Charm City Champs!

Maryland Elite 15U wins the Charm City Basketball's Atlantic Coast Tournament! Congratulations to Coach James and all the players. I was absent for the game, I hope that wasn't good luck. No pictures until after Chris got home:

National Tune-Up at The Park School

Blah blah blah, here's the pictures from Game 1.

Our Maryland Elite 15U basketball team was scheduled in a "National Tune-Up" tournament at The Park School in Pikesville. This is a very nice facility with five full-size basketball courts (I only actually saw three) on a campus to rival that of a small college. In our three team pool, Game 1 was a blowout in a good way, Game 2 was a blowout in a bad way. Seeded second in our pool, we were scheduled to play the third seed of the opposing pool, but that game was forfeited. Counting that as a win, we advance in the bracket to face the first seed in the opposing pool, which would effectively be a semifinal game for the two-pool bracket.

I missed the games, but the Maryland Elite 15U basketball team defeated the top seed for the opposing pool (Maryland Mavericks) to advance to the finals to face the same team that defeated them in Game two yesterday. Having had a chance to regroup, we went on to defeat the nemesis from New York to earn the title 2008 Champion!

Congratulations to the 15U Maryland Elite Basketball team!

Ice Breakers on Fathers' Day

I added the video. We managed to get up to Hershey on Sunday to see the Ice Breakers at Hershey Park.

Some photos of the Ice Breakers performing for the crowd at the featured Fahrenheit roller coaster. There are five of them all together, although it's hard to get a picture of Rob who tends to hide in the tree. Corinne and Adrienne flank Geoff, and Kevin is bass of the group, base of the steps.



The video: A few things are noteworthy. The most disappointing thing is that the audio is, well, disappointing. It's my new camera, it's not my new video camera. The men's vocals are almost entirely lost, especially Kevin singing bass. Heard live, the group had a great balance, but you'll definitely miss the bass line and the Rob's beat. Oh, and listen close in the very beginning and you'll hear Corinne give a shout out to her daddy. That's me :)

2008 Maryland Invitational

Day 2 facing Walter P Carter in Pool Play. This in the "Auxiliary" gym at Parkdale: just room enough for a row of chairs for the players, and a row of chairs for the parents. The rims were ridiculously loose.


Day 1 facing the TICKS from North Carolina, last year's AAU National Classic Bracket Champion.

New Camera

On the eve of the next tournament (and still a few days before Fathers' Day) I tested out my new camera. It looks like I'll have fewer fuzzy pictures :)
A little fun at the Maryland Elite 15U practice:



A link to the album:

First Practice Stars

Maryland Elite 15U Wins USBA Jersey Shore Championship

So on a brutally hot weekend, we traveled to Lakewood, New Jersey to watch Chris's team play in the USBA Jersey Shore Championship. Saturday pool play had our Maryland Elite winning Game 1 67-37 and Game 2 by 91-34 They advanced to Sunday's bracket, which featured MUCH more competitive teams, winning by margins of 2 and 5 to take the championship. Team information maintained here.

Pictures? Did I mention that I accidentally left my camera at a Fuddruckers near Hershey, and when I called back they "hadn't seen it?" Come on folks, a camera is not a tip! It was a Nikon CoolPix L3, which was about a $70 camera. Not disposable, but I was particularly disappointed to lose the photos and video I took of the Ice Breakers.

But as it turns out, I have a really cool family. For an early Fathers' Day, I got a brand spankin new Nikon Coolpix P80, a SIGNIFICANT step up from my L3. I'll add a photo of the cool people that gave it to me, but first I have to charge the battery...

Next week, a major Maryland championship tournament with lots of heavy competition. I'll try to get a few pic :)