From Coach Jesse Smith:
Our final day proved to be successful and bittersweet at the same time. Here'sthe breakdown...
We started with a much needed 11am game against St. Vincent Academy. The teamplayed with heart and desire but was heavily overmatched and overpowered by ourSTARS team. Sad thing is...this was the game that catapulted us into thechampionship game for the Silver division. We won that game 83-29.
Our next game was at a bit more challenging as we were pitted against the SouthSound Rebels. This was a game where the boys looked sluggish but picked uptheir game play as the game progressed. Then, the chippyness began between theteams. The Rebels who had aspirations of winning it all decided to do some very unsportmanlike behavior. The result...one of our players getting undercut while attempting a layup causing him to be removed from the floor by medicalpersonnel. While his injuries required an ambulance ride and a couple of hoursin the hospital, all x-rays and tests were negative for broken bones, fracturesor dislocation. A little pain meds and sleep will get him back up to playingspeed in no time.
Our final game was the championship game against the Fast Oregon squad. Theybattled hard but the STARS players were playing with a new determination. Not to be stopped by ANYTHING or ANYBODY...STARS win the tournament 68-43.
Great job STARS! We earned an 8-1 record (9-point loss against the tournamentchampions) for the Thanksgiving weekend. AWESOME!
I think we're ready for the GCI Ice Classic next weekend.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
WYS Thanksgiving Tournament, 2010, Day 2
From Coach Jesse Smith:
We again started the day off playing a 9am game in the coldest gym in theSeattle area. We hammered them from start to finish. Final score...90-31. Not
much to report in that game.
Afterwards, we took a supposedly quick drive to the local Red Robin to get somefood into us before the next game (in an hour). BIG MISTAKE!!!! Not monitoringthe boys while they were ordering their food produced several milkshakes andfood that probably shouldn't be consumed before a game. Because many of us gotlost to the restuarant we had to shovel our food down to make it back to ourgame which I am sure wasn't a good thing to do either. But we had to get backso shoveling we did.
In the game against the Hoopaholics, we took the early lead 8-0 but theHoopaholics came storming back. We never were able to get into the flow as thewhistles were fast and furious. While the refs called it pretty evenly, themultiple whistles forced us to fall into more half court offensive sets where we struggled a bit. Running plays when you are used to running the floor fullcourt for points proved to be a little lacking on the execution side of things.
But...we prevailed in a close game 50-47 Stars!
We then decided that we wanted to play the Fast Oregon team. Over the years wehave enjoyed a great rapport with their coach. With this being the last trip to
the Thanksgiving tournament, we wanted the opportunity to play this nationallyranked team (and they wanted to play us as well). With the help of Mr. Keith,we were able to rent a gym and refs for the game. Fast initially accepted butthen backed out due to an unscheduled dinner date. We were then able to get the Bothell team to scrimmage. Not a bad squad to play a game against. They gaveus a very good battle. Our bigs were able to handle theirs (Dane had 16 andJerod 15). What a GREAT game!!!! Both teams enjoyed the back and forth pace of
the game. Final score...STARS win it 67-49.
Today...we play a semi-final game. If we win, we are again in the Championshipgame for the silver division. We still have another game for the second placebracket in the gold division against the team that beat Bothell by 1.
Good luck STARS!!!!!!
We again started the day off playing a 9am game in the coldest gym in theSeattle area. We hammered them from start to finish. Final score...90-31. Not
much to report in that game.
Afterwards, we took a supposedly quick drive to the local Red Robin to get somefood into us before the next game (in an hour). BIG MISTAKE!!!! Not monitoringthe boys while they were ordering their food produced several milkshakes andfood that probably shouldn't be consumed before a game. Because many of us gotlost to the restuarant we had to shovel our food down to make it back to ourgame which I am sure wasn't a good thing to do either. But we had to get backso shoveling we did.
In the game against the Hoopaholics, we took the early lead 8-0 but theHoopaholics came storming back. We never were able to get into the flow as thewhistles were fast and furious. While the refs called it pretty evenly, themultiple whistles forced us to fall into more half court offensive sets where we struggled a bit. Running plays when you are used to running the floor fullcourt for points proved to be a little lacking on the execution side of things.
But...we prevailed in a close game 50-47 Stars!
We then decided that we wanted to play the Fast Oregon team. Over the years wehave enjoyed a great rapport with their coach. With this being the last trip to
the Thanksgiving tournament, we wanted the opportunity to play this nationallyranked team (and they wanted to play us as well). With the help of Mr. Keith,we were able to rent a gym and refs for the game. Fast initially accepted butthen backed out due to an unscheduled dinner date. We were then able to get the Bothell team to scrimmage. Not a bad squad to play a game against. They gaveus a very good battle. Our bigs were able to handle theirs (Dane had 16 andJerod 15). What a GREAT game!!!! Both teams enjoyed the back and forth pace of
the game. Final score...STARS win it 67-49.
Today...we play a semi-final game. If we win, we are again in the Championshipgame for the silver division. We still have another game for the second placebracket in the gold division against the team that beat Bothell by 1.
Good luck STARS!!!!!!
WYS Thanksgiving Tournament, 2010, Day 1
From Coach Jesse Smith:
Well...we got off to an early and cold start Friday morning. With trafficnoticeably light we made it to the gym (which has no heat by the way) withplenty of time to speculate on whether the two people standing at the door fromthe Rotary Black team were coaches or players. Turns out they wereplayers....very BIG players. The rest of the team to arrive weren't muchsmaller. But we weren't worried. We've been out-sized before and this was theteam that we wanted to play a few months back when we missed the Championshipgame by a 2-3 points. So as we warmed up in the gym that was colder inside thanout, the boys looked poised to play. The game was a closely contested one thatsaw the STARS at one point break out to an 11-point lead. We held the leaduntil the bottom started to drop so to speak. Rotary went on a spurt and wemade some costly turnovers on a few inbound plays. Add to that some shoddyrefereeing and our lead evaporated. Throw in a few poor decision-making choicesand the STARS lose a very good game by both teams 56-47. The loss throws us outof the championship bracket but places us in the 2nd place pool.
Our next game versus EC Seattle Black allowed the boys to take out somefrustrations from the earlier game against Rotary Black. Perfect execution onboth the offensive and defensive ends of the court along with better decisionmaking guaranteed a win for the STARS in another Gold division game. Nothingsignificant in this game to report. Score 84-30.
Our final game was our first in the Silver division. We played against theHoopaholics. Again...nothing much to report. We apparently figured out how toplay after the loss and didn't even let the Hoopaholics breathe. While we couldhave spent more time working on plays versus scoring at will...we finished thegame with a 91-23 victory.
Not bad for the first day of tournament play. We finished off the night withcoach watching videos for 30 minutes before allowing the boys to examine theRotary game and see where mistakes were made and where improvements can be made.
We have another game at 9am in the cold gym today. I will keep you posted.
GO STARS!!!
Well...we got off to an early and cold start Friday morning. With trafficnoticeably light we made it to the gym (which has no heat by the way) withplenty of time to speculate on whether the two people standing at the door fromthe Rotary Black team were coaches or players. Turns out they wereplayers....very BIG players. The rest of the team to arrive weren't muchsmaller. But we weren't worried. We've been out-sized before and this was theteam that we wanted to play a few months back when we missed the Championshipgame by a 2-3 points. So as we warmed up in the gym that was colder inside thanout, the boys looked poised to play. The game was a closely contested one thatsaw the STARS at one point break out to an 11-point lead. We held the leaduntil the bottom started to drop so to speak. Rotary went on a spurt and wemade some costly turnovers on a few inbound plays. Add to that some shoddyrefereeing and our lead evaporated. Throw in a few poor decision-making choicesand the STARS lose a very good game by both teams 56-47. The loss throws us outof the championship bracket but places us in the 2nd place pool.
Our next game versus EC Seattle Black allowed the boys to take out somefrustrations from the earlier game against Rotary Black. Perfect execution onboth the offensive and defensive ends of the court along with better decisionmaking guaranteed a win for the STARS in another Gold division game. Nothingsignificant in this game to report. Score 84-30.
Our final game was our first in the Silver division. We played against theHoopaholics. Again...nothing much to report. We apparently figured out how toplay after the loss and didn't even let the Hoopaholics breathe. While we couldhave spent more time working on plays versus scoring at will...we finished thegame with a 91-23 victory.
Not bad for the first day of tournament play. We finished off the night withcoach watching videos for 30 minutes before allowing the boys to examine theRotary game and see where mistakes were made and where improvements can be made.
We have another game at 9am in the cold gym today. I will keep you posted.
GO STARS!!!
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