Pretty proud tonight

[ctom]

My grandson has been involved in basketball for several years and we have followed him thru his journey. He graduated high school last spring and this winter has been playing on the community college team here in Rochester. Riley's dad and uncle played on the same college team and Dale, Riley's dad wasn assistant coach for the team for a couple years. This college and basketball have a rich family history.

The team went 14-0, undefeated in conference play and lost only three times, all to division 2 and division 1 schools....scolarship schools. Rochester Community College is a division 3 school, totally non-scholarship in the sports. The Community College state championships started last Friday and have been going strong all weekend. At 2PM this afternoon, the Rochester RCTC YellowJackets tipped the ball in their favor and never fell behind in scoring. The closest the opposing team came was to within 2 points in the second half, but the Jackets won in regular paly and stood over the opponents by 13 at the buzzer. State Champions.

To say that I am proud of him and his team is an understatement. These boys have worked darned hard to get to this point and now in two weeks they will travel to New York State and take a whistle at the national title. The YellowJackets went into Minnesota's tourney ranked number 13 nationally and slid past an opponent ranked #2 nationally. That opponent, from the state's northern division,  fell in the first round play to a school that had a tough time winning any game here in the southern division. The jackets right now are well up the ranking ladder nationally with the state title win. At a national level, things happen and we understand that. I still think they have a chance but just being there....having earned that position, speaks highly of the quality of the athletes themselves and in two weeks my prayers will be with him and his team. There is a small chance that the school will host a couple of parents and fan buses to New York to watch this three day event and if they do I may be on one of those buses.     

[EZPZ21]

That's awesome Tom !!!! ...what part of New York are they coming to ?

[basskat]

That's awesome. If a school don't sponser as bus I'd head out in my personal vehicle or several of you could rent a van. It's a once in a lifetme event, don't miss it.

Be thankful he's on a winning team. My stepson is a senior, played four years of basketball without a winning season. They only won three games this year. He still loved it.

[andrewlamberson]

That's awesome... I hope you get the chance to go to NY... Like Bassett said... It's probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.

[ctom]

The tourney site in New York is at the old "Woodstock" site. Kind of nastolgic.....I almost made it to Woodstock on the first round back in the 60's. lol. Got as far as Indiana and got distracted.

[basskat]

You're telling your age now! 

[CrabbyBass]

That is great Tom!  Congrats to your grandson and his team!

[wilks19]

Congrats to you and your family!  Great story.

[andrewlamberson]

I had a little scare when CTom mentioned he got "distracted" in Indiana on the way to Woodstock. I was born in Indiana and began to wonder if CTom was my real father....but I was born in 1956 

[ctom]

As a youth I was easily taken off course. We were on our way to Woodstock and just got out of Chicago heading east. We thought we neeeded a break for an afternoon and an evening and that was all she wrote. Blame it all on those Indy women.

[ctom]

Ma and I just got word that the college will not have a bus caravan to the nationals. Kinda bummed, but we can run the computer thru the TV and watch the whole thing on the internet.  Dale, my step-son and Riley's dad, works at the college and will be going with the team as a chaperone. That mean's Ma and I will be at their home doing the boob tube thing.

The win at state sent us into the #2 spot nationally.

[Jerry V]

Pretty exciting stuff Tom... if you can get a link to post up, I bet a few of us would tune in to see what happens.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who could use some excitement these days...  A good B-ball game would be welcome and if a person has some sort of connection to it... even makes it a little more fun.

Bless Y'all,

Jerry

[ctom]

I know the link is tied into the state system.edu or some location similar to that. Its not hard to get to once the address in its entirety is available, then I'll post it.

[Jerry V]

That's cool Tom, when you get the link, I for one would be pretty happy to see it. 

Thanks,

Jerry

[ctom]

Its a four day event. Man, think of the number of community colleges across this country and try to imagine having a play-off schedule to accomodate all those teams.

I guess not being able to be there will force me to watch the boob but we'll turn this into a family affair at Riley's home. We just found out that Sonja, his mother, is not making the trip either.

As soon as I can get the scheduling and an active link for internet viewing I'll post them here. I know the games have all been streaming so they are real-time. I guess one good aspect of this is I can bad mouth the stripes and not worry about being escourted out of the stadium. lol. Happened a couple years ago to the other Grandfather and I at one of Riley's high school games. Both of us got the finger point. Riley's team whipped the snot out of the opposing team after Dick and I took our walk. lol