We spent this past weekend in Mankato for a basketball tournament. Drew and Ian were both in it. We normally are in “C” class (there is A,B, and C) but for this one there was only A and B. Even though we had to be in “B”, we thought the hanging out at the hotel with friends part would outweigh the dismal prospects of doing well. So we had to go into the B class. Drew’s team had a game at 9:10 AM Saturday and he had Cub Scouts graduation Friday night, so we couldn’t stay overnight in Mankato Friday. We had to pack the night before and set the alarm for 5:00. It snowed Friday night and into the early morning, so the roads were terrible Sat AM. Even on the freeways. The right lane had two bare ruts to drive in, and the left lane was snow packed. Of course we were running late so I had to pass several cars in the left lane and almost went in the ditch a few times. Julie was grabbing my sleeve and pushing her imaginary brake pedal on the passendger’s side. So Drew’s team was up first and we lost by like 20 to a pretty bad team from Madelia. We would have beaten them 7 out of 10 times in better circumstances. We had two of our three best players coming off the flu, and were not 100%. Drew is one of the three bench players on the team, mostly because he has no confidence. Well anyway, we lost that one, then ran into a really good Mankato West team, (who ended up losing in the championship game) but we only lost to them by 4 in overtime. The coaches’ son got a foul, started spazzing about it, then next time Mankato came down the court, he intentionally pushed the kid down. Everyone in the crowd went “Oooh” at the same time. The coach did the right thing and pulled him out and he sat the rest of the game, and didn’t start for the rest of the tournament. Drew was done for the day, and we ran to Chipotle for lunch and Drew, Ian and I ate an entire burrito ourselves. Pretty impressive for Drew. Then we checked in to the AmericInn right on campus and went to Ian’s first game (I am the head coach of that team). Here’s the scenario. if we won our first game we could be back to the hotel by 6:30, if we lost we had a later game and wouldn’t be back until 7:30 or 8. I actually used that for my motivational speech before the game.
Our first game was against Fairmont. They were not very tall, but they were good basketball players and well coached, and by well coached, I mean they listened to their coach unlike my team, who are too busy bickering with each other to listen to me. Well they put on a press and like usual, I called a time-out to set up the press-breaker, and they did the exact opposite of what I told them to do. Fairmont went on a 12-0 run and went on to beat us by 20 I think. I honestly don’t remember already. As Matt Foley would say, “Oopsie Daisy, Oopsie Daisy!!” Our second game was at 5:30 against Waseca and the exact same thing happened, they put on a press and beat us handily. We got back to the hotel, and my assistant was already in the lobby with the other Hastings parents (there were 4 teams there and they were all already done for the day) and drinking a Coors Light. My team was driving me to drink too. I went back to the room and put on my t-shirt I ordered from 80’s tees just for that night. It was a green t-shirt and had Larry Bird with his prime mullet:
When we got there however, they informed us that the lunch buffet was over and the dinner did not start until 5. I remembered seeing a sign for a Chinese Buffet, so we went over there, but no dice, their buffet was not open either, only menu items. We went back to the Pizza Ranch and ordered the salad bar and a Large Taco Pizza, which is top notch. The rest of the trip was not eventful, the kids watched Monsters Inc. and we rolled in the driveway about 7:00 just in time to finish homework and go to bed. I was glad to see my memory foam pillow! I highly recommend it!
Our first game was against Fairmont. They were not very tall, but they were good basketball players and well coached, and by well coached, I mean they listened to their coach unlike my team, who are too busy bickering with each other to listen to me. Well they put on a press and like usual, I called a time-out to set up the press-breaker, and they did the exact opposite of what I told them to do. Fairmont went on a 12-0 run and went on to beat us by 20 I think. I honestly don’t remember already. As Matt Foley would say, “Oopsie Daisy, Oopsie Daisy!!” Our second game was at 5:30 against Waseca and the exact same thing happened, they put on a press and beat us handily. We got back to the hotel, and my assistant was already in the lobby with the other Hastings parents (there were 4 teams there and they were all already done for the day) and drinking a Coors Light. My team was driving me to drink too. I went back to the room and put on my t-shirt I ordered from 80’s tees just for that night. It was a green t-shirt and had Larry Bird with his prime mullet:
One of the parents offered me $20 on the spot for it, and his wife deadpanned “It’ll never fit you”.
Drew’s coach was already half in the bag as well. And throughout the night, every time he left the table, the other parents would add more Captain Morgan to his drink. Funny side note, he told us some background info on a coach we all knew something about, but something always seemed odd about him. It turns out he lives in a van down by the river, literally! Kinda sad though because he has a son. Here’s the story, there is a guy who coached a 4th grade Woodbury / Hastings team a couple years ago who I met a couple times in coaching circles. We even scrimmaged them (we were in 6th grade) and they actually beat us. The guy was the smartest basketball person I ever met. He would go on and on about different offenses and defenses. I also ran into him at Great Clips and he told me about his background, in High School he played for the Oklahoma State Champions, College for Oklahoma U I believe, and played briefly with the San Antonio Spurs. That’s the stuff you read when you see one of his basketball camp flyers. What I learned that night is that he is a drug addict, not sure which drug, but two years ago and last year, once he got enough money, he abandoned the team and went on a drug binge for a few days. And he had an old crappy conversion van that he lives in, in a town with three rivers. Nice huh!
The main commotion for the night was a group of parents that were playing a drinking game that was a combination of quarters and beer pong. If you could bounce the ping pong ball into the glass three times in a row you could make a rule. Some examples were, if you make one in the girls drink, or if you “airball” you need to drink two, or have to use your left hand, if you are wearing glasses (me and my wife were the only ones), etc.
Well we pretty much had the hotel filled up with people we knew, so we all just hung out in the lobby and drank. Julie was definitely keepin’ it real that night. One parent brought frozen pizza’s and a pizza oven and made those, and other parents all brought their own thing to contribute. Julie made an awesome spaghetti thing in the crock pot. Well by 10:00 we had to clear out of the lobby as they were getting complaints from the two rooms that we did not occupy, so we had to go back to our rooms. We put the kids to bed after a quick argument about who was going to sleep on the floor (of course Drew the peacemaker gave in). They were all asleep in about 10 minutes. Ju and I went to check out the hot tub, and saw a four people we knew doing the same. The water was so hot though that we could not even get under water for more than a few seconds. So we quickly went back to the room and went to bed.
Next morning, Drew had the first game, and so he and I went to that one alone. Again, like Sat AM, the opposing team was not very good. The score was tied 10-10 at half. The second half was extremely uneventful, final score 14-18 loss. Back to the hotel to get everyone else and check out. Next game was Drew again, this time they were playing a bunch of giants from Mahtomedi. We only have one tall kid and he was getting off the flu, so I knew we were doomed. We lost by a wide margin again. We were down to only 5 kids by the end, One was sick and two were injured. I didn’t see most of the second half though because I had to go to coach Ian’s game. So Drew ended up going 0-4 but they could have won all 4. They played their best game against the second place team, and only lost in overtime. Ian’s last game was against Orono. They had two loudmouthed 20 something coaches that drove the referees crazy. That would eventually give us our first victory. We ended up winning by 3 with our big guy (6’0” and 200lbs) who can bench 210 he tells me and I believe him unbelievably sinking two free throws in the final seconds.
We headed home and we were all very hungry. It was 3:00 and no lunch yet. We planned on going to the Pizza Ranch lunch buffet in LeSueur .
Drew’s coach was already half in the bag as well. And throughout the night, every time he left the table, the other parents would add more Captain Morgan to his drink. Funny side note, he told us some background info on a coach we all knew something about, but something always seemed odd about him. It turns out he lives in a van down by the river, literally! Kinda sad though because he has a son. Here’s the story, there is a guy who coached a 4th grade Woodbury / Hastings team a couple years ago who I met a couple times in coaching circles. We even scrimmaged them (we were in 6th grade) and they actually beat us. The guy was the smartest basketball person I ever met. He would go on and on about different offenses and defenses. I also ran into him at Great Clips and he told me about his background, in High School he played for the Oklahoma State Champions, College for Oklahoma U I believe, and played briefly with the San Antonio Spurs. That’s the stuff you read when you see one of his basketball camp flyers. What I learned that night is that he is a drug addict, not sure which drug, but two years ago and last year, once he got enough money, he abandoned the team and went on a drug binge for a few days. And he had an old crappy conversion van that he lives in, in a town with three rivers. Nice huh!
The main commotion for the night was a group of parents that were playing a drinking game that was a combination of quarters and beer pong. If you could bounce the ping pong ball into the glass three times in a row you could make a rule. Some examples were, if you make one in the girls drink, or if you “airball” you need to drink two, or have to use your left hand, if you are wearing glasses (me and my wife were the only ones), etc.
Well we pretty much had the hotel filled up with people we knew, so we all just hung out in the lobby and drank. Julie was definitely keepin’ it real that night. One parent brought frozen pizza’s and a pizza oven and made those, and other parents all brought their own thing to contribute. Julie made an awesome spaghetti thing in the crock pot. Well by 10:00 we had to clear out of the lobby as they were getting complaints from the two rooms that we did not occupy, so we had to go back to our rooms. We put the kids to bed after a quick argument about who was going to sleep on the floor (of course Drew the peacemaker gave in). They were all asleep in about 10 minutes. Ju and I went to check out the hot tub, and saw a four people we knew doing the same. The water was so hot though that we could not even get under water for more than a few seconds. So we quickly went back to the room and went to bed.
Next morning, Drew had the first game, and so he and I went to that one alone. Again, like Sat AM, the opposing team was not very good. The score was tied 10-10 at half. The second half was extremely uneventful, final score 14-18 loss. Back to the hotel to get everyone else and check out. Next game was Drew again, this time they were playing a bunch of giants from Mahtomedi. We only have one tall kid and he was getting off the flu, so I knew we were doomed. We lost by a wide margin again. We were down to only 5 kids by the end, One was sick and two were injured. I didn’t see most of the second half though because I had to go to coach Ian’s game. So Drew ended up going 0-4 but they could have won all 4. They played their best game against the second place team, and only lost in overtime. Ian’s last game was against Orono. They had two loudmouthed 20 something coaches that drove the referees crazy. That would eventually give us our first victory. We ended up winning by 3 with our big guy (6’0” and 200lbs) who can bench 210 he tells me and I believe him unbelievably sinking two free throws in the final seconds.
We headed home and we were all very hungry. It was 3:00 and no lunch yet. We planned on going to the Pizza Ranch lunch buffet in LeSueur .
When we got there however, they informed us that the lunch buffet was over and the dinner did not start until 5. I remembered seeing a sign for a Chinese Buffet, so we went over there, but no dice, their buffet was not open either, only menu items. We went back to the Pizza Ranch and ordered the salad bar and a Large Taco Pizza, which is top notch. The rest of the trip was not eventful, the kids watched Monsters Inc. and we rolled in the driveway about 7:00 just in time to finish homework and go to bed. I was glad to see my memory foam pillow! I highly recommend it!
posted by ferris_guy @ 10:16 AM
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