The Opposite of Yesterday...

Well, 24 hours after Bronte went nuts hitting 70% of their shots in the state semifinals, they couldn't hit much of anything. A lot of those problems may have been the team they were playing. Paducah, was incredibly athletic and had a pair of trees in the Dragons' two post players. Both players were long and were great leapers, plus the whole team played great defense. It was pretty much a recipe for disaster. It was kind of sad really, had they won the game it would have been one of those great storybook endings, the coach and his two sons the team's star players winning a championship in their last year playing together after having made it to the same place last year. But, it just didn't work out that way.

One beef I did have, along with most of the others in the arena is the ridiculous speech that is given to the players after the games. The UIL has been doing this the last couple of years, I guess as a way of trying to "comfort" the kids after the game. I've been in situations like this and I can honestly say, there's NOTHING anyone is going to say to make these kids feel better. So, making them stay on the court while someone gives some kind of a cookie cutter speech about how hard you played and the games you won to get there etc. are going to make them feel better. Honestly, it looks more like someone who wants to stand in front of a couple thousand people and says "Hey look at me, I'm in a position of power!!" So, instead of letting these kids get off the court as soon as they can and let the tears flow among their teammates, these poor kids have to stand on the court in front of everyone while someone gives an empty speech that's supposed to make these kids feel better.