It’s been a busy week. I covered games last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then another on Tuesday night. I already wrote about. Thursday was an uninspiring boys game. Friday, another girls sectional game, this time featuring much maligned EHS, the school that almost never wins.*

(At least when I’m around.)

Before Friday, three of the six girls teams from the county had already lost. The other three were all playing Friday night. My game was a late game, and the early game went to overtime. So, in the break between the third and fourth quarters, we learned that the other two county teams had lost that night. If EHS could somehow pull out a win, they’d be queens of the county, at least as far as sectionals were concerned.

I don’t know if the girls heard the scores in the huddle, but they acted like it. They already had a seven point lead. Their best player scored four quick points. All of a sudden my girls were up 11. I don’t know who was more excited, them or me. Perhaps them, because they proceeded to go scoreless the rest of the game. Their opponents quickly scored nine points in two minutes. Things were not looking good. My palms were sweaty and my stomach hurt. How on earth was I going to ask their coach and players about blowing a lead like this to end their season?

Fortunately, EHS dug in, played some defense, burned off nearly two minutes on their two offensive possessions, and were the beneficiaries of four missed free throws. They won by two. There were no points scored in the last three minutes of the game. This was not time capsule stuff. But they got the win, and everyone was happy.

Alas, they lost the next night.

Their sectional was way out in the boonies, the most remote school I’ve traveled to so far. I drove 45 minutes southeast of Indy to a small town, and then another 20 minutes into the sticks. I was driving on county roads that had barely been touched by plows during the week’s snow. On the way home, I saw no cars in the 20 minutes it took me to get back to town. I was <em>out</em> there.

I share that because Tuesday night I traveled to a school on the south side of Indianapolis. It’s in the old suburbs, an area that was probably nice 30 years ago. So not urban but not rural. Posted at each entrance to the school’s athletic parking lot were large signs that read “No ponies, horses, minibikes or motor scooters allowed on school property.” Ponies?!?! Horses!?!? I would have expected to see a sign like that were I went on Friday, but not in the city. WTF, as the kids say.

As for the game, the team I was covering had won five games so far this season. The hosts had won one game. Naturally the hosts won easily. Curses.

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