State Basketball

I will remember a lot of things about Hailey Mae's Senior Year. I will remember how cute she was and how much fun it was to experience cheerleading, homecoming and basketball with her. This year her team did phenomenal. They won their state play off game and so we headed over to Pendleton for a weekend of matches.

The first match was against Vernonia. The girls came out strong and defeated them in a close match. Hailey is the 6th man on the team. This means that she doesn't start but she plays pivotal minutes and goes in as a sub. She ends up playing 1/2-3/4 of the game usually.

Friday night we played Kennedy for the chance to go to the championship. It was a nail biter and Hailey played extra in that game because the star player had 3 fouls in the first quarter early. She really showed great determination and leadership. With another win I texted Gma and Gpa and they made plans to head over because last Saturday night Hailey and her team were playing for the 2A Oregon High School State Championship.

Saturday was crazy. The team that they played had 3 very tall girls ... each over 6"1. They easily beat most teams this year because they always go into their big girls. Our coach and his advisors designed a defensive strategy that had our little girls blocking out these big girls. It left a lot of outside shots open but did shut down the middle and then our girls gave them the closest game I think they had all tournament if not all year. Our kids stayed within 2 points of this team the whole game. Hailey made a 3 pointer and also hit some key foul shots.

In the final minute the other team pulled ahead and we just couldn't make a three. It was amazing being 2nd place but they girls cried their eyes out. They mostly cried because they had battled so hard and also because for some of them... like Hailey ... it was their last high school game.

We enjoyed cheering for them so much!!!!

I am grateful that my parents made the drive and also Shelby was able to come and cheer.

Now we are back home and tackling the things that come about in the spring like the dastardly Science Fair that I hate.

This month is jam packed with exciting things.

I can't wait!