Rysa Little Dribblers ( History makers)

All Star Basketball Season is over for the RYSA Jr. Girls.  These girls have made Rains County history.  I don’t know exactly how to go about checking it but if the preacher says it’s so it must be so.

Ten girls were picked from all the groups of girls playing basketball in the regular RYSA Little Dribblers season. My belief, as a grandparent, was that this would give them a little more experience for the next year and it would not interfere with softball to much.  Remember this was my belief.

So practices begin and tournament play starts.  It is all going great, we are winning games, every time we turn around and the girls seems to be having a great time.  The coaches are beginning to see more than just winning a few games. Eyes are looking at our team and the skills they possess. The other teams are now whispering about Rains. These girls are having a blast and winning is just part of the fun. So this starts the beginning of history making, lots of games and lots of gyms and lots of miles. One game keeps coming up and I just have to share it with you.  Our girls played at Crossroads. Never heard of this little town and still not to sure it’s not the area where the guitar player met the devil, anyway… When we entered the gym it was unlike any facility we have ever played at.  No score board, No possession light, No time clock equipment, No buzzer.  Basically, 2 goals, 1 basketball and a hard floor is all it was. The following is what was used for the above missing items:  Score Board—Dry Erase board with a dried up marker, you had to spit on it to make it mark. Possession light—Honey Bun box with an arrow drew on it with black crayon. Time Clock—Cell Phone if you had one with a timer. Buzzer—the loudest air horn ever made. Each team was responsible for providing there own score keeper, that day it was me. So don’t tell me our girls can’t overcome obstacles, because they have played under the worse conditions and come out winners. After winning that game we advanced to a better facility that had all the right equipment to make it a true basketball game. Did I mention this was the same tournament my daughter and I got ejected from? That’s another story…

Okay so the final tournament to name the Regional champs rolls around in Teague. This is where we make history for the RYSA!  We win the title of Regional Champions.  In 3 short weeks we will be playing for the Little Dribblers National Junior Girls Championship. In Brownfield.  Brownfield? Where is that? Ever heard of Levelland? Nope. How about Lubbock? Lubbock!? The Championship Tournament is an 8 hours drive one way. So now the hard work for the families starts. Until now we have just sat back and watched the girls do the hard work.  If we are going to stay in Brownfield we should have fund raisers to at least pay for the motel rooms, if we can find them.  We needed other items as well, not just motel rooms.  We needed a banner for the opening ceremony; we would like to have matching T-shirts and socks. There was so much work to do and only 3 weeks to get it all done.  Car Wash, boot drive, raffle tickets and just plain begging was what they came up with.  It worked; they managed to raise enough to pay for rooms for 2 nights.  The other nights would be on the parents.  Watching these girls work hard during the season was one thing, but seeing them work just as hard for the trip was a sight that should make every parent and grandparent proud of.  They worked and played as a TEAM with one goal in sight! 

RYSA Basketball Commissioner Jason Campbell, held a pep rally for the girls on Monday night at the Emory City park.  He presented each girl with a send off package of goodies and they enjoyed drinks, cupcakes and cookies. They all decorated cars and had another great fellowship with the team, before this journey ended.

All the team members arrived safely at the Holiday Inn in Levelland.  This motel was the closet one that could be found at the time the arrangement had to be made. Levelland was about 30 miles from Brownfield where the actual games would be played. The Wildcats first game was at 445 pm on Wednesday June 8.

This next part is where the party begins:

As they enter the gym, images of Crossroads immediately comes to mind for the parents. Really?  This is where we are to begin fighting for the National title? To say something nice about this facility is hard and the only thing I can think of to say is the air conditioners worked and it was cool inside the gym. The girls played that game for all it was worth. At the end of the game tied up.  Overtime!! At the end of that 2 minutes…tied up.  Overtime!! (again) With only a few seconds left on the clock we foul, Bowie goes to the line with 2 shots. She misses the first and makes the second. Score is Bowie 32 Rains 31.  We threw the ball in and the buzzer screams! Our girls lose this one in DOUBLE OVERTIME BY 1…………Nail Biter and Heart Breaker.  Coach calls them all together and tells them we play again tomorrow at 300 pm. 

After the game against Bowie we are invited to attend the opening ceremony for the tournament at 700pm.  The girls got to walk around the football track with the other 27 best teams in the state of Texas. They proudly held up their banner that stated they were the Regional Champions. During this ceremony if you wanted to enter the hat contest you were invited to strut your stuff.  The parents had “Blinged out” each of the girls an awesome cowboy hat with sparkles, feather boas, beads and each of there numbers.  In this spectator’s opinion, they were by far the best of the best!  The judge apparently was blind in one eye and not able to see from the other, as she chose another team over us for the award. We now know what is expected and will not be caught off guard next year. 

Thursday June 9 300 pm, Rains versus Fairfield, here we go, the battle is on to fight our way back up from the loser’s bracket.  We were hot. We looked good. We played with 100% pure joy of the game.  We had the gym excited. We were the queen’s of the court.  We had game.  We lost.

Final score Fairfield Wins Rains Youth Sports Assoc. Makes History……..

#1 Jaylee Sims                             # 13 Kharley Silva

#2 Heagen Steed                         #14 Dempsey Horton

#3 Leo Terry                               #15 D’Kaela Hill

# 10 Natalie Potts                       #20 Peyton Potts

#12 Vivian Bradshaw                   #21 Makenzie Potts

Coaches:

Chris Horton     Scott McGowan

                            A season well played girls.