Basketball Wars and December Births

A bit of lite snow on the ground this morning, and temperatures hovering around the 30 degree mark...

Another December Birth____

Our family, as I have mentioned before, is loaded with December Births and other events....my dad, brother Mike, Uncle Bill, son Sam, late first cousin Gary, his sister Linda, Grandma Houseworth, Aunt Cecil, and I'm sure that there are others that I am forgetting...and that doesn't begin to name the other cousins born in the years final month, add that to the fact that Patricia and I were married in December, 35 years ago this month, and that dad died on Christmas Eve back in 1972...December is indeed a milestone month.  Our first grandson, Kasyn, just missed being a December birth, as he was born 2 weeks ago yesterday on Thanksgiving....

Yesterday, my niece Molly and her husband Aaron, a football coach at Hillsdale College in Michigan, welcomed the newest December birth in the family.  Aaron, who starred in football at Celina, then moved on to Athens and Ohio University as the starting Center, and Molly who was an all state trackster in the hurdles at Celina and a gymnastics performer and coach, were both great athletes...their young daughter Lily will probably be one as well, and young Luke Patrick has a BIG start on being as large as his dad...21 inches and 9 pound 10 oz...was his arrival size.  His dad, a defensive coach at Hillsdale, is the only family member bigger than our son Hal, and with Hal at about 6' 4" 260...Aaron has an inch height and probably equal weight to Hal...so young Luke is likely to be a big one as he grows.

Basketball War!  And this was Junior High Girls!!

After working some 40 football games, from youth to varsity High School this past fall, I did see a number of injuries...but even for the speed and size of some of the players in those games, none of the 40, none I say, reached the injury level of last nights Middle School Girls basketball double header at Wayne Trace.

I should say, near double header, because we never completed the 8th grade contest.  Late in the 7th grade game, with visiting Antwerp up by a couple of dozen points, their point guard stole the ball, and was fouled from behind as she laid the ball in...she lost control, hit the padded wall in the small gym arm first, and crumpled to the floor..... I'm not medical expert, but it did appear she had a broken right arm, or at least a major dislocation.  Nothing flagrant about the foul, it just happened.

We finished that game up, then the real action began in the 8th grade game....Wayne Trace blew it open early, but we had two players, one from each team, go down in the second quarter.  The Trace player lay on the floor for a couple of minutes, before heading towards the bench with a painful expression on her face...she would return minutes later and was crashed into by a Antwerp girl, both fell to the floor, with the Archer player landing own her head...she was down for perhaps 10 minutes before finally moving to the Antwerp bench.  My partner official Perry and I were glad to see the half end, without further injury, we would not be so lucky in the shortened second half.

The home standing Radiers continued to hold a commanding lead midway through the 3rd quarter, when after a basket that made the score 31-8, I heard Perry blow his whistle, and point to the floor in the backcourt , where a blue clad Antwerp player lay.....nobody on the floor had noticed, but appearantly the girls were diving for a loose ball on the previous run down court...she fell, struck her head on the wooden bleachers, neck first.   That was all it took....the coaches and trainers worked on her for 15 minutes to keep her comfortable, and the EMS was called.  I don't think her injury was serious, but being a head and neck injury they didn't take a chance.   After consulting with the coaching staffs, we called the game...

As I was leaving the parking lot some 20 minutes later, the Ambulance was still sitting in the back exit way to the gym....I took the darken photo with my Cell Phone as I was leaving, it doesn't show much...but then again the entire afternoon and early evening was a surreal experience, to say the least. 

My High School Boys game tonight was moved, due to Delphos St. Johns being in the football playoffs late...so I get the night off.  Tomorrow another JH girls basketball game....and this one also involves Wayne Trace as they travel to Crestview, let's hope things are a little more "normal"....?

enjoy your weekend...back later>>>>