Going Further North

Despite the hugely disappointing loss at N's championship game, somehow his team has qualified for a regional tournament. I thought you had to win the state championship to advance to the regional tournament, but that just goes to show you what I know. To be clear, we are actually playing in the sectional tournament, not the regional tournament. I think the difference is the winners of the states goes to the regionals, the loser goes to the sectionals. I was told that the winner of the regionals goes on to the nationals while the winner of the sectionals goes home.

Whatever be the case, we are heading up north to Auburn, Maine, which I didn't even know existed until a few days ago, and I'm not sure what to really make of all of it. I'm not really sure who we are playing... I mean I know their names, but we've never really had much experience, if any, playing them. In other words, I really don't know what to expect. One of our coaches TM said he did some scouting and one of the programs has 6 (that's right, 6) peewee teams. That's hard to fathom, but they are sending their 3rd team to play us.

I have to confess that I'm a little fried on hockey right now. That last run for the state championship took it all out of me, but what a great run it was. Despite my feelings of self-pity, I have to say the kids had a great season and have every reason to be proud of themselves. I know I am. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm that enthused about driving up to Maine. I could muster a lot more excitement if it wasn't so far away. Factor in the driving, hotel, meals, and it adds up to a pretty pricey weekend. That doesn't even factor in how the team will do.

To add to the drama, we're not even sure if we'll qualify to play on Sunday, but we have to reserve a room for Saturday night. There's just no easy way around this. In the end, if we don't make it to Sunday's playoffs, we will probably just stay the night in the hotel and relax and have fun. If we do qualify, then we'll be in good shape. How's that for logic?

Until then next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Wendell for the pic.