"I know I have my personal reasons for wanting this win tonight, but as a team, let's win this for each other. For the guys who've made it to every game. For the starters and also the bench.For Ryan Hill who went down in the first game. For the captains who helped me out when I became ill. For me who helped put this team together. For our girlfriends, wives, and ex's who had to deal with us playing ball several times a week for the past few months. Lastly, for the team we're playing who shouldn't have beat us last week. Play hard tonight. Play like champions." -My speech to the team
I'd like to take this time from the seriousness of finding happiness and write about how proud I am of my team for winning our first championship. This week has given me so much to be thankful for. I started to shift the focus from the 'thinking of you's' to the 'thinking of me's'. It feels good to be this way again. I've gotten the pleasure to turn an acquaintance into a friend, a great friend in fact. I've learned to appreciate my past for what it was and I know that I can smile when I think about it. It has definitely been a pleasure. So where am I headed now? My focus is now shifted to my first love, basketball, and last night's victory was a dream come true. My dream became my very own version of the Dream Team. It was such a long road from the day this team was built. It was frustrating at times with the mindsets of some of my teammates but overall, it was a great group of guys to be around. All season, I did what I had to do to try to keep everyone happy but in the championship game, I did what was best for a victory. I put the best personnel at the given situations and rallied 30+ fans to the game to help cheer us on which provided a high school type atmosphere that I really could learn to enjoy. The support from our panda nation who were at the game or there in spirit was phenomenal. It was a great way to go out and end our run as a team. It couldn't have been written any better with a Hollywood-type ending... it was a newly put together team and finding ourselves along the way through tough losses. Our best player goes down in the first game. Then, we lose to a team in overtime and make it to the championship only to play that same team again and finish strong with a win. Thank you all again for the support via Facebook and Twitter etc. I wish everyone could have been there for my biggest achievement of 2010 so far. With this championship, I feel like it's best to go out on top. It's a good time to retire the team and enjoy the bittersweet taste of victory than have that sour feeling we had when we lost at Vayla last year. Even if we would have lost last night, we all still would have came out as winners in my book.
Pandas YMCA (3-5)
Pandas Vayla (1-1)
Pandas Brec (4-6) and (9-3)*
Overall (18-14)
*BRABA Division 4 Champions
Congratulations guys!
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