Thursday, March 19, 2009

March Madness

Well, it's here. I'm talking about March Madness. No, I'm not talking about the college basketball tournament that's going on, I'm talking about the jr. high girls' state basketball championship game! And it was held tonight... right in Adams' gym!
The Adams Junior High Lady Jaguars, the #1 ranked jr. high girls basketball team in the state, played against St. Theresa of Avila Catholic School, a team from the northern part of the state. St. Theresa, I'm told, is the #3 ranked team in the state, and I'm told there's a player named Melanie Blanchard, who's supposed to be really good.

I told you before that Kristy was on the team. What I didn't tell you was she was the starting point guard. Alison told me that just yesterday, I didn't know that. She also told me how unusual it was for a sixth grader to start on the team, so she had to be really good. Since Alison herself was playing IN the game (she's the team's starting shooting guard), I found myself having to write about it for the paper, even though I know next to nothing about basketball or any sports. Truth be told, since Kristy was going to be playing in the game, I would probably find myself going anyway. Harriet would have dragged me if nothing else.
Anyway, this has been a pretty big deal at school. Even Meredith has found she's had to shut her trap and scream real loud to cheer. Today we had to wear the school colors and there was another pep rally in the gym.
So we got to the gym at about 6:30, and it was packed. Harriet, Hilary, and I decided to form our own cheering section, along with Harriet's mother and grandmother and some girls from Kristy's group home. I struck up a conversation with a Lindsey Bergman, who sat in front of us and who says she'll be attending Adams next year. She thinks she'll be trying out for the team.


Hilary, Harriet, and I had spent most of last night making signs and getting spirit flags to wave. By the time we'd gotten our snacks and taken our seats, the game had already started. We watched Kristy bounce the ball up and down the court and throw it to her teammates. Alison kept throwing the ball at the net and missing, and I could tell she was mad at herself for missing. Then, when the coach called a timeout, I heard him tell Kristy, "They're daring you to shoot, so, shoot!"
The next time, when Kristy got the ball, she threw it up. And it went in! It also went in the next time, and the time after that, and the time after that. By halftime, I'm told, she'd scored eighteen points and the Jags were leading by nine.
Well, you can guess what happened next. St. Theresa, I'm told, asked Melanie Blanchard to guard Kristy. All Kristy did was score ten more points and pass the ball seven more times for other people to score, including Alison. And...
We won! The final score was Adams 57, St. Theresa 48.
And Kristy was named the tournament's most valuable player.

3 comments:

Sophie Amélie said...

HOORAY!! :) I'm so glad Adams won!

There's a girl named Lindsey Bergman here, though she wouldn't be caught dead playing sports. She's a real computer nerd.

Of course, there's also a girl named Megan Ryder here...it's so weird how names repeat themselves. ;)

Karen said...

I don't care much for basketball, either, but I'm glad the Jaguars won! It's nice that Kristy was voted MVP, too. That had to be a special moment for her.

Wendy said...

That's awesome that your school won! Congrats to Kristy on being named MVP, too! She must be happy.

My school doesn't really have teams except for track and cross country. I'm pretty useless at sports, but I wanted to try out, since I can run, lol. But my mom didn't think it would be a good idea, what with my Asthma and all.