Lessons on the way to state tournament

3/1/2005
On the ride over Al Valencia’s mother passed away. We knew she could die before he left for the tournament. He and his family discussed what to do if this happened. We were in Ritzville. We stopped at Zips to stretch our legs and get shakes. Al did not come in with the rest of us. He was driving a vehicle with our bags. Bev came up to me and said that Al received a call about 30 minutes before telling him of his mother’s death. She asked if it was alright to tell me, he said it would be fine.
When she informed me, we called the team together and went to Al to offer our condolences. We prayed as a group together. We grieved and mourned with Al for a period of time. We learned of our mortality and frailty.

3/2/2005
A busy day was ahead of us. We visited the Discovery School in Spokane on behalf of the WIAA’s TEAM UP program to address the kids in the areas of sportsmanship, academic excellence and character. We put on a mini-basketball clinic. Some of the kids learned the drills and asked questions about being a student-athlete. Adam spoke on AE, Erk on C, and Jesse on sportsmanship – they all did a great job.When we were done the 3rd and 4th grade challenged the team to a game of bump. The guys couldn’t say no. Jesse was the first one out there. There was a big line and it took some time to get through them all. Jesse, David and one student were left. Jesse was going up for a shot and was undercut by the student and landed on his back. He got up shaking and massaging his wrist. I thought – oh no headline read, “ JR breaks wrist at state tournament playing bump with school children.” He ended up being fine. We learned about the gift of sharing our life; our light with others.

3/3/05
Today I thought what lesson God would teach us today. Just before leaving our room for the arena it hit me. The boys were going to see the fruit of their labor – a victory to insure them of a trophy!