The Way

Our girls' season came to an end tonight against a very tough opponent. Upperman very well might end up the AA State Champions. We led by 1 at the end of the 1st quarter, down by 7 at the half, and then we ran out of gas. We had a couple of key injuries that reduced us to about 6 players and they ran us in the ground. I am so very proud of this team. They were picked almost last in the district at pre-season and ended up tied for third in the regular season and went into the tournament an underdog and finished second in the district tournament and were the only girls' team from our district to win a game at the region level. Way to go Lady Cats. I am in Texas for a series of meetings and got to catch up with some old friends that we knew when we lived here and some folks who have transplanted here that we knew from Nashville. A good day. Got a 5-miler in this morning and hope to do 8 or more in the morning before heading to my other meetings. The weather is great here in Dalla...

The girls pulled it off tonight. We were definitely not favored even though we were the higher seed and had the game at our place. Shelbi had the best game she has probably ever played. She was very big on the defensive end and had 10 rebounds overall and threw in 5 points. She just made some big plays when we needed it. Caralisa Connell (a freshman) threw in 20 points and Jamie Loftis added 14 I think. The girls just played good defense. I know that Macon Co. went away discouraged. They were very cold from behind the 3 point line and missed many key free throws. It was a good win for our girls. We get Upperman on Monday night and it is safe to say that they will be very difficult to beat. They are hosting the region so it will be tough to beat them on their floor. Pretty stinking, fun run we are having. Should bode well for the future too since we are losing no one to graduation this year. On another note, I ran 5 this morning and just took it easy. Got a lot of writing done and got ...

We had the DCA girls' basketball team over for burgers and hot dogs tonight and just some time to hang out together. It was big fun! I think we ended up with 16 or so girls which means I was outnumbered big time. They put away more hot dogs and burgers than we almost counted on. Thankfully we had enough to go around. Not so good on the blossom cookies though. They blew through them pretty quickly. They play Macon Co. tomorrow night at our place and if they win, we keep moving on. To say that we are proud of this group of girls is a great understatement. Not only are they fun to watch play ball, they are good girls. Not perfect of course, but a really good bunch of girls. On a running note, I ran a 12-miler today in 1:36 which is roughly an 8 minute pace. Fastest I have run that fast that far since last fall. Granted that is not fast, but seemed quick to me today. Supposed to be about 30 degrees in the morning so looks like pants again for the run.

Station Camp got the best of us tonight in the district finals. They played really well and we had a less than stellar second quarter. I am really proud of our girls and special congrats to Jamie Loftis and Caralisa Connell for making all-district regular season and all-district tournament. The weather has turned off pretty nice with temps in the high 50s, low 60s and looks like a little rain tonight. It was so nice to run in shorts today. My skinny, bird legs got to breathe. I get a couple of fillings redone in the morning. Oh joy! My dentist is a great guy though and minimizes the pain well. I just hate having dead lips and talking funny.

Our girls' pulled a big upset last night against White House. We had lost to them twice already this year and lost by double digits. But . . . last night, we played really good defense and quite honestly, White House did not adjust to our different defense. We were outsized, but not outhustled, and White House just did not adjust. We play in the district championship Tues. night against Station Camp and they have beaten us twice already this year. I have a feeling they will be ready for us though. We can play well and get a win though. Our guys lost to Station Camp last night and really just did not play too well. They had a big guy that we made look pretty good last night. I think he is decent, but we made him look very good. Our guys play tomorrow night to seed for the region tourney this weekend. Hopefully this is the last cold day for awhile here in Middle Tennessee. Calling for 50s and 60s this week. I am ready to thaw out, especially on some of those early morning runs.

Both the girls' and guys' teams got a big win in the first round of the district tournament. It will be a very good experience for our girls and the boys's win was their first over Goodpasture in many years. One of the interesting things about their win over Goodpasture is that Goodpasture was favored and is also hosting districts. I have to admit, it was a pretty sweet win over one of our biggest rivals. Our girls play White House tonight which will be a tough game. The win last night assured our girls at least three more games in the post-season, so that will be good experience and the first trip to any post season stuff for many of our girls. Investing in the future. I did a 5-miler in the snow this morning. It was pretty cool to run in the snow again and there were very few people out so it was pretty safe running.

I sometimes wonder if the things we get to do really bring value to life and to people in particular. Much of the media lately has been consumed by the death and subsequent craziness that has followed the death of Anna Nicole Smith. I really do not know or see the overall value of the media's hype about her. I do not mean to sound crass or mean, but in the overall scheme of the world, I am not sure what value she brought to the betterment of other's lives. It is a tragic story about her son and now her, but why does the media insist on playing her life out day in a day out? Got me to thinking about the value that I bring to others. I guess others are best to comment on that, but it did cause me to reflect on people who have brought value to my life. People like my parents, Art Criscoe, Shelby Baucum, my wife and daughters, various aunts and uncles, co-workers past, current and present; all of these have brought value to my life. I reminded a co-worker today of the great value ...