Championship Week

Ended the year in style this time. After knocking off my uncle Ed in the Super Bowl of our family’s fantasy football league, it was time to head back out to the hardwood and see if my freshman boys and varsity guys could be ready to play after a long 7 days without practice. We challenged them over the break to find a place to play and most importantly run and shoot. Many found open gyms the week of Christmas and the extra shooting seemed to pay off as both teams made it to the championship game on December 30th. The freshman team beat a very competitive Harwood team on Monday and then beat Brewer and Paschal back to back on Tuesday to set up a match with Granbury in the championship game on Wednesday. Granbury had 8 players who played an excellent game but the run and gun style was just too much. 10 3-pointers and a nonstop press pushed Southwest to a 73-59 win (eighth in a row) and a Paschal Tournament Championship. I was very proud of their effort and below is a team picture with the championship trophy.

Freshman Basketball team with their Paschal Tournament trophy

After the freshman capped of a great tournament, it was time to get back to the varsity guys in their championship game versus an impressive Arlington Bowie team. The varsity cruised through the first 2 rounds of the Coca-Cola Classic tournament in Fort Worth with victories over Denton High School and Brewer High School of White Settlement. The Raiders met Austin LBJ in the semi-final and defeated the 10th ranked team in the state (4A) 70-68 in a nail-bitter. The Raiders had to turn right back around that day and face the 25th ranked (5A) Arlington Bowie Volunteers. Their all-tournament team members were 6’6 and 6’5. Our all-tournament selections were dwarfed in their picture after the game at 5’10 and 5’11. We showed a lot of heart and stamina in competing with what I thought was the best all-around team that we’ve played against this year, but fell short 85-75.

It’s now time to head back to district play and attempt to make the playoffs in what is always a competitive district. The varsity guys are now 11-6 (2-2 in district 7-4A). There are no playoffs for the freshman, but we’re going to give it our best to make a run at the district championship. Currently the team is 12-2 (4-0 in district). My beautiful wife has been taking some photos throughout the year and I added them on Facebook if you’d like to check them out.

I also ended the year by finishing up my 3rd book. Finishing 3 books within a year is a pretty big deal to a guy that is not a big reader. I want to recommend They Call Me Coach (John Wooden) to anyone who may be considering coaching, who is a coach, that loves basketball, or anyone that works with young people. John Wooden seems to be one of those guys that really did an amazing job reaching young men on all sorts of levels. This book really lets you know about how he used his model “The pyramid of success” to pull together his teams over the years and what led to so much of his success at UCLA (10 national titles). His strong emphasis on being spiritually prepared was very interesting and the different insights as to what was going on behind the scenes for so  many of his soon to be Hall of Fame players (Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabar) really made the book worth reading. I’m turning into a guy who likes to read, I’ve picked up Bill Self’s book, At Home in the Phog, and hoping to finish that book by the end of the week and get started on one of Tony Dungy’s books. If you have any suggestions about biographies that are inspirational or about leadership, I’d love to hear about them.

Have a great start to the new year and keep in touch!

“Goals achieved with little effort are seldom appreciated and give no personal satisfaction.”   – John Wooden

Advertisement

1 Comment(s)

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI