Winning one

This past weekend I played with my third handball team this season. After playing in the UNC Invitational with the Atlanta Metro Condors, and then playing in the USOC National Tournament with the New York Athletic Club aka Garden City aka the Evil Empire, I played this past weekend in the Falcon Cup at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, For the Condor's crosstown rival, Atlanta Team Handball. ATH and the Condors are big rivals, but practice together often at the Georgia State rec center, so I knew all the guys on the team, and am friends with some. I think rivalries are great for clubs to get excited, and a fantastic part of sports in general, but I'm willing to play for ATH and Garden City because more than anything else, I just love to play.
So down to the Springs we went to represent the ATL, and came away champions. I actually really enjoyed playing for ATH because I understood our basic gameplan, and enjoyed carrying some of the scoring load. I think every tourney I play in I learn something, and get better at handball. If I can just cut back on dribbling and bonehead moves, I might be half decent someday. One thing in particular about playing for different teams, is experiencing different coaching styles. While Darrick Heath is reasonably quiet during games, Chris Cappelman (ATH) is, to understate, quite vocal on the bench. I knew just what I was doing wrong right as I was doing it, and I could hear Cap everywhere on the court. While this would probably be tough for a younger athlete to bear, I appreciate his willingness not to sugarcoat things, and say exactly what he thinks. Garden City is like a whole team of coaches, because most of them have been playing since I was in middle school. Their strategy is no turnovers, period. And since the other team gets the ball after missed shots, you're not allowed to miss. Which is a pretty tall order, but when you're a team of past Olympians and National players, I guess you can have ambitious expectations.
At any rate, this was the first tournament I've ever won, and it feels good. It's nice to win one, finally.

Easter in Newark

This past weekend, which happened to be Easter weekend, I travelled to Newark, Delaware for the National Championships of Team Handball. My Atlanta Club, the Condors, didn't make the trip, because A) it was pricey and B) many of our better players and our coach were in Chile with the National team, competing for the last slot in the Pan Am Games. I was elected as an alternate for the Chile trip, which means I would fill a void if another player had to drop out before the trip. No one did. The coaches wanted me to play in the national championships to add to my experience, and Coach Cappelman set me up to play with the two time defending national champion NYAC team, aka Garden City, aka The Evil Empire.

On the court, Garden City has the reputation of being the meanest team in the nation, measured largely by penalty minutes and red cards received. They are also a very veteran team, anchored by a number of former olympians, and the only team to my knowledge, with a full blown sponsor. The New York Athletic Club sponsors the team, and gives them a budget for tournaments. This allowed them to pay for my travel costs and for team hotel and entry fees. That was a great blessing, because airplane tickets can be expensive.
We got to the semi finals, and found ourselves down three goals with four minutes left when I got into the game against New York City, a largely foreign-born team, and in three minutes I managed to score three consecutive goals to tie the game. We ended up losing by one in the closing seconds, but it felt good to make an impact for a veteran team. We ended up taking fourth place overall, referred to as "the wood" as opposed to Gold, Silver or Bronze, but it was a fun tournament.

I spent some time alone Sunday in reflection. I don't really enjoy missing Easter with my wife. Ultimately, it is most important that we are aware of the great gift given to us all, a gift that is worth more than anything we could attain ourselves. It is moments like this, during opportunities to live fully and richly, to play a game I love, that I'm so thankful for all the blessings in my life, and for my Lord, who died for me.

Dead last is a good thing.

So the other day my buddy Matt McNair, a friend of mine from church, called me up to see if I wanted to go golfing. Does anyone ever really NOT want to go golfing? Because if I ever decide not to go golfing, it's not because I don't want to, but rather, because something else has precluded my opportunity. In this particular case, Matt wanted me to go golfing during a shift of mine at Starbucks, and I wasn't sure whether I could get it covered. Then he told me we'd be golfing for free. I've never gotten a shift covered so quickly in my life.

What Matty didn't tell me was that we were playing in a charity golf tournament at St. Ives Country Club, one of the nicer golf courses I've ever seen. Matt and some of the other church musicians had been given a foursome entry by someone at Perimeter who wanted to support the cause, WellSpring, a program that helps women who are victims of abuse. The ticket price: $1200 per group of four. Safe to say, this was a rare opportunity.

When we got to St. Ives that morning I noticed that everyone else on the driving range was much better at golf than we were. They were driving out of sight and I was still getting used to having free range balls.



We had a blast golfing, and I think I did pretty well for me, considering I was the only person at St. Ives who forgot their putter. I was lucky we were playing a variation of best ball where you get to play from the best drive, because I'm confident that I hit more houses than fairways (Houses 3, Fairways 2). I'm not sure why they live so close to the golf course anyway; just asking for trouble. House hunting has a whole new meaning at St. Ives.

So after our round we went into the clubhouse for lunch and the awards ceremony. They posted the scores for the 30 different foursomes, and we noticed ours was the only one in black, the rest listed in red. I soon discovered this was because our score was the only one over par. They also announced the awards for closest to the pin and longest drive holes. Apparently you can't win closest to the pin from a sand bunker, and when they say longest drive, they're not talking about the amount of time in the golf cart looking for your ball. I should've gotten an award for most balls donated to the local habitat...

So the Winners of the golf tournament got new Golf Bags, which looked amazing, and second and third place also received some amazing prizes, and then they decided to call up to the front the group that got dead last. I figured they had a right to have a chuckle at our expense, which they did in good fun, and then came the greatest part of all: Last place got a prize! To encourage us to improve our game, so as not to come in next year with such abysmal scores, we each got 6 free golf lessons!
I've never had a lesson, so I'm really excited to learn about all the things I'm doing wrong. I think it's safe to say this is the first time I've ever enjoyed being dead last.