What a weekend! This weekend we had a team of players who had never played together and yet we still came within a few seconds (and a point) from a victory. I’m very proud of how the kids reacted to such a HUGE challenge this weekend.
In our first game, we played a much larger CJBA team. I know I must sound like a broken record when I say much larger team, but this team we played against had one player weighing over 200lbs! We played great...jumping out to a 10-0 lead. CJBA was able to chip away at us all game, and they finally took the lead in the final minutes. We had been dealing with foul trouble all game as there was a 3-1 foul disparity. Our boys had goose eggs on their heads, cuts and bruises on their arms, but throughout, our boys were able to keep their composure and come back to take the lead by 1. On the last out of bounds play, CJBA was able to find a wide open player for a mid range jumper to win the game by 1 point. It was a clutch shot, but one we should have never given up. We played so well all game and had just one tiny mental mistake with 4 seconds to go. What each player and coach alike can take away from this, is that we cannot afford to give an inch, and we must be mentally engaged at all times during the game. Each and every boy contributed, and I am very proud of the fight in them. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog that counts; and we had tons of fight!!
Do to the extraordinary amount of fouls, this game ran 25 minutes over and our next opponent was waiting on us. We had literally 3 minutes to regain our composure after having our hearts torn out, to get fired up for our next game. We played a very good Irish team that gave us all we could handle in our last bout with them. To my surprise, the kids reenergized and jumped out to an early lead. Quite impressive after what they had just gone through. Each of our kids was mentally and physically drained, and each one of them somehow managed to dig deep down inside of themselves to frustrate the Irish all game long. The boys were able to pull out a 4 point win. If not for a couple 3’s in the last minute, the game wouldn’t have even been that close. Great team effort!
I thought the kids deserved to win the championship this weekend. I wanted to take a moment to address the refereeing in the first game. While I know we did not get the calls we deserved as indicated by the 3-1 foul discrepancy, these things will happen. We aren’t always going to get the call. We lost by 1, but what we need to do is stay focused and worry about what we are doing. We should NEVER rely on the referees to win a game. If we had done just a little more, we could have won. We can always do more and we will do more!
To put things in perspective, we started this program approximately 10 weeks ago. We have gone from playing scrimmages for the first couple of weeks and learning a completely new system, to playing for the championship in our last 2 tournaments. Please do not lose sight that some of these teams we are playing are top notch teams. We are not playing HotShots teams. I’m very proud of the work that the boys have put in and the dedication and accomplishment of each and every player and parent.
Bob Mack
