10. Christina scoring 19 points in her Cougar debut: After playing on a plethora of sub-par Y teams, Christina finally got to put her skills on display in a winning effort that started a career that would culminate in a championship three years later.
9. Carpooling with the Tylers: Usually two or three times a season the Tylers would be kind enough to give me ride to and from a game, usually to New Life. It is during these trips that ground breaking news was uncovered; namely, the superiority of the Chalupa over the Gordita (which has since disappeared from the Taco Bell menu). (Fyi, a Gordita is a Chalupa that can't stand up by itself, IOW, useless.) IOW= In other words.
8. Beginning and end of the year Cougar parties: Think family reunion, only with an agenda plus you want to see everyone there. Also add tons of delicious food (although I've personally never been a fan of the hot-dog/tortilla combination), knock-out (the pre-pickup game warm-up), pick up games, agenda for season or honoring of graduates, and finally random hanging-out.
7. Cougar girls winning the semifinal and championship games in last season's HSPN tournament: I was already emotionally drained from watching our JV boys squeak out a championship victory in the final hour (more on this later), the last thing I needed was another game that went down to the wire. This was almost to stressful for me to watch but what can I say, I love the smell of victory in Lynchburg.
6. Road trip to the far corner of the world (aka Danville): My final season as a Cougar involved both the guys and girls teams traveling to Danville to play two games over the weekend. Here's a list of some of the highlights of the weekend. 1) Free ice cream and cake courtesy the Johnson's to celebrate Maddie's b-day, 2) a heated debate with Cat about which is more sanitary to lick: a pillow or another human (I'm still not sure how this came up but I'm fairly certain it's my fault), 3) watching The Departed with Dad in the hotel room, 4) getting chewed out by Coach Delaura during and after both games due to lackluster effort (we won both games though), and finally 5) breaking my glasses. Yep, that's what I call a darn good time.
5. Hitting the game-tying shot to force overtime at New Life: The Bad: Tre had fouled out of the game.* The Good: We had the ball with slightly over 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Somehow I ended up getting the ball just outside the paint near the right block and I elevated into da air and made the game tying basket with something like 3 seconds left the game. The Good: We forced overtime, another opportunity to win on the road. The Bad: We lost.
* I remember nothing except for the game tying shot, and a knowledge that Tre fouled out and we lost. He might have fouled out in overtime, I just don't remember.
4. Abe breaking
the Cougars single game scoring record: In
what is still the single greatest individual performance in Cougar basketball
history* (and probably one of our greatest victories period), Abel scored 39
points on a Lebron-esque 64% shooting to lead us to a 70-62 victory over New
Life. What precipitated this scoring explosion? Abe had missed our first
game against New Life (Tre was also absent), a 24-52 beat-down where Andrew sprained
his ankle in the first half, leaving John, Cole, Josiah, Chafin (who had just
lost 10+ pounds due to sickness the previous weekend), and I to finish the
game. I suppose both he and Tre (who scored 17 points and shot over 50%
from the field in the game) wanted to make it up to us.
* Christina, while no longer holding the overall record, still
holds the girls single game scoring record with 36 points.
3. JV boys
winning the championship in the A bracket at the HSPN tournament: After a tumultuous season which
involved little winning, lots of losing and several flared tempers, the Cougar
boys finally managed to win the big win. Since we were playing the same
team we had played in the semifinal game the night before, I was worried that
our guys wouldn't have the needed intensity to start the game. At
halftime I regretted the fact that I was a prophet and tried to give them some
advice (I wanted to pull a Coach Delaura but seeing as I was only an assistant
coach I thought it would be out of place). Fortunately the guys gutted it
out in dramatic fashion, coming back to win in the last minute of the game.
I'll never forget the feeling of euphoria, or Patrick's brothers storming
the court while ripping their shirts off.
2. Sweeping the season
series against New Community 3-0 my final season: To say that I hate New Community would be
an overstatement, hate is a strong word after all, but I think despise and
loathe are adjectives that accurately express how I felt about them. After blowing them out 58-34 on a neutral
site the first game, we were down 21-26 on our home court. The turning point? First, two of their
players told some of our fans to shut-up during a jump ball. Second, their best player (who couldn't drive
with his left hand to save his life) disappeared into a black hole when we switched
from a 2-3 to a box and 1 on defense. We
outscored them 29-16 to finish the game and won by 8. In the final game, we traveled to Sodom and
Gomorrah to close the deal. Even without
our starting center, we were able to beat them 58-47 to deliver the final
blow. Our starting five played some of
our best basketball during the series. Abe averaged 19.3 points, 8 rebounds and
shot 49% from the field and 81% from the charity stripe; Tre averaged 16 points
and 8.7 rebounds; Chafin averaged 11.5 points and 7 rebounds in the first 2
games; I averaged 7.3 points, 6.7
rebounds and shot 50% from the field
while personally escorting New Community’s point guard to the black hole; and
Josiah averaged 6.7 rebounds). Yeah ...
it was pretty sweet. I still remember
the depressed looks on their faces after that last game. Hehehehe…
1. Car rides with
the Cottens: Aka the Chris
and Abel comedy hour (or hours depending on the length of the trip), the
Cotton’s suburban (and RV for one trip) was where it was at. Fo’ sho’.
The funny thing is we weren't even trying to be entertaining, it just
kinda happened. It was as if the
suburban had drug like qualities and everyone was high the entire time. Not that I know what’s it like to be high,
I’m just speculating. Seriously. Unless
were talking about sugar highs, I have had that many times. But I digress. Anyway, those were good times lol (lots of
laughs not laughing out loud or lots of love or lying on lavatory). With that being said, I don’t think the RV
had the same mystical energy the suburban did because I didn't have nearly as a
good a time on it as I did the suburban; although, that might have more to do
with the speech I was forced to write for a PVCC class during the trip than
anything else. We may never find
out.
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