Matthew’s weekend will dominate this post.
Matthew Basketball: The regular season is over.
As you can see, the Chieftains did quite well….I don’t think any of those wins were closer than 15 points. You may notice Williamston, also undefeated, on the other side of the bracket. This regular season translated into this end-of-the-year tournament bracket.
The big news was that we were not the #1 seed….and you had to go way down into the tie-breakers to figure that one out, but, we had two common opponents with Williamston and they buried each of those teams by over 25 points each, so, they were #1.
Saturday: Drive out to Owosso (a 45-minute journey) on Saturday for the first game against Fowlerville….the boys win handily, 37-19. No points for Matthew but his role on this team since returning after the broken arm has been diminished…he doesn’t shoot or score but plays very stout defense. Suzanne was a little frustrated at his lack of playing time here (I was still with Cpher at his basketball game.
So, we move on in the winner’s bracket to play Webberville.
It’s a big generalization, but, I think it runs awfully true at times….the smaller the town, the louder the parents cheer at sports events. And the Webberville crowd was no exception. But, man, they crossed the line from cheering to obnoxious pretty quickly…..running down to talk to their kids as soon as they hit the bench, yelling at the refs over just about anything……our parents (on this team, and on Cpher’s team) aren’t very loud at all….as I type this I need to remind myself to ask Matthew if he noticed that during the games this weekend.
Anyway, it’s a close game, we are up by 6 going into the fourth quarter, but, they come back and it’s tied; we’re heading to OT. They accomplish this feat by playing two or three players the entire game….I credit our coach, it may not have been the right move to win the game, but, he did play our bench quite a bit during the game.
It’s a two minute overtime….and we lose by two, 33-31. Webberville celebrates like they’ve won the national championship. Very over the top, parents jumping up and down…..kind of crazy.
Matthew played ok; he was on the court for most of the fourth quarter and overtime, which I guess shows just what the coach thinks about his play even though his shooting/scoring has almost completely disappeared. He also has picked up, somewhere, the belief that you can take two steps without dribbling. And they may not call that in the NBA and on the playground….but they call it here, and he’s gotten called more than a few times for travelling. And sadly, he was called for it late in OT….we didn’t lose because of Matthew, but he certainly put the blame on himself.
Sunday: Saturday’s late night loss throws us into the consolation bracket. Sunday’s first game is against Mason; we had beaten them 2 or 3 weeks ago. Came out kind of flat, but, eventually put them away 27-24 Have a 90 minute break, and then play the next game, and beat Perry (another previous victim) by about ten…don’t quite remember the exact score. And that brings about the rematch against Webberville. We have about a 10 minute break between games, everything for us from here on out is back to back.
The beauty of playing team twice is that you learn what makes that team go….and that Webberville team is a two-man show, #33 and #24 are very good players, and they accounted for 27 of their 33 points the first time. So, I was reasonably sure our coach, who is pretty sharp, is going to make sure that those two don’t do that again.
Game starts….and we put on the defensive clamps. Winning 7-2 at the end of the first…up by seven at the half. Up by seven at the end of three; win by 4 in the end, but, it was never really close. Really enjoyed watching the Webberville parents leave the gym. Quietly.
Matthew’s role has morphed as Sunday goes on….he is the first kid off the bench and typically goes in for the starter (it varied) that had to go to the bench to get a reminder about defense. Was much better as the games went on on Sunday about soaking up rebounds and scrapping for the ball. Never out of position; always hustling back, always with his arms up challenging the offense. His best moment might have been the last moments of the Webberville game; grabbed the rebound after a missed Wville free throw and when they tried to pressure him just dribbled off to the side and down the full length of the court before getting fouled as he went in for the layup, eating up precious seconds and sealing the win. He made one of those free throws to end the game, we win 38-34.
So, that, after a five minute break, brings us to the long awaited game against Williamston. The boys play well; really proud of how each and every one of them hustled and worked hard throughout, and the hard work paid off….game is tied after the first quarter, I think we’re down by 1 at half, and down by 2 as the fourth quarter started I think we were even just down by two as late as 3 minutes to go in the fourth, but, Williamston made shots down the stretch and we didn’t, and they won 25-19. That OT loss to Webberville hurt….made us play two extra games to get to this point.
Really happy with how Matthew played……he was always hustling, always going to the ground for balls and after 6 basketball games was scrappy to the end.
The team
Matthew Soccer: Oh yeah….like six basketball games aren’t enough, he had four soccer games too! And unlike basketball, where sometimes he gets shorted on playing time (much to Mom’s consternation…although by the end of that tournament that wasn’t an issue, he played a lot, especially late in the games), in soccer, especially the TNT games, he gets more than his fair share.
First game was Saturday morning at 7 am (ugh!). TNT against the TNT U10 Girls white team…..and it looked like this would be a blowout, we went up three goals early. BUT, they had some ringers, one of the girls from the Red team Matthew has played against in those 4v4 tournaments and a taller girl who must have been a U12…..and they made it 3-2, one time taking advantage of a weak Matthew pass to drive in for a goal.
We ended up scoring four goals in five minutes to close out the half to win by a lot (8-3?)….Aside from the one ‘goof’, Matthew played really well, hustling and making great passes and playing great defense. Suzanne and I have taken to counting his headers…he is up to four or five a game now, and not just balls in the air, if there’s a bounce off the ground he’s not afraid to lower his head and use his forehead and face to knock the ball down so that he can play it.
Game two was Saturday night (after the two basketball games…); the other U10 boys team was short a player or two and they asked Matthew and a few others to help out. Even after two basketball games the kid was still hustling and working hard. We lost this game, but, it was nice to see Matthew when he was out on defense helping the other boy (who is new to that team) and telling him where to go and why to go there…..
Game three was at 8 am Sunday…..another TNT affair against the U11 Reds (we are the U10 Reds, the best team at that age group…the team we are facing is the best U11s). And it was a great morning, without one of our better players we win 4-3 and were never behind. Matthew scored a goal off of a corner kick and a deflection and did what he did all weekend, hustled, played good defense, and helped out on offense when needed. Suzanne and I, because we’re those sort of parents, do note that we give up a lot more goals when Matthew is off the field than when he is on the field….it’s why Matthew doesn’t come off the field much in some of these TNT games. This game was no exception, 2 of the 3 goals happened while he was getting a break. Header Count = 4….including one where he deflected a line-drive corner kick right out of the goalmouth….Mom doesn’t like when he takes those line-drives off the noggin’…..
Game four was immediately after this over at soccerzone…Matthew is playing with a U12 team with some friends…he scored once and we won 8-4…..he hustled when he needed to here but the game was noticeably slower than other soccerzone games (the team he is guesting on is a rec team) and Matthew definitely slowed down with the pace of the game.
Very proud of that kid; at the end of the fourth basketball game he was hustling like he was at 8 am that morning……
Cpher: Oh yeah, Cpher had one basketball game. We lost 29-25 to Haslett Blue…they are a good team and we’ve lost our starting point guard for the season with two breaks to his bone in his pinky finger BUT we were up 25-21 with 90 seconds left……so, that was a really disappointing way to lose.
Cpher’s playing time is really suffering as the games get closer and we play better competition…in all fairness, he hasn’t earned the time, he’s not a threat to score at all. The tournament is this weekend; I don’t expect to see Cpher play much, and if we win even one game it will be a pleasant surprise…this tournament will look a lot like the bracket for Matthew’s above….except this time we’ll be the #7 seed. We’ve played five of the other teams so far, we’ve lost by 8, 2, 2, 9, and now 4. I know we can beat these teams…hopefully we can pull through this weekend.
