bluedevil basketball - branson post #1

Better grab your favorite drink and a comfy chair, this post could get lengthy!  Have tons to tell you....

I had every intention of keeping you informed of our week of basketball at the AAU National Tournament in Branson last week, but technology was not on my side.  I guess, due to the many hills and trees, phone service was a little shaky.  I couldn’t check my facebook or post to my blog from my phone.  Talk about drive me crazy....a week without Facebook is a good way to do it.  I felt out of touch with everyone except the our Bluedevil family.  But never fear, the hotel has wi-fi.  Ya, whatever!!  Very undependable wi-fi, if you could even call it that.  I could never get a blog post to post, much less any pictures to upload.

Sooo... your stuck with an incredibly lengthy post covering a weeks worth of basketball.

The trip to Branson was relatively uneventful.  We split the trip in half to make it a bit easier on the kids.  I didn’t have Cydney (he flew with Robby’s mom), so I was able to spend some time with the two older ones.  We sang REALLY LOUD and even danced in the car.  I know what your thinking...I was being safe!!!  It was fun!!!

The tournament began with an opening ceremony that is fashioned after the Olympics.  It was really cool and the girls loved it.  It is customary for each team to bring items from their hometown/home state to trade with the other girls at the tournament.  Last year  we tookTexas license plates and they were a huge hit, so we took them again this year along with Bluedevil pins.  Most teams bring pins with their team logo to put on their lanyard.  Each girl then wears her lanyard through the week and has a keepsake from the tournament.

Basketball didn’t start as we had hoped the first day.  Bluedevil girls were a little shell shocked from being at the National Tournament.  We lost the first game in pool play, but made a good comeback on day 2 and finished second in our pool.  This seeded/placed us for the championship bracket of the tournament.

Calleigh is #15

Day 3 of the tournament began the championship bracket.  We got lucky and got a bye the first round.  This moved us to the Sweet Sixteen.  That afternoon, the girls won their game which moved them to the Elite Eight.  It was pretty exciting knowing that we had made it to the top eight teams of the tournament.

Day 4 was a heartbreaking day for Bluedevil basketball....for this mom, anyway.  We lost our game that morning by 5 to another Texas team which would eventually win the National Tournament.  Although we had lost, we held our opponents to the lowest scoring so far of the tournament.  No one they played had lost by less than 20 points.  The girls had nothing to hang their heads about, but losing is never easy.  We lost again that afternoon to an Indiana team by 2 points.  We just couldn’t get our game going again.

Friday morning we played our last game against an Oklahoma team for 7th place.  We won the game!!  Although we hoped for a higher placing than 7th place, we are super proud of our Bluedevil girls.  They played hard all week, and never quit fighting until the last buzzer rang.

Out of 27 teams that qualified for the AAU National Tournament, Bluedevils finished 7th.

Proud to be a Bluedevil mom!!!