The Super Cup is Coming to Ricks!

That's right... our girls' basketball team won the Super Cup Championship yesterday!!  But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself...

Ever since our win last Tuesday, we have been practicing as much as possible.  The Super Cup was all the girls could talk about.  Last year they lost by about 10 points to Don Bosco Technical High School (a local Catholic school) in the Super Cup finals, and we knew that is who we would be facing again; there was a lot of anticipation, excitement, and nervous energy leading up to the big re-match. 

Thursday we had one final practice and then invited the girls to come up to the school that evening to make some posters for the game the next day and have a chat via Skype with their coach from last year (and my friend from Passport) James, who is now in college in the U.S.  It was a fun night of hanging out with the girls and re-living the excitement I used to feel with my teammates as we anticipated a big softball game or cross country meet.  We also spent a good bit of time helping the girls set up email addresses and Facebook accounts.  It is fun to see them learning how to use the computer and getting used to all the fun social tools of the internet!  After making lots of signs and hats (little paper hats the fans wear during the game), we said goodnight and awaited game time the next day.

After an inauguration ceremony at the school on Friday morning for the newly elected student council president, the girls all got dressed in their uniforms and loaded up in the vans (this time only about 18 people in a 12 passenger van... haha).  We arrived at the Sports Complex and waited for Don Bosco's arrival and the starting whistle.  While we waited the school was able to provide snacks and drinks for the girls this time - juice and... mayonaise sandwiches.  No lie.  Bread with just mayonaise.  As a mayo-lover, this was fine for me, but I had to laugh as I ate my mayonaise sandwich at how many of my friends would find it totally gross.  Hey, the bread was very good and fresh (more like a hoagie roll) and the mayo gave it just a little bit of flavor :)

Around 2:30 the game finally began.  I have to admit, the girls were not looking their best at the beginning... it felt like our offense was off and Don Bosco kept getting around our defenders to take an early lead.  But our girls never gave up... they kept playing hard all the way to the end.  At the end of the first half, we were down by 2 baskets - not a big deficit at all.  By the last 3 minutes of our second 15 minute half, we had finally tied the game and then taken the lead - now we were the ones up by two baskets!  Unfortunately, Don Bosco rallied and came back to tie up the score.  When time expired, we were tied, 36-36. 

Overtime.  We had 5 minutes... and what an exciting five minutes!  Don Bosco scored, then we scored, then they got some foul shots, then we scored... until finally we took the lead.  We were up 41-39 with about a minute left... Don Bosco almost made another basket, but then our defense took over, recovered the ball, and we scored again.  When the buzzer sounded, we were the winners, 43 - 39!!!  All of our fans rushed the court and everyone was jumping up and down and yelling and hugging and singing and taking pictures.  Members of the press were running over to try to get pictures and interviews.  The girls were so happy!!  We even sang the school ode with more gusto than I've ever heard it sung during our morning routine!

Don Bosco was a tough team, but our girls played hard and had a lot of heart.  It feels good to have helped lead them to Super Cup victory, although the win is definitely all theirs!  It was certainly an exciting day in the history of lady dragon basketball... winning a super cup championship in only their third season of play.

I'll conclude with the cheer we do just before the beginning of each game; "Dragons! Dragons! 1, 2, 3, 4... fire!"