State Tournament, part 2 (the games)

In other words, the important stuff.

All this talk about the logistics of this past weekend and I haven’t gotten to the good part, the kid’s games. For the record, both N’s and A’s teams did well, but A’s team will be only one advancing to the championship game. N’s team fell just short, for which I have mixed feelings.

Now as I may have mentioned, the state tournament involves all the teams in the state, not unlike the NCAA basketball tournament. In most instances, all the teams go, but when the bracket is too big, they have an initial playoff to trim the field to 8 teams. Those 8 teams play, then the top two go the championship.

Now N’s team has had a stellar year, going undefeated in their division and entering the tournament in first place. A’s team had a tough year, losing most of their games in the beginning and then finding their stride near the end. The key point is that N’s team is an A/B team and faced some tough teams during the season. We also scheduled games against A teams, losing most of them, but winning some and tying a few. It was a true test of the team’s abilities.

Now N’s team will face these same tough A/B teams in the tournament. A’s team, on the other hand, faced a lot of tough opponents, but will not face any of them in the tournament, because they are ranked as an A/B team, but played mostly A teams during the season. Some of the games were blowouts.

As it stands, there are only 4 A/B teams in the girls division, and one of them is a U10. The only team that gave A’s team a run for their money was Middlebury, who beat them three times during the season. To their credit, they tied Middlebury during the tournament, and then Middlebury lost to Missisquoi. A’s team then went on to beat Missisquoi to come out on top. Now since there aren’t that many teams, A’s team will play Missisquoi again for the championship, so they have a pretty good shot.

N’s team, on the other hand, had a tough run. Not only did they have to play four games two weeks ago to trim the teams down to eight, but then they had three tough games to play this last weekend. They beat Lyndon handily, then lost a heartbreaker to CVSA. They took a one goal lead into the final two minutes of play and then gave up two goals to lose. What a downer. Then on Sunday, they beat who I think is the best team in the tournament, Middlebury, but that left a four way tie for teams at 2-1. With the tiebreaker, we came in third, and so will not advance.

Now as for my feelings, I am truly mixed. On the one hand, yes, it’s a total bummer that they had a game in hand and then let it slip away, and yes, it’s a drag that they couldn’t play for the championship. But on the other hand, it is just a game, and they had a great season and it’s been long, very long. Plus, at this level, the key thing is for them to develop skills and learn to love the game. I think that end has been achieved.

Some of the players and coaches came away from the state tournament completely devastated, there were plenty of tears in the locker room, but I kept thinking that these kids are 10 years old, should they be so invested in the outcome, as opposed to the process? I think N was pretty level headed about it. Sure, he would have loved to have had a championship season, but I think he just loves being out there and being around his buddies. Winning is good, but not critical to having a good time.

We’ll see how things work out in the long run, but for now, I’m just happy the kids are having fun and learning to be responsible people. Lessons about winning, losing, and having character, respect, and pride are invaluable, and ones parents just can’t teach on their own... or at least, that’s what I think.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to erin lanigan for the pic.