Championship Basketball

Two weeks ago, my dad got the chance of a lifetime.  The girls basketball team that he coaches made it to the state championship game.  My dad has been coaching for 15 years and so finally reaching the state tournament and then progressing to the championship game is a dream come true for him.  For a little town of 800 people, having a team in the state tournament is a big deal and the entire community rallies around the team.  It's one of the neatest things to see.  I felt an immense sense of guilt not being able to go down to the cities to watch the quarterfinal game at Williams Arena.  My dad brought Sarah and I to the state girls basketball tournament at Williams Areana every year since we were like 10 & 8 years old.  I have fond memories of watching the tournament at The Barn with my dad and sister.  But as you all know, March is my busy time at work as we host 2 section h.s. boys tournaments at UMD while the state girls bb tournament is being played in the cities.  So, my mom sent me updates via text messages during the game.  The girls won the quarterfinal game at Williams Arena and advanced to the semi-final game at the Target Center.  Again, I wasn't able to attend the semi-final game but I did get to watch it live on the internet.  To my surprise, the team won the semi-final game and advanced to the championship game the following day at Noon.  NOON!  I could finally go to a game since it was being played at Noon.
So, Hannah and I decided to drive down to the game and surprise my mom.  She was more than surprised... tears were flowing.  Best surprise ever! 

Once we took our seats, I was surprised to see a colleague from work being the head official for the game:

The guy in the middle is Mick McComber, the Director of Rec Sports at UMD.  Mick's office is literally 10 steps down the hallway from mine and Mick was my supervisor in college.  I'm bummed that the picture is grainy but it's from the mega-zoom I had to do on my point and shoot camera.  This was Mick's first (and maybe final) state tournament game to ref.  So, it was a special game for me to watch in many ways. 

Here's the whole town of Nicollet and their families at Target Center:

My dad in action:

The team:

Sibling love:

 

Notice how Matt is an entire HEAD taller than me and I'm pretty sure he's not done growing.  

The team ended up taking 2nd place but they still have so much to be proud of.  And I'm so happy for my dad to finally have been able to coach a team in the state tournament.  

Hannah and I had to scoot right after the game so that I could get back to Duluth and work a section final game that night.  It was a whirlwind but I'm so happy we went!