[This is beautiful Lake Darling on December 3rd, two days before the girls’ basketball season opener.  And yes, I know that boys’ basketball and hockey have already been playing and I’ll get to them sans scheduling conflicts.  😉  But the point here is that we had January in November.  Very seldom do you have ice on the lakes in early December, let alone being thick enough for fishing and driving on!]

[Game day.  Now we have a situation where the temperatures are going to be in the mid-40’s this weekend – temps we haven’t seen since October.  We face the possibility of having had a white Thanksgiving followed by a brown Christmas!  We had 7 inches of snow on November 3, but nothing but occasional flurries since.  Define normal anymore?]

[I arrived in time to catch the last few minutes of the JV game.  We were playing Detroit Lakes.  The JV did their part, but I knew going in we would be the underdog in the varsity game.  We lost 8 seniors off last year’s team, and DL is one of the preseason section favorites.  I expected this to be a transition season.]

[With not much effort, you’ll notice this is a sophomore dominated team . . . and that bodes well for the future.  And I’ve heard the 9th-grade team even has some size!]

[Fans settle in . . .]

[The team meets to make post-game plans for dining.  The new high school is not distance conducive to the old DQ, so they may be considering Culver’s flavors-of-the-day?]

[I’m sorry I missed Anna Lee (23) play soccer – I believe she was an all-stater.]

[I’m sure she’s checking to see if Kim Kardashian found the new high school – referees and other teams already have not.]

[And we have player introductions.  The indefatigable Kendall Kohler (3), sophomore,  really has to learn to have fun out there!  😉  ]

[Senior center Brooke Heggie (45) has already signed to play for Moorhead State next year. The first shot she took in the game was a 3.  I’ve never seen her even attempt a 3 before.  She made it.]

[Cheyenne Hendrickson (55) is now a starter in her senior year.  Good for her.  Then I must have dozed off for a while because I missed Macy Hatlestad (11) and Emma Ziegler (1) as sophomore starters.  But at least I was was now well rested.]

[Boom shakalaka, boom shakalaka . . .]

[Kendall gets splattered by a pic.  She probably got the foul.  She was in early, middle, and late foul trouble.  Oy!  But you can probably tell, we suffered from a size deficit, and DL probably has better shooters.]

[Kendall takes an elbow . . . probably another foul on her.  OK, just kidding!  But the one thing we always have going for us is pesky defense, and by its nature we get a lot of fouls.  Did I mention we get a LOT of fouls?]

[There’s Emma!]

[Not to pick on her, because at least we got a bunch of them, but we missed a ton of bunnies!  Those are our best opportunities to score, to beat the other teams’ bigs down the floor.]

[The brain trust thinks, “Lay-up practice, with people banging on them while they do it!”  Oh, and since she’s in the picture, senior Carly Dropik (33) is our clean-up hitter, and with a power hitter’s stroke, in softball.  Good athlete – in the next game she had a terrific game defensively.]

[“Floor burn” Macy spent a large part of the evening picking herself up off the floor.  Also had probably the best game of her career.  With other teammates struggling and/or in foul trouble all night, Macy revised her usual point guard duties to include scoring as well.  Though she usually looks to score by driving through traffic for lay-ups, and always getting knocked to the floor, I think she was 6 for 6 on 3-point shots, other than the desperation heaves at the end of each half.  I think she finished with 25 points and a super all around game.]

[Kendall readies to pass; then through prestidigitation, makes the ball disappear?]

[Macy sets the offense . . .]

[Then sets the defense.]

[I guess Kendall and Macy were destined to be backcourt mates from the beginning . . .]

[Especially with their moms as their coaches!  🙂  ]

[Cheyenne, then Emma, shoot freebies.]

[Then Emma, in her excitement over being photographed for the blog, jumps partially out of the picture!]

[Brooke is a good mid-range shooter.]

[Emma shoots . . . and tickles the twine!]

[Except for Macy, the play was a little ragged.  The Lakers got a ton of free throws.  We always had the feeling we were way behind . . . and yet?  Somehow it got interesting at the end.  I think we wore them down a bit – I think we used an 11 player rotation, and couple other players got in toward the end.  That’s going to be a strength – just keep coming after ’em with numbers.]

[I was back at the high school again the next night.  Different team, predictable result, this time in our favor.  The Cards were too much for Little Falls in both the varsity and JV games.]

[It was parent’s night as Kohler led the entourage onto the floor.  (Psst, hi Angie!)

[Kendall again leads the happiness parade.]

[I was awake for Macy’s intro this time.  Was trying to figure out which Ole and Lena joke was making them all laugh?]

[I missed Emma again . . . as she unfortunately rolled her ankle while warming up and was on crutches.  Sophomore Kiyana Miller (21) started in her stead.  She played well against DL the previous night.]

[And Brooke said, when I’m open in the post it’s Little Shop of Horrors time . . . feed me!!]

[Cheyenne, let’s roll!  Then exit, stage right.]

[I actually had the camera turned on for the tip-off this time.]

[Kohler exhorts, “Pick off that pass!”]

[Floating, floating . . .]

[It wasn’t necessary for Macy to hit 6 3’s in this game, but she gives one a launch.  I think she made it too!]

[Where’d the ball go?]

[Macy here . . . and with Kendall at the other guard, we should be good at the end of games when the other team starts to foul.]

[Ms. Dropik (33) got a lot of PT in this game – she deserved it.]

[Chances are . . . ?]

[Kendall will be pretty automatic at the line all year.]

[Known singer of the National Anthem . . .]

[Also makes a pretty mean scone!  😉  ]

[Wrapping it up, the starters on the bench go into the “It’s over!” clap.  A good win.  Better because I opted out of the Big 10 championship football game and Jingle Bells to provide complete and total cub reporter coverage.  😉  ]

I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.  ~  Steven Wright

Up next:  I can hear music . . .