U13 Club Championship

We took our little team, at least most of them, to the Basketball BC U13 Club Championship Tournament this last weekend. We were unsure with how we would fair. We actually had to pick up two new players as 4 of our regular players were too old to play in this tournament. there were about 20 teams in 3 different divisions vying for the coveted Number 1 club team in the province. We chose to try our luck in the top division. "Go Hard, or Go Home!"

Our first game was against a very strong 3D team from Surrey and we didn't play that well, lost, and Frank and I thought we were in for a very long, disappointing weekend. Then, unbelievable...our team decided to start playing basketball. The next 4 games were amazing! We managed to bump off a team that hasn't lost a game in 2 years in the semi-finals and meet the same 3D team in the final. Yah...the final. It was an exciting, hard fought game. Aislinn went head to head with 3D's top player (number 23). We had an early lead and managed to hold a 3 point lead into the half. We ran out of gas in the end and lost, unfortunately, but Frank and I could not have been happier with our team. Noone expected us to even be near the finals. We certainly put our little program on the map. We had players and parents from other programs asking about us.

Aislinn had the best weekend ever. I've never seen her play so hard. She has such a tough role. We expect her to score, and check the other teams' best players, and be a leader. And she has to do that with her parents as her coaches. She did awesome.

If you are interested, check out the final here. They are streaming the game on the Basketball BC website.

http://www.sportscanada.tv/index.php/bbc-u13-girls-cc-blue

I have a whole slew of new pictures as well, they had a professional photographer there taking and as a thank-you, the parents purchased a copy of the CD and gave us a copy. Here are a couple samples. All of Aislinn of course...well...maybe some of the awesome coaches as well...its my blog!

What do you think? Do I look coach-y enough?

It was a great weekend and the girls had a ton of fun. Aislinn was telling me that the team bonded a lot this weekend and now they were "like family". I know the parents had a blast. They were cheering, and stomping, and yelling at the refs and I think some had tears in their eyes at the end.

We've played 44 games already and it looks like we will be playing around 20 more games before we are done for the season. That's incredible! That's like 3 seasons for most kids! Our kids have all improved so much. I'm really proud of them. Especially, Aislinn.

And guess what...look what coming up next...

Ha ha! Looks like Frank and I will be doing this for a couple more years at least.