The Best of the Best

In the 7 years that I have been involved in CYO at St. Joseph, I have never seen two teams from the same school fight it out for the championship at the Diocese level, until yesterday. The 4th grade girls basketball teams of St. Joseph played in the final winner-take-all game at Moreau before a fairly large crowd of supporters from both teams. Let's just say, we already knew that St. Joe will emerge as champions even before the game started.

The Blue team, under the tutelage of Coach Lou led in the slow-scoring first half against the Gold team of Coach Steve. At the start of the second half, the Gold team put on their jets and began piling up points. They took the lead, and maintained it by as much as 9 points going into the final quarter. The Blue team managed to catch up, but lacked steam in the final stretch of the last quarter. Gold team won, 19-14.

It was an emotionally tough loss, but, as Coach Lou said to her girls, they exceeded their goal of making it to the Diocese playoffs. The fact that they made it to the finals was a bonus. Despite the encouragement, most of the girls (if not all) could not hold back their tears and let it all out. True to form, Coach Lou was there with them to console and make them feel better.

The Gold team ended the regular season undefeated, with a 10-0 record, plus a sweep in the Diocese championship. Meanwhile, the Blue team had to work a little harder, as they crawled their way up to league playoffs, then onto the Diocese. It was a tougher road they had to take, and I guess it eventually took a toll on the kids in this final game.

As the game announcer said, of over 100 girls 4th grade basketball teams in the Diocese, the top 2 teams
emerged, and both come from the same school. Now, that should make all these girls proud. And  you know that this was an extra special event when the pastor of St. Joseph, Msgr. Manny Simas, came out to watch the game, and stayed on the present the awards to both teams, along with CYO Director, Bill Ford. Also in attendance was the equally proud 4th grade homeroom teacher, Ron Brazil.

It was a fun, exciting afternoon of basketball. You can imagine the pressure on the shoulders of these young girls to win the championship for their team. But at the end of the day, they both represent one school.

Congratulations to both teams for a wonderful season. You've got a long way to go and more basketball to play.

Go Cougars !!!