Really! Not really… KC Ambush had their first tournament of the fall 2017 season. In the midst of fall league ball, I’ve been kind of worried about the product on the field known as KC Ambush 08.
To be honest, after the first game of fall ball the parents felt that the product on the field left a lot to be desired.
I had to send an email stating that even though they were worried about the girls performance for the night that they needed to keep their eyes on the prize.
We’re a new team that needs time to gel. The league is for fine tuning and I really view it as just an elevated practice. It’s basically used for putting the puzzle pieces together for the tournament season and to know what we need to work on.
That was approximately 2 weeks ago when we really DID look like The Bad News Bears out on the field.
Before league play, I warned the parents that we may win or lose by a lot but to not be alarmed. Immediately after the first night, I had to email the entire team to remind them that things will get better very quickly. I believed it but wasn’t sure if they did or not.
We hit the last couple of weeks really hard correcting the mistakes of what seemed like a disaster first night of league ball.
FAST FORWARD to this weekend. In my eyes, we’re an average C (rank goes A, B and C with A being the highest) with potential to play B once everyone gets on the same page and improves to where I think they should be able to. That usually takes about a year as we do A LOT of fundamentals a specific certain type of way. Not to toot my own horn but all Ambush players minutely technically sound in all areas of their game.
Friday night we went 0-2 against some really good teams. By the techniques they were displaying and athleticism of their girls, there’s no reason they shouldn’t have been playing strictly B tournaments. However, we played them both relatively close. It shocked me as I was expecting us to go through our growing pains against more advanced and talented teams.
That brings us to Friday night. Next week is SO IN THE PAST! Saturday’s pool game the light bulb clicked. Saturday, we won against a team that should’ve beat us and that put us in a different bracket from the bottom bracket.
Sunday I had to catch a flight so I had no access to the game or its updates. I was then sent a link to the game updates and saw that we lost. I figured we’d lost and was done for the day. I then get a text claiming that Ambush is going to the Championship game. At first, I thought it was a joke and stated I though we’d lost. They instructed me to check again.
I’ll be damned! That was the moment I realized the game link was from the night before and we were indeed in the Championship game beating some really good teams on the way. One actually had plans on playing in a B tournament for the weekend instead.
Now I’m watching our i-score gamecast religiously looking at us as we eventually win the Championship with a 3-1 score. I heard reports that the girls played like a real team this weekend.
You have no idea how excited I am of this group to go from worst to first in the matter of 2 weeks. My only thought is that this gives the girls a chance to KNOW how good they can be and will take practice even MORE seriously. Really excited to see how they respond.
Oh yeah! Got a text today that we’re now ranked # 29 in the country and #3 in the state of Missouri in C ball. The numbers are impressive but it’s really a numbers game as we’re no where near the #29th team in the country or #3 in the states at the C level. But it’s more fuel to give these girls to work their tails off. I’ll take it anyway I can get it as I’m walking around with my chest poked out even though I wasn’t there.
#kcambush #winning
