State Championships

Well, Sean made his run at the State Championships. He first had to play a real tough player from Billings Central (a favored team to win State this year). The first set Sean lost 4-6. He hung in there pretty tough. The second set started out a lot better. Sean found a groove and was leading 5-2. Then the wheels fell off the wagon. The Billings kid took the next 5 games to beat Sean 7-5 and win the match. That was tough. The kid he lost to is expected to be in the top 4 by the end of the tournament. The next game Sean played was against a kid from Libby. Sean took him to task and beat him 6-1, 6-3. That win put Sean in the top 10 of the tournament. His third opponent was a kid from Lewistown that has beaten Sean twice this year already. We were very anxious hoping Sean could avenge his past losses. (One of the losses was not technically a loss, since the match ended due to hail and rain and they didn't finish the match, but the other kid was leading...). Anyway back to the tournament... it was late Thursday afternoon and they started the match. The other kid took the first set 6-4, but you could tell Sean really wanted this match and was not giving up. Sean kept fighting back getting better as the match continued. He won the second set 6-3 and the momentum seemed to be going Sean's way. They had to play a 3rd set tiebreak. They were battleing it out, but you just sensed that Sean was going to take this game and move forward in the tournament. The third set was tied at 2 games a piece, Sean was serving and it was 30-30 when the rain started to come down hard. They called off all the games being played due to rain, to resume the following morning at 7 a.m. Sean was dissapointed because he felt like he had the game in hand and he had gotten inside the other players head. Sean was concerned that letting the guy sleep all night and resting would take away the advantage he gained during the match. Well we came to the courts at 7 a.m. They still were a little damp and the ball was heavy. They resumed where they left off. Sean just couldn't get anything going and lost 4 straight games, lost the match, and was eliminated from the tournament. Page and I felt bad for Sean. However Sean had a very good attitude and had a good time at the tournament. He felt it was a real privilege just to make the tournament since only 16 in the State made it. Page and I came home today, but Sean chose to stay with the team. The girls team is expected to win the State Championship. It was so much fun to watch Sean play. He had some brilliant moments during the tournament. He fought hard every game and never gave up, trying his best. That was exciting to see. We had so many parents of other players come up to us over the last two days praising Sean and telling us how highly they think of him. We think he is a pretty good guy too.

On Thursday we brought Sean a balloon to the tournament that said Happy 18th Birthday on it, to try to embarrass him a little. It was fun. That night the team went to eat dinner and we showed up with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. They all sung Happy Birthday to him and we shared the cake with the entire team and coaches. I can't believe our baby is 18. We have no more minors living in the house now. We got them all to adulthood. Do we get a reward for that?