Worst Seat in the House

As usual I made it to another State ‘B’ Basketball tournament last week.

There was some great basketball played over four days and I saw most of the games. Had a chance to visit with some old friends and made some new ones along the way.

A good friend of mine reminded me that the most important thing he received from playing sports are the friends he made and by friends he meant opponents of rival teams, me included.

I had to agree. The many people that you used to bang heads with are often times the people you see and want to spend time with.

I get a chance to visit with old teammates or text but a lot of the guys that I played with no longer live here.

We battled for the Broncos and those memories are very important and always will be.

When I go to the tournament I get a chance to see a lot of one-time rivals who are now friends. We respected each other then as we do now and what can be better than that?

Sports are so important but many people don’t understand. It isn’t always about winning and losing it is about challenges and giving it everything you have even when you don’t have anything left in the tank.

I have always loved competition and always will and that is why I enjoy the state basketball tournament as much as I do.

I got to see a good friend from the other side of the state and we spent the last three days of the tournament watching some great basketball and enjoying a few laughs of course.

Tug garnered us some great seats behind the basket so that we could see the game up close and the banging on lay ins and rebounding was amazing.

We wondered at times what constituted a foul. I bet with the way the refs are calling games now there is a good chance I may not have fouled out nearly as many times as I did. I swear the referees memorized my number.

I used to be interested in the guys that were the leading scores on their teams. Not so much anymore. I’ve grown to appreciate the guys that rebound, defend and make those great passes for assists.

There seems to be at least one person on those teams that just give a little bit more.

As in the person that tracks down a missed free throw and gets another team possession when the star of the team missed the freebie.

There was also the person that sacrificed themselves to do everything in their power to keep the ball out of the hands of the leading scorer on the opposition team. That often times will take that same player out of the offense because they are a bit tired chasing around other team’s star. But that is what the unsung ball players do. If the coach asks they will step up and be the great defender.

After watching the tournament it seemed to me that the person that was sweating the most was usually the person making all of the difficult plays.

I saw it in both the boys and girls games. It takes someone willing to give themselves up in order to make a difference which more often than not also brings victory.

It takes a team effort to be successful but it takes someone willing to be a bit gutsy to make that over the top play to get a 50-50 ball.

The really good ones were part of state championship teams.

They probably didn’t get interviewed but they didn’t go unnoticed either.