2009-2010 Nuggets (Drew's Basketball Team)

Drew's basketball team (The Nuggets) has had a truly roller coaster season. They got a great coach, but their skill level just wasn't quite up to where some of the other teams were. The first few games saw the team improve so much they were playing toe-to-toe with the best teams in the league. Unfortunately, the season (a 10 game season) saw them lose heart-breaker after heart-breaker (last minute baskets by the other teams, 10 point leads vanish in the final minutes... 10 point comebacks just fall short, etc....). It was tough to watch these kids drag themselves off the court each week, beaten and bruised *literally*, after giving it their all and coming up short.

They finished the season 3-7, and were seeded pretty low going into the playoffs. Their first game was against a 7-3 team that had beaten them two times during the season. They got off to an early lead (seen this before ...) and held them off in a dramatic last couple minutes to advance to the next game. The kids were ecstatic. Unfortunately, the next game was against the #1 seed (the 9-1 Blazers). Our boys had played them hard in both games during the regular season, but the blazers won both times. The Blazer's had beaten the team in their first game 50-35, and were ready to go. The winner of this game would go onto the championship game, and the loser would drop down to the loser's bracket where they would play an extra game to try to advance to the 'third place' game. The game was amazing (I had to leave just about every whistle to walk around, relax, etc...) Our boys had the lead the entire game, but with just 40 seconds left the Blazers scored a basket to take the lead 25-24, their entire team, all their parents in the stands, jumped up/cheered... I kind of saw it coming the whole game, just another heart breaker. At about 30 seconds, one of our kids (Cole) was fouled, and since their team was over the limit, he got to go to the free-throw line for a one-and-one (which means if you make the first one, you get to try for a second one). He hit his first shot to tie it at 25; the place was jumping.. he missed the second, and the Blazers got the rebound (I'm hoping perhaps overtime???). Their best shooter got the ball, but was fouled. He went to the line and missed his free throw (maybe 20 seconds left at this point). Drew's team in-bounded the ball, and one of our good shooters (Logan) was fouled with 11 seconds to go. He made his first free throw to give our boys a 26-25 lead. The other team never really got another shot after that, and Drew's team won, pulling off a huge upset. Today they play for the league championship, but as far as we're concerned, they have already had an amazing run.