March Already

It didn't seem to take long for February to fly by. The shortest month of the year always seems to be crammed full of stuff to do. I don't really know why, but every weekend there was something to do, and of course, as a college student I had to try and do it all. Now it's finally time to settle down and start taking school seriously again. For me, the first few weeks of school each semester are kind of laid back and fun. Then all of a sudden, all of the teachers realize that it's six or seven weeks into the semester and we haven't actually DONE anything so everyone panics at once and the students end up with four tests in one week. Every semester is like this and professors don't seem to catch on, or don't care. I'm afraid of which it is.

So the Sunburst Refiners have completed another basketball season. Yes, the nickname of my hometown sports teams was the Refiners. Back in the day, we used to have a refinery and that was the best anyone could come up with. It has been put under consideration to change the name, but I don't think I would like that because it has too much meaning now to too many people. But I think unofficially we have one of the LAMEST nicknames in the state of Montana. It's the Refiners or the Terry Terriers. That one is pretty bad too. Anyway, so our boys ended up getting second place at districts after an overtime loss in a game they probably should have won. It was one of those games when everyone in the stands could see the momentum shifting and no one could do anything about it. After the game went to overtime, it looked like Power (the Pirates if you were wondering, WAY better than the Refiners but kind of cliche) won already. After that they played a challenge game and made it into the divisional tournament after the win. So off I went to Great Falls to watch them play. The boys played hard but lost their first game by three, then won their second, and lost out Saturday morning to who else but the Power Pirates. It was still a fun season, and I hope the town will remember this team as one of the most talented to go down in school history.

We're approaching the most exciting time in the sports year with March Madness on the horizon. The first weekend of the tournament is the best I think. The games are on all day, no one wants to be in school and everyone that is in school is on their phone trying to check scores and update their brackets. I may be the worst bracket filler-outer there is. I put way too much thought, logic, and research into it. I give it a go and I get beat by the girl sitting next to me that doesn't know what March Madness is, but likes the name of the Cinderella team on their way to the Final Four. This is a yearly disappointment for me. I'm slowly learning to get over it, but just once I want to be the guy that can tell everyone he picked the Final Four and won the money for whatever pool he entered. Just one year. Maybe this will be the year. I'm not laying out my picks yet, but I know who I like. I'm not jynxing that poor team already though. I'll wait for the actual tournament to start to do that.

March is another time for independent basketball tournaments to start. I love playing basketball as much as I love watching and coaching it. These tourneys are a blast. We just go out and play, party, and try to be competitive each game. My buddies Nick, Danny, and I go to Noxon, Montana and play in a yearly tournament there. I also plan on traveling back home and playing with my old ball coach, Griff Bye. Griff knows everything there is to know about basketball and he and I can sit around and BS for hours about the game. He's still coaching in Sunburst and has been an important part of the program there for a lot of years. It shocks me how much he cares about the kids and how sad he is to the see the season end year in and year out.

It's finally starting to get nice out. I love shorts, and wear them whenever possible. So as soon as the sun was out this morning I was wandering around campus in my shorts. I love spring time and am looking forward to the sunny days and snowless walks around campus. Just watch, it's snowing tonight now.

Shout out for the day: My shout out goes to Ken Griffey Jr. this week. He's my favorite athlete of all-time. More so than Michael Jordan, and that's saying a lot. Growing up watching Griffey was amazing. He got traded away from Seattle and things went downhill for him. WAY downhill. But he's coming back to where it all started and I am hoping that his signing with the Mariners will somehow give his career a huge resurgence and he'll become the player we all remember. He's 39 now, so I'm not expecting big big numbers but just something to help me remember the days of 'Junior'. I'm an optimistic person, I'd even just take a full season injury-free. Griffey and I both need that I think.