AAU 12U D-II Nationals 2008 (Day 5)

Well two more days of fun in Bloomington IN and at least two more to go (but hopefully three).

Monday, the first day of championship bracket play, the team played inspired and went 2-0, including the best game I have seen them play against the White Rose Stars that knocked them out of the Nationals last year. The struggling to score was stopped with a nice 73-57 victory over a good Stars team. All twelve girls played well. It is good to see them be successful as they are a good group that work and have fun together.

Tuesday, we played the Indiana Blizzard and looked slightly off offensively; however, pulled out another good victory by 7 points to move on to the "elite 8".

The highlight of the last two days for the girls was the scary movie on Monday night and the bowling escapade tonight. As I said, the team definitely has lots of fun together on and off the court.

On to the next few days...

AAU 12U D-II Nationals 2008 (Day 3)

Bloomington IN is about 185 miles from Centerville OH and has been a pretty cool place to visit so far...

Given the 11U team did not attend a Nationals this year, Naddiyah was ecstatic to get the opportunity to join the Dayton Lady Hoopstars 12U White team at the D-II championships in Bloomington. It has been a great nationals already and we are not even into the bracket play yet. What makes it so great is the closeness of the girls and the parents on the team.

We came up on the 4th of July (Happy Fourth!!!) and found a way to enjoy the night despite a lack luster opening ceremonies. The cool thing was that the girls were given t-shirts, bags, and traded for other memorabilia on the first night. I don't remember all that at Disney, but maybe I just wasn't taking in each moment as I was this year.

Oh yeah, we are here for basketball. The pool play was up and down. We played the first two games in a shooting slump (I mean bad -- even on layups and free throws), but still found a way to split 1-1. Then at the 6:00p game today, the girls put together a pretty good win that should boost their confidence going into the championship brackets. All the girls seemed to be firing on all cylinders and Naddiyah even got to a play a fair amount which was cool for her as she really enjoys playing with these girls. They are a great group. I am glad this last game was so successful as I think they were mentally beaten in middle game.

Anyway, back to Bloomington. We went to Lake Lemon yesterday, which was very fun. Afterwards, we enjoyed the night some more in the cozy area behind the Quality Inn we are staying at. Speaking of which, we ended up in the Presidential Suite thanks to Zayannab's wisdom (a lot of years put into...ok I'll stop there), which isn't as big of a deal as it sounds in a small hotel; however, it is very nice. We have a jacuzzi in the master bedroom and our own TV, so we actually feel like we are on vacation.

Well, I will have to keep you all posted, but the girls are on their way.

Peace.

Belated Father's Day 2008

With basketball as busy as it was, I opted on Father's Day to take a rain check on my present and gave the boy's a promise that we would have a boy's day out on the same day. It has been a few weeks, but the day of total male domination was here (I would make jokes, but this is a family site, so move on and stop thinking about it).

I begun the day by going off to Hausfeld's to get my full body massage. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me... When I arrived, they were not open yet, so I relaxed watching sports and car shows at Buffalo Wild Wings while eating some delicious nachos. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me... The massage time came and went and was thoroughly awesome. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me...

Following this total indulgence, the boys and I headed off to LaserWeb Tag where we played basketball, soccer bowling, air hockey, dance dance revolution (I watched that one), motor bike racing, pin ball...oh yeah, and laser tag. YEAH! Happy Father's day to us...

That was a lot for three adventurous men to handle on an empty stomach, so we were off to the infamous Flying Pizza and enjoyed delicious New York style pizza and ice cream (I watched that one).

To ensure that we properly burn off all those excess calories, we then ventured over to the Adventure Golf and played 36 holes of amazingly pathetic putt-putt golf. We probably shot double the par course, but it was lots of fun. We took turns completing each hole and we all have some pretty shameful stories of having to take the maximum 6 strokes and moving on. The highlight was probably the two hole in ones by Kevin Jr. on the harder "blue" course which we did shoot pretty well after warming up with an impressive +25 on the "red" course.

We came, we saw, we had fun... YEAH! Happy Father's day to us...

But just to make sure we had the most fun ever, we went back over to LaserWeb Tag for one more round of video games and laser tag. This time, we were alone in the laser tag game so we played the boys versus dad and, in true positive parenting fashion, I annihilated them. We had so much fun in that session, that we forgot all about the game tokens we still had left when they called us in for laser tag session and went home.

Regrouping, bringing along the younger KCs, we ventured back for some more ice cream and one last round of video mania which featured An and Kevin Jr. on dance dance revolution (again I watched that one) and Kyler kicking some soccer ball with fury.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me...

Pinkedy Pink Moment

This was a brief interruption of your blah blah day for a little bit of color in your life. If you don't see a lot of color in this picture, then consider yourself pinkedy pinkified!

GBA Nationals 2008

The 6th annual Girls Basketball Association (GBA) National Championships held at Sports Plus and McGee's Courts4Sports in Cincinnati this year was the final tournament for the DLH 11 Black team this year. It was a great turn out with 20 teams in our age group with good competition.

In typical fashion, we have to keep everyone on the edge of their seats, so we come out losing our first game Thursday night to the Columbus Lady Diamonds (3rd place finisher) by a score of 28-29. Fortunately for us, the girls grew as the tournament progressed in typical fashion as well.

We compiled two wins on Friday before going into Saturday to battle the Cincy Royals one last time. With lots of heart, we beat them 32-28 to clench first place in our pool as we entered the single elimination championship bracket consisting of four straight games to be played all in one day on Sunday.

Funnily, thinking back, we ended the day in the reverse of how we started, but I won't get too far ahead of myself as there was plenty of really good basketball in between our 20+ point victory over WV Blue Devils and 20 point lost to Southern Ohio Magic (apparently who were our arch nemesis accounting for four of our loses for the season). We were just flat out of juice after playing WV Thunder (10) in a tough battle we won in OT 38-35, then Miami Trace 43-35. Between the brilliant plays and the fast pace, four games ended up being too much for us to muster enough to contend with the very good Souther Ohio Magic team.

As sad as that sounds at the end, it was an amazing tournament for us finishing as the GBA Nationals Runner-Up with a record of 6-2. I could not have been any more proud of the girls, especially for the Miami Trace game which was most definitely our best game of the tournament and probably for the year.

Have to stop now (for this year)...

But we played hard, had fun, and stuck together!

Who are we: HOOPSTARS! And how did we do it: TOGETHER!

Tough Year

It seems like things have been overly rough this AAU season for me and I guess the Hoopstars as a whole. It is a wonder these 8 - 16 year kids can come week after week and play the game of basketball with the joy they should.

Mark Thompson, one of the DLH coaches for the 15 & under age group, unexpectedly passed away last night. Mark was very upbeat and a pleasure to be around. He will surely be missed by all. It just makes me think about all the wasted time, we are using up on some of these teams causing unnecessary discord, that could be better spent loving our daughters and families a little more before it is too late.

Life is too short. Enjoy every moment.

Kev

Adidas/Wendy's National Invitational Tournament 2008

Well, it took seven tournaments, but Naddiyah's team is finally above 500. They are a great group of 11 year old girls, so it has been a joy to watch them grow to the level they displayed in this past weekend's tournament at the Kingdom Sports Center in Franklin OH.

We were playing up in the 12 & under division which we won in very good style. The girls played like a team the entire way, moving the ball extremely well. We even saw an ally-oop that in a few years may be a dunk as Johna made a beautiful pass to Chea on fast break that looked very (W)NBA.

After going 4-0 in this tournament, the girls have a record of 17-14 now with 13 loses being to DI Nationals bound teams with 12 coming from the same 5 teams that have been or will most likely be in the sweet sixteen or close to it. With how we started the year, it is a big accomplishment that I am very proud of the girls for. Additionally impressive is that it is two undefeated weekends in a row, which was also a welcome occurrence after all our struggles. The middle schools better watch out because these girls are going to do some damage in the future. With some hard work, the high schools will be rocking in a few years as well. And even better, if they can avenge some of the 13 loses to DI National Qualifiers next year, they can do some damage on the AAU courts.

Can't stop now...

Keep playing hard and sticking together!

Who are we: HOOPSTARS! And how did we do it: TOGETHER!

With You

This time spent cherish I
with you, feeling celestial bliss,
for 'round you cherubs fly;
your face angels, I think, did kiss.
Those places gone cherish I
with you, touring heavenly sights,
for around you my eye --
sees clear, navigating dark nights.
Better for me is everything -
with you, even larks, dumb, sing!
The songs heard cherish I
with you, fathoming sweetest sounds.
On sensual rhythms lie
we two, in love without the bounds.
This love shared cherish I
with you, exploring Pleasure's touch.
At us, Venus does pry,
with aroused eyes shining glee much.
Better for me is everything -
with you, even larks, dumb, sing!

Visit To The Land of the Frogs

Worked from home today, so I could attend Kaleb's end of year pizza party at lunch time. It was pretty cool. There classroom theme is all about frogs. There were frog pictures, stuffed animals, sayings, stickers, books, ribbit -- oh sorry -- everywhere.



We are NOT sure if the third grade is ready for Kaleb, but he is ready for the third grade. He is gunho for book club, cub scout day camp, and lots of summer fun on the way to graduating from being a tadpole.

Thanks, son.

Love you.

Donuts And Dads

Centerville Primary Village South did a pretty cool celebration for the end of An's Kindergarten year: Donuts And Dads. It was awesome! An was so excited for me to be at her school in the week before hand that she had her outfit all picked out that she changed to an even fancier dress like ensemble in Centerville black and gold spirit.



First there was boredom...



Then there was singing...




Then the hugging started...

Ah, the donuts...I do miss them so.

Thanks, Kaity bear, it was lots of fun and daddy loves you.