Basketball Season 2021-2022

The basketball season for Peter and his St. Paul's Lutheran School Charger team is in the books.  I collected photos through most of the season.  Peter missed quite a few games due to illness, but he still managed to get some decent playing time.  He also scored a few points this season.  The highlight of the season came with the season-ended tournament at Michigan Lutheran Seminary.  St. Paul's got to the championship game.  It was close into the 3rd quarter.  Then we blinked twice and it blew up into a 20+ point deficit.  There is no shame in 2nd place, and the team enjoyed a strong season.

Here are some photos from throughout the season.

Peter and life-long friend Jake.

They were in the same tournament, but did not compete against each other.

Team photo.  MLS Tournament--2nd place.  Go Chargers!

Basketball 2021

This year, Peter played basketball for the 5th and 6th grade team for St. Paul's.  All the players were dutifully masked up.  Peter never complained about it, which was admirable.

St. Paul's had a pretty successful season.  Peter did not start, but got decent playing time.  He scored a few baskets and pulled down some rebounds.  As he learns the game better (and practices more in our drive way -- nudge, nudge), he will become more productive.

Here are some photos from the season, both games against Northville Christian School.

 

Basketball -- 2018-2019

This is a long overdue post about the basketball season.  Philip enjoyed a year on the varsity of Michigan Lutheran Seminary's Cardinals team.  He did not get much playing time, but he likes being a part of the team.  I am sure more time in the driveway over the summer working on his shot and some other techniques will help him next year.  The team finished with a 10-11 record, losing their first game in the playoffs.  They showed flashes of excellence throughout the season, but that was countered by too many mistakes and breakdowns.  Cleaning up some turnovers and questionable decisions will go a long way in making that record more impressive.  Fortunately, the team was mostly juniors, and there is another opportunity next season to make that improvement.

Peter played for St. Paul's Lutheran School's B team this season.  They dipped down to 4th grade, so Peter got an extra year of experience to learn the game.  He still needs to grow into the game, learning some basics and especially how to position himself and his game will improve tremendously.  He can share the driveway with Philip this summer.  (In fact, I will chase them out there!)  I am not positive on St. Paul's record, but it was below .500, but that is with a lot of 4th graders on the team.  They will improve a lot over the next two seasons.

Here are some photos throughout the season.

Peter drew a pretty tough assignment for his first game.  Height difference, anyone?

Philip was always an eager cheerleader for his team.

Parents' Night

The Last of Basketball

The senior year of high school guarantees that we will come across a whole series of lasts.  This Friday (March 9) proved to have several lasts, although it turns out that we missed a few other lasts on Wednesday too.

We had hoped to see Caleb's last regular season game at Nouvel on Friday, March 3.  But a heavy snow made that impossible.  MLS lost a closely contested game, 69-64.

But then playoffs started this past week.  The Michigan Lutheran Seminary Cardinals faced the Vulcans of Vassar and won 50-41.  Laura got to see that one, but Catechism Class kept me at home.  That victory set up a Wednesday game.  Mid-week Lenten Vespers had me going in the opposite direction, to St. Paul's in Belleville.  Laura was at church in Good Shepherd, so we both missed the Wednesday contest against Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy.  MLS won handily, 78-35.

Philip told us that Caleb played quite a bit against SASA, scoring in double digits.  Philip suggested 14 points.  That victory set up a rematch against Nouvel Catholic Central of Saginaw on Friday, March 9.  Finally, we could get to a game!

But then we found out that Caleb sprained his ankle at the practice on Thursday night.  He attended the game on crutches.  MLS lost to Nouvel in the District Championship game, 54-48.  MLS was what they were all season--a decent defensive team who turned the ball over way too often on offense and missed too many free throws.  Had they cleaned up those errors, they would have likely won.

As it turns out, Caleb's last game was on crutches.  The last game in which he participated was the victory over SASA in which he scored quite a few points.  I have always tried to mark the last shot, but little did we know Caleb's last shot would be Wednesday.  I did not get the photo, but I would like to think he made it.

Meanwhile, his last trip off the floor for his high school career was sadly on cruchtes.  He has finished his hgh school basketball career, and we were there to give him hugs after it was over.

The lasts are hard, especially when you did not realize the last time happened and you were not aware of it.  We had fun watching Caleb and his teammates for years.  Thankfully, the memories will last.

The last game:

Pre-game prayer.

Caleb was still able to offer encouragement to his team during introductions.

The last walk off.

Basketball, at last

I have been negligent in posting anything about the basketball season this year.  I don't feel like we have gotten to many games this year for various reasons.  (Maybe not including a JV schedule makes a difference there.)  Still, it has been a season where we have enjoyed watching the MLS Cardinals play, though at times it has also been frustrating.  Perhaps that perfectly explains the near-.500 record.

On the upside, MLS has entered the post-season and has already won the first game of Districts against Vassar, 50-41.  On Wednesday, they will face Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy (aka, SASA).  Unfortunately, I was not able to be there on Monday and will not be there on Wednesday due to my schedule.  I hope they win so that Friday's game for the District Championship will happen.  That one I can see.  Go Cardinals!

Anyway, you can check out the scores throughout the season yourself at M-Live (though some are missing).  Here are a few photos of Caleb and teammates throughout the season.

Traveling with the Schroeders -- New Ulm, Minnesota

This past weekend, we took a trip to New Ulm, Minnesota (where else would you want to be in January?) to Martin Luther College.  It was Parents' Weekend, and we had never made it to one.  This would be the last Parents' Weekend Faith would be eligible for, so we made the 13 hour trek to the prairie.  All things considered, it was pretty temperate for New Ulm in January -- in the 20's Fahrenheit, not 20 below!

We were able to catch two games over the weekend.  On Friday, we saw a 85-63 loss to U-M Morris.  You can check out the stats of that game here.  The loss did not come as a surprise since Morris is 2nd in the conference.  Still, MLC was hoping for a better outing than they got.

On Saturday, MLC righted the ship, jumping out to an early, commanding lead and cruising to a convincing 71-45 win over Crown College.  Faith had a better game against Morris though.  Against Crown, she ended up collecting too many fouls to remain as aggressive as she likes.  In addition, the large lead against Crown allowed the coach to make sure that all players got to play a good deal, which was nice for Parents' Weekend.  You can see the stats for that game here.

This will likely be the last time that we get to see Faith play live.  It has been a lot of fun to watch her all these years.  She has sure worked hard at the game, and I suspect that hard work and dedication will be passed on through coaching in the years to come.

Some photos from the weekend.