As promised... Details of the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP week!

Well a week later... the excitement still has not worn off. Yes, life has continued on! But I often find myself reliving the last week! And it always brings a smile to my face! It's exciting to know those girls will have that feeling the rest of their lives. Hard to describe. More on that in a little bit. I haven't had time to post because... I'M COACHING SOFTBALL! I know, another sport. Call me crazy. But I love it. I'm excited for this season. And it gives me something else to do. We had tryouts this past week, and as painful as it always is, we survived and the upcoming season looks promising! I'm really excited. It should be way fun!

A recap of last week:

Tuesday was our first round playoff game at home vs. Orem. The first half was not pretty, definitely not how we had been playing during region, and after some half time adjustments, we started playing Springville basketball and went on to win 70-43. One step closer to the goal of a state championship. The following three games were not so easy.

Quarterfinal game vs. Mountain View High School. Yes, the same team that we LOST to last year in the championship game. Losing was out of the question. Two years in a row. I don't think so. The game went back and forth during the first half, we had a pretty good lead going in to halftime (23-16). Starting the 3rd quarter Mountain View went on a run. End of the 3rd quarter we were only up by 1 point! After a 4th quarter that went back and forth, we were down by 2, and one of our players, Lexi (the tournament MVP), scored with probably 9 seconds left. Tie ball game. Mountain View gets the ball, takes it down, gets a shot off, misses, and gets the offensive rebound and putback, MISSES. My goodness we got lucky. Everyone needs a little luck every now and again.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

These girls worked tremendously hard this season! Luck was on their side. Game goes into overtime and we dominated. Final score: 65-54. They didn't score in overtime. We were grateful to be playing the next day!

Semi-finals vs. Snow Canyon High School. They had upset Sky View the night before, and we watched that game, they didn't miss a shot! We knew it would not be easy! The game was close in the first half. We took a lead into halftime 22-19. 3rd quarter we pulled ahead and were up by 13 at one point. Going into the 4th quarter we were up by 11. Snow Canyon fought, tied the game up, and took the lead with 19 seconds left. They were up by one, we had the ball, drive to the basket, don't get the foul call, BUT the ball goes off of one of Snow Canyon's players and we have the ball underneath with 4.7 seconds, down by 1! I know, you can feel the suspense right. :) (Look at some of the fans faces in the pictures below! They are priceless! Too funny!) A play is drawn up during a timeout. On the ensuing inbound, 5 seconds is about to be called, the person taking it out of bounds tries to bounce it off of the other teams legs and it rolls onto the court. Somehow, Lexi gets the ball, shoots, and scores. WE WIN BY ONE POINT! 56-55!!! Lucky? Partly. I don't know how Lexi got the ball (that was the lucky part). But her shot was NOT lucky, because like that quote says, the harder you work the more luck you have, and these girls work HARD! That shot was a perfect example/reward of lots of hard work!

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME vs. Timpanogos High School! We felt confident going in, but knew we would have to play our game and if the girls would execute they would be state champs! The start was not good. We were down 6-15. Not the ideal situation. But I was pretty calm throughout. I knew we would come back. After a defensive switch, we went on a run and never looked back. We were up 22-20 going into halftime. We only got the lead up to as many as 5 starting the 4th quarter. But it would be enough. We worked the ball around, and made them foul us. We hit timely freethrows. And the rest is history. Final score: 42-36. Undefeated 4A State Champions!

The celebration was so much fun. It was so great to be a part of it with the team. It's hard to describe. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

They went crazy at half court. Dog piled on each other. The pictures truly show the excitement and emotion. Love it.

Presented the GOLD trophy. Celebrated with the fans.

Cut down the nets.

Sang Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror!

Celebrated on the bus. Paraded down main street, escorted by fire trucks and policeman!


We also ate dinner at Ruby River in Provo. (We didn't take any pictures!) What a week it was. Memories that I will never forget. It was such an honor to be a part of! I'm so proud of the girls and everything that they accomplished! Truly AMAZING!