National Christian Home School Basketball Championships

Brittany and Shawn Jr. each play for home school basketball teams through an organization called the Dallas Thunder. Thunder is a Christian competitive basketball organization made up of home schooled students in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Last week the Thunder organization attended the National Christian Home School Basketball Championship tournament in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was a week long tournament with over 300 teams in attendance from all over the United States.

It is a very competitive tournament involving home schooled basketball players. The New York Times had a featured article on the tournament on the cover of its sports section this week -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/sports/16homeschool.html

We knew this story was coming because they interviewed a couple of our players and I was convinced the story was going to be negative (coming from the notoriously liberal NYT) - I was totally wrong. I am really glad because the tournament is truly a great experience. The girl they talk about in the article - Taber Spani from Kansas City - is crazy good.

We stayed and watched her the final night of the tournament. She was lights out. Her team got beat in the finals but I bet she had 40 or 45 points. No look passes, NBA 3s, bounces passes off the dribble, strong rebounds. She can do it all. She is a guard that plays down low on defense. She is one of the biggest players on the court but is also one of the fastest. She is currently picking between Tennessee and UConn. For those of you who don't keep up with women's college basketball - these 2 teams DOMINATE women's college basketball. These 2 teams have combined for 12 NCAA national titles - the rest of the country has combined for 14!! Teams like Duke have never won a national title. (Just an FYI for my niece Dani who thinks she wants to play at Duke. Go to one of these 2 programs - or maybe Georgetown). She may end up in the WNBA. We also saw a guy who is going to play at Rice next year. He looked good but Spani was the real show.

The tournament was a really good time for our family. Shawn Jr's 12 and under team finished 2nd in the nation out of 24 teams at the tournament. In the semifinals they played the #1 seeded team - the Oklahoma Storm.

This is a picture of Jr. throwing the ball in against the Storm - what a size difference!

Shawn's team ended up beating the Storm in a convincing and exciting victory.


One of our players, Jared, made 9 three pointers in the game. While there is some conflict on this point, I believe he only took 11 in the game. 9 for 11 on three pointers for one player - unbelievable. It was really fun to watch. He was unconscious.

The next team they played was another Dallas team - HSAA. HSAA beat them at the Texas state tournament. Below are the two teams praying before the game.

Thunder played a really good game and were only down by one point with under a minute to go but could not pull out the victory. They ended up losing 40 to 47. It was a hard, emotional loss.

The pictures below are a stark contrast (our players emotionally crushed and the the winning team celebrating in the background). What was that ABC Wide World of Sports slogan - "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."

Number zero (Cole) and number 2 (Jared) played great in the tournament. They are both star players that, if they stick with it, will certainly play college basketball someday. The kid to the right of Shawn Jr., Leonard, is just a stud. He has only been playing organized basketball for 1 year but is the team's best rebounder with tons of natural ability and a real nose for the ball. It is a great group of boys that also happen to be solid basketball players.

To lose in the finals was actually a great accomplishment with a second place finish in the 6-A division. By the way, in the final game, Jr. had 10 points off the bench and played really well.

Brittany's team struggled. They started in a big hole because they played in the 16 and under division with mostly 14 year-old girls. In addition, Brittany and Lauren got significant playing time and are only 12 years old.

Their team had a hard time against some taller, older, more skilled girls. They lost their first 3 games but ended up getting a win on the last day. They finished 7th in the 5-A division.

Brittany played really well and continues to get better at basketball. She is 12 but held her own against those 15 and 16 year old girls.

Maybe the highlight of the week for our family was that Shawn Jr. (who qualified as a 9-year-old because his birthday was in December) was selected as one of 20 All-Tournament Team players in the 12 and under division. He looked really small out there with all those 12 year old players around him but he played fearlessly. Take a look at the picture of the All-Tournament Team below. Can you find Jr.? He is the puff of hair in the middle of the pack. He is in front of the boy with the red hair and to the left of the boy with the red shirt. Look really close . . .

In addition, our neighbor, Joseph, made All-Tournament Team in the 16 and under division. Shawn plays basketball with him in their driveway. I think this has conditioned Shawn to not be afraid to take it to those bigger guys.

This is a picture of Triniti with her best buddy, Jared (the kid that was hitting all the 3s).

Here's T giving out after a hard day of playing and coloring.

Below are a few other pictures from the tournament . . .