Basketball Part 3

Oh Boy. Newspaper clippings. Internet sports forums. We are not like normal married people. Now we are talking only in brackets. You know the ones....this team plays this team, the winner plays this one, etc. All the "what if's" and scenarios in every which direction we can think of them and how they will be played out. We are this close. The boys can taste it.



On Tuesday we scratched the idea of a bus and loaded up into comfortable car pool vehicles and drove our team North to Woodburn. We hit the factory outlet malls for some good deals and some nerve diversion therapy. Scoring good loot is always soothing to the soul, right? We arrived at Country Christian School with plenty of time for the boys to shoot around and get the nerves worked out. Their school packed one side of the gym and slowly but steadily our fans arrived. We had 63 people show up to represent our cheering squad and our voices were definitely outnumbered, but our spirit was not! The Warriors didn't start the game off too well, we quickly were down by 14 points at the first 4 minutes of the game but we picked away until we got to within 6 points of the Cougars at half time. By the middle of the 4th quarter we had tied the game. It was back and forth for a very tense 3 minutes of game time until we tied them again with 0.9 of a second remaining. We took it into overtime and won by 7! Our boys worked so hard for that win. After the game we celebrated with our loyal fans at Denny's and hit a hotel to catch some sleep before heading home Wednesday.



Now we do it all again tomorrow. Traveling north to a little town called Mowhawk. It's down to 16 teams across the state and after tomorrow, only 8 will remain and head to Baker City for the playoff games. Out of 75 teams in our class 1A division we have made it to the sweet 16. The first time in our team's history to make it to the 2nd round of Regional games. The best New Hope has ever done in basketball! Howard is so excited he can't contain himself. And if you thought he had it bad during my post about his nerves, he has only just begun! Today already, the air around him is thick with intensity. Sounds of another language being spoken during incoming calls from all over the state to his cell phone....coaches giving their advice about Mohawk and their two cents about strategy. You would think this was March Madness. Oh, wait, it will be next week!



If there was ever a time to get excited about a sports event, now is the time. It's the end of the 3rd quarter and we are heading into the 4th. This team is having the time of their life and I think Howard just might be too.



Go, Warriors, Go!



Mandy