When we moved back to Shawnee one of the most important things to me was getting the boys in a good school. With both boys being excellent students, I knew grades wouldn't be an issue. The issue was good friends. Solid parents. Fun sports.
We have found that with Dale Schools.
The boys both love basketball and if you love basketball, Dale is the place for that passion. Baseball and basketball are the sports of the pirates. We hadn't pursued baseball in the past, so we settled on basketball. (FYI, Zach is playing baseball this spring, so I get to drive to two practices a week and 470 games and sit outside in a chair in the wind and in the heat and in the wind and in the heat and in a chair outside in the wind and in the outdoors and watch Zach play baseball. For this new development, I am pumped) But more about this later.
For now, I want to talk about Dale Pirate Basketball.
Steven made the team last year in JV. He was a short little guy with glasses. But man oh man, he has a 3 and he is a fast little motor scooter, so he made JV.
This year in a new astonishing development, covid quarantine gave him some growing powers and he has grown to an amazing 6 foot tall. I think it's all the slim jims. They must have growth hormone or something, but it's working and my tiny precious asian is now a tall buff man. It still throws me off.
I only watched JV boys last year, would slide in the gym as they started and watch Steven run up and down the court and then leave when it was over. Never watched varsity, just watched Steven and leave. One evening, after a game when he arrived home and was relating the awesomeness of what I had missed and informed me, "You leave when it gets good, you need to stay". I mean, I have been to MANY high school sporting activities, with both Lacey and Kip on Pom squad at Carl Albert (allll the football) and watching Hallie play volleyball at Norman North, and meandering up to watch Trae Young shoot from the half court at Norman North, I mostly avoided high school sports because, welllllll, they are high school sports.
2A basketball is a whole league of it's own. The first time I stayed and watched, I was hooked. Never missed a game again. I love these kids like I birthed them all. How ridiculous is that? I cheer until I'm hoarse, and most of the girls don't even know me. "Who is this crazy old woman screaming my name at me? Why does she keep telling me to "D" up?" Same thing with the parents. Since my sons and I bear such a marked resemblance, shouldn't they know who I am? I've finally met some/most of the boys moms, so they don't think I'm some weird stalker anymore. These parents are polite clappers (except for Trish Sheppard, Lucky's mama who screams louder than me) and I don't think they knew quite how to take me, yelling at them to stand up and cheer for their team. I was told it's because they aren't a football school, and they don't really know how to yell. Well as a mom of two pom girls, and a volleyball mom, I stinking know how to yell. (Much to steven's chagrin) As they have all come to figure out who I belong to "Oh, STEVEN?? WE LOVE STEVEN", I'm slowly becoming part of the whole
The past two days have been a roller coaster of adrenaline and emotion. Last year, state got cancelled right at the "Covid breakout". Dale was ranked #1, boys and girls. Huge let down. This year we donned our masks and headed to the "Big house", both ranked number 1 again. The girls won every game on the way to the big house, like bosses of the highest magnitude. Destroyed every team, didn't even look fair. Did that most of the season, losing only 2 games in my recollection, always close, always a heartbreaker. One of those teams was Silo. They have a center the size of a behemoth baby and she just stands under the basket and puts it in, She's so much bigger than any of our normal sized girls, it's just a lot to defend and rebound against. Brooklyn Rutland is a standout power forward and she could sneak in and grab it, but in the end they just couldn't get that last bucket to land and they lost in the semis to Silo land of the giant, and their road was ended. All the girls are amazing, Elaine Witt (Sr) is a tiny little girl/woman and she is the toughest, quickest point guard in all of the land. I've already talked about Brooklyn, our sophomore, fiery redhead that isn't afraid to take an elbow, or a charge. Faith Wright, the queen of the 3 pointers, thankfully is a junior and will be back. Danyn Lang is a senior, and I loved watching her guard and shoot that ball. Makenzie Gill (jr) was on fire yesterday and put up some critical threes for us, and is always a solid guard down the floor. Other amazing seniors, Anna Hester, Miya Miller and Emilia Idleman will be missed next year. I was always jazzed when Emmie would go in, because she put on a show. Tough and ready to rumble. I felt a little sorry for whoever she was guarding, because that chick was going down. . Like I said, I love them like I birthed them and only a couple know me. Justyce Shirey and Makenzy Herman are a couple more that I loved watching play. Addie Bell will bring a lot to the table next year as well. Just a talented team.
BUT THE BOYS. We had a crazy good season. Stayed undefeated for the longest time. Took Kingston tournament, kept winning, kept winning, and then Cashion stunned us in a 1 point buzzer beater. Ugh. ouch. Then a couple of more upsets later down the line, but a ton of wins in between punched our ticket to regionals, area, without a loss on the way. Usually destroying them and making me breath easy without any heart palpitations or stress eating peanut m&m's. Then state. First round was an intense battle of wills against an very motivated Morrison team. Carter Crowe at the buzzer for a 1 point win. Then on to Yukon to play Howe in the semi finals. These punks are super intense AND their coach and his enthusiasm (nice word for arrogance) gets on mama's nerves, so I choose to try and not look at him. The ref's were blind at both the boys and the girls games, so we not only had the team to defeat but played the refs too (I hate that) but honestly, the boys just didn't play their best game, and I think they knew it and the parents knew it, and in the end we lost by 10. On a good playing day, this team would have been toast. Our seniors Dallen Forsythe, our point guard and man of steel, who can literally jump over me without even touching me, he jumps so high, had two men on him pretty much the whole time. Palmer Jones our power forward, made his incredible strong, quick moves, but couldn't get a bucket to stick (Which just never happens). Carter Crowe, our crazy strong center) bless his heart, left everything he had on the floor. Fun fact about Carter: when he would land a 3 he would salute running down the court and I stinking loved that. I left the game with about 45 seconds on the clock, because I couldn't even bear to watch it unfold. After struggling so hard with the defeat of the girls earlier in the day, I couldn't watch it happen again. Deken Jones (freshman, brother of Palmer) and Dayton Forsythe (Freshman, brother of Dallen) left it all on the floor as well. Connor Kuykendall (jr) did his amazing stealing and fresh energy that he always brings, but in the end, it just wasn't enough to take it home. I love these boys. Not little love but capital L O V E these boys.
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I've played poker with some of them, dominos with most and fed/housed all of them at one time or another. They call me "Mama Steve" and say "Yes, ma'am" or "No, ma'am" (their mamas taught them manners, whereas I just tried to keep mine fed and dressed, manners, do what?).
But THE BEST PART of all of this story -- on the way back from regionals I get a text from Steven, "What is that song at church that I like?" (OK son, Give me more clues) "Another in the fire?" Bingo. (Man I'm good). Find out later, they had a worship set on the bus on the way home. The Home skillets are listening and singing praise and worship music. I don't know about y'alls high school experiences with sports teams, but this doesn't happen very often. I had already asked Dallen, Lucky and Steven if they wanted to do a bible study with me on Youversion, and we had been making our way through one together, so that got them thinking, after the worship set, they set a bible study with several of the team on the app, and several even did one with ole mama steve. Their insight and input on the discussion boards give me hope for our next generation. I thought I loved Palmer Jones before the bible study, but hearing his mature thoughts and his great knowledge of the bible...this guy is a gem. They all are. Loving Jesus and following him is a priority and that's what makes them the jewels they are.
I know they are disappointed about the gold ball, but in the scheme of it all, they won a much bigger prize. They know the joy of following Jesus and reading His word and being immersed in faith and grace. I hope it gives them a foundation of a life following Christ and being a sold out Jesus freak. What they have found together is a bond of brotherhood, joined by the blood of one who loves them more than any of us, and gave His life to die on a cross so that we can live free and enjoy basketball games and honor Him by living a life well lived. That's the prize. That's the goal we want to make. And they are doing that.
It was a great season. It is a great life. On to the next thing. God is So Good.
