Winter Season comes to a close.

With a silver medal in the Kearney, NE tournament, the WCS 4th grade season draws to a close. The boys have showcased their heart and talent in a total of nine tournaments from November to February. That's a lot of basketball. The 4th graders finished their second full season with a record of 22-10. And if that's not impressive enough, let's break it down a little further. Unfortunately, in a lot of our tournaments, there were not enough 4th grade teams our age to compete, so we had to play 5th grade teams some of the time. Our record against those 5th grade teams was 2-6, so comparing us with teams in our 4th grade division, we had a record of 20-4. That just goes to show how all the hard work that these boys exhibited has paid off. Everyone has improved immensely and are going to be exciting to watch once we start to grow a little taller.
A special thanks goes out to all of the parents who have supported us throughout the year, regardless how hectic or chaotic our practice and tournament schedules became. Our success could not have been possible without your support.
A very special thank you for our sponsors. Without you help, a lot of the privledges and opprotunities we provided would not have been possible.
A personal thank you goes to the players themselves. I appreciate your patience and willingness to work hard and listen to what we had to say. I know that there were times when we were loud and obnoxious, sometimes confusing, and you probably go tired of hearing us say the same thing over and over again, but you boys managed to improve and work hard which helped to your success. I am very proud of you and look forward to being your coach for the next few years. This has been a fun ride so far, and we've only just begun.
And finally, thanks to Coach Gardner who has helped all of us see our full potential. From my side of things it is great to have an assistant coach who is as knowledgable and supportive as he is. I feel comfortable listening to his thoughts, suggestions, and ideas. We've been doing this as a team for a number of years now and I'm gad to know that we'll be doing this for a few more years to come. We're just getting started.
Let's take a couple of months off and we'll get ready at the end of April to begin our summer season in which we will see some more incredible improvements. Again, great season boys, I'll see you in a few months.

The Kearney Experience (Day 2)

After waking up early from a long evening of swimming and fun, we got ready to play our first game of the day against the Fighting Elk of Elkhorn, NE. As I said before, we figured that they would be a good match and it would be a very competitive game. It was. After spotting them a 9-1 lead to start the first quarter, and being down by 14 points at one point. we battled back and came within 6 points of them. but, that lead we gave them at the first proved to be too much for us to overcome as we ended up losing by 7. Very competive game against two very good teams. Both teams were very fundamentally sound and everyone enjoyed watching a group of boys working their tails off.
We then had one more game to go and we played a team from Ravenna, NE. After starting off a little cold in the first quarter (what is it about the first quarter?) and with the score being 2-4, we were down. We decided to clamp down on defense and it was over. After only allowing one field goal in the second half, we finished the game with a 29-7 win. This win gave us a silver medal. We played man to man defense the whole game and it worked out in our favor. What a great way to end the winter season.

The Kearney Experience (Day 1)

Well, we all made it to where we were supposed to be in Kearney, NE. Except for one whom got sick on the way and had to return home (we miss ya, Brooks-Get well soon). Upon our arrival, we had a few hours to wait until we played our first game, which began almost a whole half hour earlier than scheduled. Our first game was against the Lightning from Grand Island, NE. Not all that good of a team and we won rather easily 43-10. I actually think everyone scored in this game. Our first game tomorrow should be a tough one against the Fighting Elk of Elkhorn, NE. They looked like they were pretty good and hopefully be competition we've been looking for coming all this way. Our second game is against a team called Ravenna. We'll see how that one turns out too.
We had a great time swimming at the pool and hanging out around the pool area, what a fun hotel. The boys enjoyed having Malcom beat them in NBA Street for the XBox and they even blew a bunch of quarters in the arcade, which might as well be called the Kids Casino. Man they can put down the quarters.
We'll keep you posted on today's events.

Medals all Around!

This past weekend World Class Sports teams participated in tournaments all throughout the Midwest. The 4th grade boys were featured in Junction City, Kansas; 5th Grade traveled to Omaha, Nebraska; and the 7th graders were represented in Hutchinson.
During their travels and adventures, World Class Sports teams faired well for themselves in their respective tournaments. The 7th grade boys walked away with a Gold medal for the second tournament in a row. The group is on a seven game winning streak and have one more tournament to go before their winter season draws to a close.
The 5th grade boys made a trip to Omaha, Nebraska and ended up with a second place finish and a Silver medal. This makes the seventh tournament this season in which the team has placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. World Class hopes to add to this total with a successful run in the MAYB National tournament in March.
And finally, in Junction City, the 4th grade group was able to turn back a couple of hungry teams on their way to a Gold medal finish. This makes their 3rd gold medal this season. The team hopes to continue their winning ways as they finish up their season by traveling to Kearney, Nebraska for the Mister Basketball Snow Jam tournament.
Congratulations to all teams for their successful efforts. It's great to see that World Class Sports is making a positive impact on te basketball tournaments in our area and making WCS Basketball a well respected organization in youth basketball. Keep up the good work players and coaches.

WE ARE WORLD CLASS!