All 3 Chargers teams played at home against Tabernacle on the 4th. Both boys’ teams won but the girls came up short. On the 5th, we traveled across town to face our rivals, Tuscaloosa Christian. The JV boys won, but the girls and the varsity boys lost. This set up an interesting scenario for the playoffs. If the varsity boys win the last regular season game, they will tie with Tuscaloosa Christian for first place in our division and will have to play a tie-breaker game. The last game of the regular season was at home against Lindsay Lane on the 7th. Since it was the last game, all of the 9th graders started in the JV game. They played great and came away with a win. This is the last year the 9th graders can play JV. They can only play on the varsity team from now on, so it was sort of like their “senior” night. For the girls, it was senior night and our 3 senior girls were recognized before the game. I’m happy to say that all 5 of our girls played fantastically and won their final game of the season. The crowd went wild and I gave each girl her own copy of the game. They each deserved at least that much for their hard work and dedication this year. We were all so happy that they ended the season with a well-deserved win. It was also senior night for the varsity boys and our 3 senior boys were recognized before the game as well. They also won their game and ended the regular season on a high note. Katelyn and the rest of the Jr. Basketball players received their awards during half-time of the JV game. We had just over 40 kids play Jr. Basketball this year and they sure were fun to watch. Their last game was on the 9th and Katelyn’s team ended their season with a win making their record 3-1.
Since the varsity boys won and tied with Tuscaloosa Christian for 1st place, we headed to Bessemer on the 11th to play a tie-breaker game at Flint Hill (a neutral site). It was an intense game but our boys came up short again. They just can’t seem to beat this team. This meant they had to play a sub-state playoff game to get into the state tournament. The JV boys had to play a sub-state game as well and both teams played against Lindsay Lane at home on the 12th. Both teams came away with a win and advanced to the state tournament.
On the 15th, we headed back to Flint Hill for the semi-finals of the JV State Tournament. The Jr Cheerleaders also got to help our JV Cheerleaders cheer at these games. We played against Marion and won. Hunter scared me when he popped his shoulder out of place during the game. Luckily it popped right back in and he was fine. Most of the boys spent the night with one of the teachers since she lived much closer to Bessemer so they could get some much needed rest before the Championship Game the next morning. Her daughters came home with me and we had a fun “girl” night at my house. The next morning (the 16th), the JV Chargers played one of our fiercest rivals, Victory Columbus, for the State Championship. They beat us in the JV Championship game last year, but I had faith that we would pull it out this year. Those boys wanted Championship rings so badly. A couple of our starters got in foul trouble early on, but the boys coming in off of the bench played as well as I’ve ever seen them play. At one point we were down by 19 points but we fought our way back and ended the 4th period with a tie. Overtime was close and we wound up losing by 3 points when the buzzer sounded. Those boys absolutely broke my heart. They were devastated but we all made a point of telling them how proud we were of them. They are a great group of young men and I can’t wait to watch them play again next season.
The Varsity State Tournament was in Oxford the next week, so on Thursday we headed over to watch the quarterfinals. The high school students had the option to go and support the team (and the cheerleaders who were competing on Saturday) and a good number went. All 9 of the 9th graders (Hunter’s class) went and so did Katelyn and I. Tamalon Stroup (Taylor’s mom) rode with us too. We played against Cahawba that afternoon. One of the boys on their team is on ESPN’s top 150 in the nation, but I told them that 5 beats 1 every time. If they played like I knew they could, they would win. And they did. They were going to the semi-finals. Against Tuscaloosa Christian. Again. We got up on Friday morning and went to watch them practice. We yelled and made noise while they shot free throws to try to help them learn to block out any distractions. And then we watched the cheerleaders do their competition routine and they taught us when to yell during the cheer. After a late lunch at the mall, we headed back to Oxford High School for the 6:30 game. It was close, but we had a pretty solid lead after the 3rd. We knew the winner of this game would win the Championship and we had won the Championship for the past 2 years. We wanted a 3-peat. Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be. We didn’t play very well in the 4th period and TCS came from behind and won. Another group of boys that broke my heart. We went back to the hotel and ordered pizza for everyone. We all sat downstairs and ate together and eventually the smiles came back. Our cheerleaders competed the next morning and walked away empty-handed even though their routine was good enough to win at least 2nd place. I said after that I had seen too many tears from our NRCA kids that weekend and we headed back home. Even though we didn’t come home with the hardware we had hoped for, our kids are still champs to us. They played and competed with a lot of heart and they showed outstanding sportsmanship all season long. Charger Nation will come back even stronger next season and I can’t wait!
With basketball behind us now, we had a pretty quiet end to the month. Just an NRCA Beauty Walk Committee meeting for me on the 28th. No more practices or games for us until the fall. What will we do to keep ourselves from getting bored?? I guess you’ll just have to read my March update to find out.
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