Harmless (Sports) Rantings

This was a sports filled weekend that went really well for the kids and not so hot for the adults.

On the upside, on Saturday DQ's team knocked off a really talented team from Wake County. Initially it didn't look like it was going to happen. We scored the first goal of the game, but then gave up 3 goals to finish out the half after the girls fell back into their routine of standing around and not challenging the ball. As a result, we were playing the majority of the first half in front of our goal because we got beat to every ball so couldn't clear it. At halftime I challenged the girls. And I raised my voice. I've never done that before with this team. I told them that if I didn't see them running I was going to take them out. I told them that we could play with this other team but we weren't. I said I wanted them full speed until they couldn't run anymore and then they should put up their hand and I'll sub them out. I told them that they could could catch their breath on the sidelines, get a drink of water, and then I would rotate them back in as their teammates got tired. It only took about 3 minutes into the second half before the girls realized I was serious. They looked shocked when I pull our four best girls out after we were still standing around and watching the play. The four girls from the bench went in and had their best shifts of the season and the rest of the game took care of itself. We were rotating people at every throw-in and literally shut the other team out 3-0 the rest of the way. And we hit the post two other times or it could have been more. The end result was that this upbeat tempo gave the girls a 4-3 win that really helped their morale. Two girls that hadn't scored before had goals, and the entire team had the biggest smiles on their faces after the game. That was combined with the fact that their parents were cheering just as loudly on the far sideline letting them know how well they played. Anyway, that evened our record at 1-1-1 after three games and things are looking up now that the girls have a taste of what it takes to win and they know they can do it.

Then yesterday GB had his first night of hockey at the new rink. This was just an evaluation day where they put the kids through drills and then a scrimmage so the coaches could create even teams for the inaugural season. GB did well enough in the drills to be placed on one of the two top lines for the scrimmage. And then in the game his team won 3-0, and GB had two of the three goals. Now this is the same kid that in 3 seasons of hockey at the old place had yet to score a goal (and really never came close either.) From across the rink, I could see that his face was lit up with smiles under his helmet too. His teammates were coming up to him telling him "good job" and "nice goal" - he's never experienced that before. He's going to enjoy the new rink. :)

Finally, the Illini won again. I know they really aren't "kids" anymore but they aren't getting paid to play so I'm going to count it that way. They knocked of #21 Penn State 27-20. That upped their record to 4-1, with their only loss coming to still undefeated Missouri. We're getting votes now to be ranked ourselves. While we're far from a championship contender, or even a contender for the Big Ten title, we are so far ahead of where we've been in years that it's great to see. Illinois hasn't beaten a ranked team since 2001, and hasn't started 2-0 in the Big Ten since 1991. That's improvement. We've got a huge test next week when #5 Wisconsin comes to town though. That'll be a real gage of where we're out. If we can make a game of it, it's going to go a long way in pumping us up for the stretch run and maybe we can secure ourselves a bowl game!

Now for the down side. I think I'm going to burn my Mets cap. How do you lose a 7 game lead with 17 games to play? That's more than embarrassing, it's a pathetic collapse of historic proportions. That's all I have to say about that.

Then the Panthers. The bottom line is we're a team with no heart. We've got players that seem to be out there just playing for a paycheck. And we're not a good enough team to play like that and win on a regular basis. Now our season is far from over, we're 2-2, one game out of first place with 12 games to play. But we need some major changes. And that must start with our attitude.

Finally to my hockey game last night. We didn't play horrible but nothing went right. We had a handful of mistakes and each one of them came back and bit us in the butt. Combine that with the fact that their goalie played great, and the end result was that we got beat 7-2.