Church Ball Mania!

Well, another church ball season is in the books!  David's team did extremely well this year in the regular season - only one loss to a team they ended up beating two other times.  David played the end of the season with a sprained ankle from Jr. Jazz and could have easily have ended his high school baseball career if he would have re-injured it, but luckily he didn't.  The team really gelled this year and I think they all had a lot of fun!  I don't know of too many other things that elicit more passion, from the players as well as the parents and coaches, than church ball.  It seems to be life or death once the game starts, even though everyone is given the talk at the beginning of the game about going out there and showing good sportsmanship and just having a lot of fun.  Then, they go to battle for forty minutes!  We have seen some really great games and some really great sportsmanship, and we have also witnessed complete meltdowns by players and parents in a high stakes game.  I guess that's what makes it so enjoyable!  The boys made it to the second round of the playoffs and played their hearts out!  The last game was against David's good friend Andrew's team, and with Andrew on the team, we knew they would be tough!  The players exhibited excellent sportsmanship throughout the game.  The refereeing was a little (well, maybe a lot) questionable and that seemed to get the parents and coaches going at each other, a little.  Pretty soon, parents and coaches were yelling at the refs, at each other and all you know what broke loose!  The Bishop from the opponents ward got in Dave's face and accused him of yelling things that he wasn't.  Their coach started mouthing off at our coach and players and acting like he was twelve... anyway, you get the picture.  We ended up loosing the game, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.  I was so proud of our team and how hard they played.  All in all, it was a pretty darn good season, even if it did end a little strangely.  But, that's church ball for you!