SEVEN BLANKIN' MINUTES!

Sorry for the delay in blogging....as I am prone to say sometimes, real life gets in the way of things I like to, one of which is to write.

After the last post about taking Emily to the theatre, I received some emails and phone calls about a few more Emily stories. Some are more infamous than others.

First of all...Emily was the easiest kid in the world to raise. She didn't give me or her mother ten minutes of trouble growing up. Super smart and super mature.
With that in mind...another Emily story.
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SEVEN BLANKIN' MINUTES

Emily played AAU basketball from age 10 till she was 18. She wasn't as physically gifted as many of the players she competed against. But she did her best and was a much better player
than she gives herself credit for being.

When she was 16, she began playing for a man name McRae Benefield and his team called the Alabama Lady Cats. McRae is one of those guys that you get lucky when your kids play for them. Great guy. Great coach.

He put together a very good team with sharp kids who did, for the most part, what he wanted them to do on the basketball court. They won many tournaments and beat some of the best teams in the country.

They played in the finals of the Alabama Sports Festival in July of 2003 at UAH. They steamrolled several teams on the way to the finals as did a team from Mobile in the other half of the bracket.

The team from Mobile had a great team. They pressured the ball 94 feet and had great talent.
We had our hands full but knew if we stayed with the game plan, we could win.
For 33 minutes we had the lead, but made some tough turnovers and the Cats were down three points with seven minutes to go in the game. At that point, Mobile's coach did, what turned out to be, one of the most monumentally stupid things I have ever seen a coach do.

His team had a three point lead and momentum. His star point guard had the ball and he yelled "Four Corners! Four Corners!" And then he yelled..."THIS GAME IS OVER! THIS GAME IS OVER!"

With seven minutes still left in the game, the other team's coach had declared the game over with just a three point lead. I was keeping the official time and was enraged. When Em played, I kept the book whenever I could. Kept me calm. But this time, I was just monumentally ticked off that a coach could just up and openly taunt an opposing team like that.

His team stood there. Clock ticking. The point guard just held the ball.
He was walking up and down the sideline....

"YEAH, THIS GAME'S OVER."

I wasn't the only person mad. So was Emily. She was on the Mobile coach's side of the court.
When she had all she could take, she started walking towards him and said, "HEY! THERE IS SEVEN @$%$# MINUTES LEFT IN THIS GAME. DO YOU HEAR ME? THERE IS SEVEN &%#%$ MINUTES LEFT IN THIS GAME!"

The coach was stunned. Didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do but look in the stands to see what Mama from the other team I was going to have to fight to get out of the building.

After the coach got his composure back, he started jawing at Emily who had resumed her defensive position on the floor.

In the next seven minutes, the Alabama Lady Cats outscored the Mobile team 18-3 and won by 12. Great game that should have had an asterisk by it which stood for....*Emily gets one assist for reminding the world that the game isn't over until the clock hits zero.

I miss Em's games. But I doubt she does. Em had severe knee issues that prevented her from
playing at the highest level she could play. Many nights she would go to sleep with ice bags taped to her legs and knees. She paid the price in pain while I just miss the game.

Great kid. Not many like her.