Playoff basketball

Last Friday night I decided to attend the girl's high school playoff basketball game between Okoboji and Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn. I went with the intention of cheering for Okoboji. After all, I live in Okoboji and work in Milford (where the actual school is). By the time I arrived the Okoboji side of the gym was full so I found a spot among the HMS fans. After a few minutes of watching as I munched on the obligatory popcorn, I couldn't help but pull for HMS. They were a senior dominated team that passed the ball well and had some sweet assists. They also played hard on defense. Those two things make basketball a team sport and a beautiful game. Okoboji has only 2 seniors but a couple of key players who had a soft shooting touch both inside and out. They played some tough defense as well and hit their free throws at the end to hold off the HMS come back and win by 7 after being up by 16. As a reward for winning, Okoboji got to play Unity Christian, the undefeated #1 team in the state whose average margin of victory has been 36 points a game. Okoboji turned out to be pretty average and was defeated by 38 points.

High school basketball has plenty of travel calls, turnovers, and missed shots. But it also has fans who make the cheerleaders irrelevant and no TV time-outs or instant replay to interrupt the flow of the game. I'll be watching/following the state tournament next week to see how the Northwest Iowa teams do. One of my co-workers also refs high school basketball so our morning conversation has often included the latest results. Our patients listen in and we've learned that some of them have been listening to the games on the radio. As we (therapists and patients) follow the area teams next week we'll try to remember that we are there to do some therapy. I can only imagine what it will be like when March Madness rolls around.