One Day, Five Basketball Games, Plus an Auction

Today was pretty packed. There were four games at Hosanna. I had to be at school before noon in order to run the clock and scoreboard for the JV girls basketball game. This was followed by Jordan's last JV boys game of the season. Once they got out of the preseason, playing mostly against larger schools, they had a very good year in league. Jordan says they stand at 10-2 in league with today's blowout of Butte Falls to finish first among the JV squads.

As reported previously, he's been getting quite a bit of playing time, starting most games and playing about three-quarters. Today, since it was the end of his JV season, I shot some video which I'll upload soon. He only had two points today but played pretty well.

After his game ended, I stayed for part of the girls varsity game (which they lost by two . . . it's been a long season, but they're a young team with no seniors) but he had to stay for the whole thing because yesterday he found out that he is going to get to "swing" for the rest of the season, playing varsity. He won't get much PT, of course, but it should be a good experience, especially since the varsity took first place in league with today's win so they will go on to postseason play, starting with regionals next weekend in LaPine, I guess.

After the varsity game, Jordan reported that he got to play the last three minutes or so and "got my first varsity foul." I didn't get to see any of his game because tonight was also the annual Hosanna auction. Jeannette and I helped greet people as they arrived and then I got roped into playing MC for awhile. For a short time, it appeared I might actually have to do some auctioneering but our professional auctioneer arrived just in time to save me from that fate. A reserved parking place in front of the school for next year received a bid of $1800 or so.

$25 a plate for tri-tip steak served on paper plates with plastic utensils always seems like a stretch to me but people seem to have a good time and a good spirit. The fundraiser is pretty critical to the well-being of Hosanna. We didn't buy our tickets early enough this year to get in on the crab dinners, which is just fine with me. We sat with Bob and Sue Thompson and Rick and Laurie Hetherington, and it was fun to hear about the Hetheringtons' rapidly approaching trip to Russia as they try to finalize their second adoption from there. Laurie was one of the first people we got to know after we arrived in Klamath Falls seven years ago.

After we finished dinner, Jordan and I scooted over to OIT for his fifth game of the day: The Hustlin' Owls vs. Eastern Oregon University. We got there just before halftime and EOU was playing us very tough. EOU has historically been a fairly weak program but their new coach has brought in some good, big players and they are ranked 23rd in the most recent national poll. (Tech was #7.) At one point in the second half, the Mountaineers were up by eleven, but the Owls fought back and won 78-69.

OIT's website reports that "All-American guard Levell Hesia went over the 2,000 career point mark scoring 25 points duplicating his effort of the night before in a win against #13 Albertson. Hesia, the all-time OIT scoring leader has amassed 2,009 points to date." Levell is a 5'5" guard from right here in K Falls and he is an amazing player. He makes driving lay-ups from the most incredible angles and last night against a very quick Albertson squad, he ran the court like a pinball bouncing from defender to defender.

Tonight's win pretty much guarantees OIT's men will finish second in the conference, though they have an outside shot at tying or winning the championship. We've won seven in a row.

Finally, in closing, I apologize that the blog has been relatively boring lately and, in particular, that Melody sightings are somewhat rare. I've just been too busy and gone too much. However, I can summarize up the latest state of Melody affairs with this: She's about 22 months old and continues to prove herself to be a most advanced child . . . It seems she's already entered the terrible two's.