Good Day At Burbank

6:45am- Arrive at GHS and the Tri-State charter is already there. I go out to greet the driver and it is Randy, our driver from last summer's trip to Carolina. He was great last summer so I anticipated he would be great again this winter. (typing on bus so forgive errors)

7:15am- Bus loaded and we head out. No movie on the way. It is very quiet in a hurry. In fact I don't think anyone was awake except the driver until we stopped at a rest stop after Morris.

10:45am- Arrive at Queen of Peace. Coach Allison takes the varsity to McDonalds and the rest of us get off.


11:00am- We meet and great the soph coach and Darlene Graf, the AD. Darlene was AD at Maria starting around 1990. She said she tries to have each sport have one "big trip" for the experience but it is getting tougher and tougher financially to do. Queen of Peace has a new varsity coach. Rick Federici has left and he was replaced by Mike Valente, a former assistant at Fenwick. It is interesting to listen to the problems of a private school coach but it is tough to relate to. QP is sandwiched between Marist and Mother MacAuley- two girls basketball powershouses. So it is tough for QP to get there share of area players.

Noon- Sophs tip off. They have trouble scoring. It is low scoring early. Eventually the sophs get it rolling but cannot quite catch up.

1:30pm- Varsity tips off. We have 7 Galesburg fans, two radio stations, and Reed Allison and family in attendance. I started going to high school basketball games in 1955 with my dad. It is the first time to see and hear a ref sing the national anthem before a game. Personally I think that is an unfair way of trying to get sympathy. It worked- I couldn't yell at him until second quarter.

2:12pm- End of first half- we are up 36-21. We shot poorly in first half and we really seemed mentally and physically a step slow.

2:30pm- Start of fourth quarter we are joined on the bench by new assistant coach, Molly Allison- Andie's niece. Mother, Katie probably appreciated that because when I looked over earlier she was tending both children and Reed had hands full of concessions.

3:00pm- Game over. We hung on for a 72-57 win. We did a great job on the offensive boards. Numerous players did a great job but we had the following w/ more than 3 o-rebounds- Hannah Smith, Rainee Sibley, Myra Diggins, Sharron Diggins, Sadee Hamilton, Casey Willims, and Chloe Anderson.

3:10pm-  Pizza with the other team and coaches. This always easier to do with a win. Great Chicago pizza.

5:00pm- Time to wrap things up. Supposed to be home at 7pm- time for a quick nap.