And the award goes to . . .

Alaina's basketball season came to an end at a team banquet (OK, it wasn't really a banquet; we had desserts and Gatorade). Alaina was named defensive player of the year, rebounding champion (9.1 per game) and winner of the Grizzly Heart award, given to the player who plays and practices with the most heart. Think Alaina was most excited about that one. She also was named second-team All-City by the league's coaches.
Laura, meanwhile, scored her first goal of the season in our first soccer game earlier this month. Then she had four teeth pulled as part of her orthodontics work. One of the teeth had not come down yet and was in the roof of her mouth, so the oral surgeon had to go get it. The one side of her face was swollen and bruised for several days, like she was the loser in a bar fight. She had to sit out our next game and our game last Saturday was snowed out (we got about 7 inches). I'm penciling her in for this week's game.
Conor will be coming back to Wichita this summer. He landed a reporting internship at The Eagle for eight weeks (and we're even paying him). The "favor in hell" doctrine was not a factor in the decision. I normally pick the interns, but I had another editor do it for me. His work at the Minnesota paper helped him land the job.

So close, yet . . .

Alaina's team lost a tough game in the sub-state final 46-45 to Garden City. That means Garden City goes to Emporia for the state tournament and gets to play the No. 1 team in the state. We didn't play very well, but Alaina made a nice layin with 23 seconds to go to give us a 45-44 lead. We stole the ball back with 12 seconds to go. But on the ensuing inbounds play, our point guard got called for a charge (good call, bad decision). Then, when Garden City inbounded the ball with 7 seconds to play, we fouled them 90 feet from the basket. Oy! A girl who was 1 for 11 from the foul line in their last game made both ends of a one-and-one for a 46-45 lead. We had one last shot -- an open look from the elbow -- but it rimmed off at the horn. It was pretty tough.

Garden City had a 6-3 girl (perhaps the tallest Hispanic girl in the world) and another girl who was 6-2. We had trouble with them lobbing over the top to the 6-3 girl (poor weakside help). She scored nearly half their points. She really killed us when Alaina was out for a rest. Alaina had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Here's a link to some video of the game. The good news is that our top six players all return next year. We need to develop some quality depth, so if Neala wants to transfer here, we have an extra bedroom for her. The photo of Alaina, by the way, was taken at the start of the game, which was delayed because the tornado sirens were going off. Spring in Kansas.

Up next on our sports cavalcade is Laura's soccer season. We had our first practice today (it was 62 here today; it was 85 last Thursday) and play our first game on Saturday. We'll try to get some art of Laura on the site in her nifty pink uniform (our team is the Pink Ladies).

One down, one to go

Alaina's team won its sub-state opener against Maize. Northwest plays Garden City on Saturday night with the winner going to the state tournament. Worth noting that there are 32 teams in the biggest class in Kansas and eight of them go to state. So, it's not an overwhelming task to get there. Still, Northwest has not gone since 1999, so it would be nice.
Alaina had 20 points and 10 rebounds, but was more nervous about her postgame media interview (her first). The Eagle did a nice story on the game. She was a pretty good quote, too. There also is some video from a local station.
Our friend Brenda came to the game as did Aunt Donna, who sort of fills the role of Aunt Allison at sporting events. She leaped to her feet twice and yelled, "That's bull!" -- just bull, not the rest -- when Alaina got called for fouls. I think a judge would find her in contempt if she did that in court. She plans to attend a basketball game in Manhattan Saturday afternoon and then drive the 2 1/2 hours back to Wichita for Alaina's game. She is a true fan. I think Jerry and Julie also are driving in from Pratt.
We'll let you know how it goes.

Kentucky for vegetarians

What do you get when you combine Cracker Barrel, auto bingo and a states and capitols show down? ROAD TRIP!

Mark and I took a long weekend with Taylor and his mom to spend some time with his grandparents down in Owensboro, Kentucky. We played a lot of cards with Mamaw (his paternal grandmother) and heard lots of stories from Granddad Jim (his maternal grandfather). Oh yes and we ate and ate and ate. The best part is southerners don’t really know how to respond to the phrase, “I’m a vegetarian” with anything other than a confused look. Mark refused to order me a cheeseburger without meat at the local greasy spoon drive thru—he was not only embarrassed but also concerned they would wrap the beef patty up as a separate package in their disbelief that someone wouldn’t want it. I settled for a fried on the griddle, yes I said fried, tuna sandwich with “Dipper gems” known to the rest of the free world as tater tots. The running starts on Tuesday.

One afternoon we visited the Owensboro Science and History museum which featured some cool hands on activities like building a bridge, operating a crane, manufacturing cars on the assembly line (soon to be replace with learning Chinese-ha!). Plus you had the chance to sit in real race cars from all the pro drivers who were born and raised in town or broadcast the local news as the station’s meteorologist.

In all it was a great trip and even included a quick visit to celebrate one of his nephew’s birthdays in North Baltimore, Ohio on our return trip. It was here I got to play my first non Guitar Hero Wii game: bowling. Turns out I’m amazing at that…and so is everyone else who can swing their arm up and down. I see why it’s so popular with video game nerds now. They can pretend they are good at sports.