One final basketball weekend....

It was our last weekend of basketball.  Dan took the day off and we picked the kids up from school at lunch.  They changed out of their school uniforms and we headed to Charlotte for the Shamrock Tournament.

Our team was exited because this year (unlike last year) we were in the Flight 2 bracket.  This meant that we would actually have a chance to play all weekend and possibly win this bracket because we would be better matched against the teams.

Last year we were in Flight 1 with all the big schools and on our first game we were eliminated by the team of giants that went on to win the entire tournament.  That was extremely disheartening.
But this year, we felt like we could take the lower tiered bracket and bring home a trophy.

We had our first game on Friday night and won handily.  The boys played well so we were on to game 2 on Saturday morning.  This game was tougher but we held on and won which meant we were on to an afternoon game.

During the afternoon game, we played hard for 3 quarters and managed to stay in the lead through some questionable calls from the refs but as the game progressed, I could feel it slipping away.  And at the beginning of the 4th quarter, our best player fouled out and then the whole team imploded. 

Peter was angry at the outcome, the officials, the other team, etc. but not with his own team who had their own hand in the loss even though Peter refuses to see it that way. So there were a lot of teachable moments with this game. 

Dan's dad made him memorize this poem when he was a teenager:

If

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

- by Rudyard Kipling

And yes, it's the same poem that Tom Brady posted on social media  after the Patriots epic Super Bowl comeback. So, yes, technically my husband and Tom Brady are practically twins.

After our game on Saturday, I told Dan that I think it's time he makes Peter memorize this poem.

And now basketball season is over and we're all feeling a little down and not just because of the loss.  I always feel that way when one season ends and another begins.  I absolutely love all the boys on Peter's basketball team and their parents, and it was great spending so much time with them.  It's always sad when something like that ends.

But track starts next week and so does swimming for Sarah so our evenings will still be busy and time still marches on and that's the way it's supposed to be, but it's still a little bittersweet.