts of assists, rebounds, blocks, and steals. Her goal next year is continue to show she's indispensable, adaptable, and crazy enough to do what the coaches need from her, and crack the top 10 on Varsity. Her job isn't to score 1,000 points (we have three right now on track for a 1,000+ each in their careers), but to do everything else to ensure for the team to win.
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