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A Full Day
Published: Wed, 03.11.2009
Our day started off with breakfast in our hotel, and then we headed to the Tyson Events Center for Special Olympics. The only thing I miss about Indiana right now is the 60+ degree weather - it was about 15 degrees with freezing rain this morning, so the weather kept a lot of kids from showing up. We were still able to play a huge game of knockout, teach the kids our 4 corner passing drill, shoot-around, and do some dribbling relays with them. Toward the end of the session, Huntington's team showed up and did the dribbling relays with us as well. Despite our loss to them in the MCC Championship game, it's nice to see another MCC team all the way out here in Sioux City, Iowa - the center of the GPAC (the Great Plains Athletic Conference, which includes nearby Northwestern and Morningside).
Following the Special Olympics session, we headed to Morningside College for our final practice before our first round game tomorrow. It consisted mostly of shooting, along with going over some of the game plan for tomorrow. After practice, we stopped at Wendy's to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to the hotel for some downtime.
Tonight was the banquet for all 32 teams that made it into the tournament. Before the banquet we had praise and worship and listened to some testimonies (including that of our very own Paige Rudolph). One thing that really stood out to me from that was something an assistant coach from Bethel said. She encouraged us to play the game with freedom, because we are all free. We should not have any fear of failure or disappointment, because if we do then we aren't playing with freedom. That is my prayer for this team tomorrow - that we can play with a freedom: freedom to have fun, freedom to make some mistakes (hopefully less mistakes than the other team), a freedom that glorifies God and allows others to see something different in us.
After the praise and worship we then went to the banquet, which had a Mardis Gras theme. Upon entering the banquet hall, my senses were overwhelmed by guitar music, giant costumed mardi-gras people, Mardis-Gras masks and hats, kazoos, basketball maracas, Mardi-Gras beads, and basketball pins with flashing colored lights on them. Each place setting was made complete by a piece of caramel cheese-cake or chocolate cake, and it probably comes as no surprise that we couldn't wait until the meal was served to try a bite. I was then once again reminded how multi-talented our team is upon hearing Reece and Kaycee playing a duet with their kazoos. Each team in the 32-team field was then introduced along with the Champion of Character from each team, with Paige representing our team.
Once all 32 teams were announced and the banquet concluded, the team gathered in our hotel room to briefly talk about the game tomorrow before then heading to bed early to get rested up for tomorrow's game... so excited and ready to finally just play.
