Are you gradually getting your eating used to Daylight Saving time that begins on March 12 or are you just going to suddenly change? I think about nursing home residents that are used to a certain time and then the “change” happens. If we lived in Arizona or Hawaii, we wouldn’t have to change our clocks at all! As I left church this Sunday morning, it was snowing again! But later in the day it was gone but left puddles.
Every day this week is filled for me. I have Meals on Wheels on Mon., Wed., and Friday; go to a funeral on Monday afternoon, bring soup on Wed. night for Lenten Soup Supper; go to Remsen on Tuesday night for a MS/HS Band Pops Concert; and Thursday night back to Remsen for a MS/HS Vocal Pops Concert. You might say that you won’t be able to find me at home at all!
The Girls’ Basketball Tournaments in Des Moines are done and now it is time for the Boys’ Tournaments. Think of all the $ being left in the places that hold these events—too bad we couldn’t benefit from some of this.
We had our Northwest area of Iowa represented by many schools this year. When I saw that Newell-Fonda was going to play, I went back to last year when MMCRU went to state, the first time since 1986. Newell-Fonda wanted to make it 4-for-4 for their seniors, but ended up losing 54 -46 and it was called a “Royal Upset” when MMCRU won!
Then we played Bishop Garrigan for the state championship; and lost by 49-52. No matter, the Royal girls played their best and we were proud of them even if it was for second in the state. This year Newell-Fonda was going to play Bishop Garrigan for state championship. The same girl (#55) was playing for Garrigan that played when the Royals played them last year. This girl was 6’3” tall and was built to play the position the team had her for—under the basket. By the time she stretched her arms out, there really wasn’t much room for anyone to try and shoot for the basket!
Garrigan started out on Saturday night as a very fast moving team. Newell-Fonda followed suit. There was a time when the referee stopped the game and took a towel to wipe the floor (I could imagine it was “sweat”!) It was very noticeable that #55 was sweating as well as the rest of the two teams. There just didn’t seem to be any slowing down for either of the teams. It almost made me tired just by looking at them! The #11 on the Garrigan team, in the 4th quarter, at one time hung her head and looked like she was going to fall over. It happened a second time, just before the game was over. I kept thinking that the coach should take her out but he was more concerned about more instructions of what to do even though they were winning the game. Yes, they won with a score of 68 to 52. Actually, the Royals came closer to winning with their score of 49 to 52.
The #55 is graduating this year and is going on to play basketball at Iowa State University. It will be interesting next year to see if Garrigan makes it to state as it seemed that she was the one that was winning the game for them.
Garrigan had played Remsen St. Mary’s during the Class 1A semifinal game at the state tournament Friday afternoon and left Remsen losing (73-39). #55, the all-time leading scorer in state tournament history (all classes), added to her record with 26 points against Remsen on 10-of-11 shooting, mostly from close range. She was a perfect 6-of-6 from the line. With barely 3 minutes into the game, Garrigan was 10 to 0 and the lead swelled to 24-4 points at the end of the first period. In the final quarter, Garrigan swelled their lead to as many as 40 points before both teams emptied their benches. (If the game was as fast moving as it was Saturday night, I can see where Remsen wasn’t prepared for this.) One good thing did happen to Remsen when their exchange student from Germany scored the final points of Remsen’s loss after her shot went in right before the buzzer sounded. Up onto the time she had come to Remsen to school, she had never picked up a basketball. What a thrill this must have been for her!
Central Lyon (24-0) played Pocahontas (21-5) and won 65-44 that moved them on to play Dike-New Hartford in the Class 2A title game Saturday. Central Lyon lost the game 49-64.
Bishop Heelan played North Polk in Class 4A semifinal-round action on Thursday and lost 41-53. Sibley-Ocheyedan lost 56-61 to Dike-New Hartford in Class 2A semifinals earlier. Sioux Center was taken to the promised land Friday night as they captured the school’s first state championship with the win over Benton Community School in the Class 3A finals with the historic win of 62 – 47. You can see that Northwest Iowa was well represented this year.
I’m cutting this short so that the Senior Citizen article conclusion hopefully will have room to be printed as well as a basketball one.
Remember in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost friends/family to death, are having health problems some of which are terminal, be with those who are struggling to make ends meet even though they have a job, help those who desire “wants” rather than “needs” that prestige isn’t everything and be with those who are still trying to shorten the distance between family/friends to build a bridge instead of a wall. Count your blessings.
I will close with this quote from Sophocies (496 B.C.-406 B.C.) Greek poet: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.”