I’m wrapping things up after getting back from the last regular season road trip of the basketball season. Went to Seward, Nebraska in what is the last go around for the “Doghouse”. Caught a glimpse of the new facility under construction. Wow….it’s something. The gym is ready to go with bleachers arriving in the next few weeks. They’ll hold graduation in it this spring.
The Doghouse–where I’ve seen dreams die. The Defender men managed to squeak out a win while the women had a tough go of it all day long.
Women surrendered a run after getting up 17-15 and were never really in it the rest of the game, trailing by 18 at halftime 49-31. Did play better in the second half but by then it was too late.
The men earned a hard nosed win over the Bulldogs at 56-54. Got down 32-22 in the first half and then put the clamps on and scored the next 15 points of the game–first and second half combined. Led at one point 49-40 with about 6:30 left and allowed Concordia to tie the game with a nine point run. But you know what? They didn’t fade. Even when Concordia took the lead the Defenders dug in and when they needed a defensive stop they got one with the score tied and the clock winding down. Michael Eekhoff got to the baseline and held his ground and forced a poor decision by the Concordia ballhandler.
:10 left and Dordt calls a timeout. Spread the floor for Eekhoff? Nope, pass the ball in to Logan Kingma at the elbow. Did something similar to this in Des Moines a couple years ago against Grand View. Point guard rubs off him but isn’t open. Kingma goes to a spin move and knocks down as tough a ten footer as you’ll see with :01 left on the clock. After a Concordia timeout Justin Van Kooten knocked a pass away at the other end of the floor to preserve the win. You’d have been proud of the boys if you were there. Road wins like this in the conference against good teams don’t happen that often. Remember them.
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Around the GPAC things tossed and turned. Earlier in the day Briar Cliff beat Dakota WEsleyan in a women’s game to throw Dordt, Dakota Wesleyan and Briar Cliff into a tie at 6-10 with Sioux Falls at 8-8 occupying sixth place. Doane is seventh at 7-9. The fight for sixth, seventh and eighth place is important because those teams host a first round game while the 9-12 teams head on the road. Obviously there are important games left this week, namely a meeting between Dordt and Briar Cliff on Wednesday. I’ll lay out the scenarios as we go along this week.
Also of note on the women’s side Midland Lutheran hung with Mount Marty in Yankton and lost in overtime 78-71. I’ve given up on predicting the outcomes of games in this league.
Speaking of giving up on predicting the outcome of games. I received an email from one of my faithful scoreboard watchers on Saturday (my wife–how’s that for Valentine’s Day). Told me of an upset brewing in OC where Northwestern was locked in a battle with Doane. Yes, Doane. A team that had won their first game of the conference season the prior Wednesday. Well, last thing I heard was they were heading to overtime. Well, that’s that, I thought. Packed up my stuff, headed for the bus and my cell phone went nuts. Calls and texts from people asking if I’d heard the news from Orange City. Nope, hadn’t. Assumed Northwestern won seeing as they were at home. Turns out they didn’t. 86-84 in ot. Combine that with Morningside stealing a game from Dana, much like they did to Dordt by taking their first lead of the second half with :10 left to down the Vikings by a 65-64 margin. Oh, and across town the Briar Cliff Chargers were getting nine three-pointers from Kyle Semprini to be Dakota Wesleyan 79-64. Wesleyan and Morningside are now tied with three losses in the league. Briar Cliff has four losses and Northwestern has five. It will be an interesting final week of the regular season to say the least. Again, scenarios later in the week.
The grinder chewed up a few this weekend!!
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ACHA Hockey Pacific regionals were played this weekend in Sioux Center. Colorado University and the College of the Canyons each earned spots in the nationals in early March.
Hats off to JaredRempel and Jon Van Keulen who did the play by play of the eight games. Received over 200 emails from people across the country who were listening in via a webcast provided by Dordt College. Thanks to Brady Fopma with computer services and Dave Schenk for getting this pipedream off the ground this fall and winter.
By the way, the biggest news of the day was Calvin getting upset in their Regional hockey tournament. So, the Knights will not be returning to the nationals and there will be no rematch, at least this year, of Dordt and Calvin in hockey.
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Indoor track and field hosted their annual meet yesterday. Ran pretty well by all accounts. Highlighted by the 4 x 800 men’s and women’s teams qualifying for the national meet. The men’s quartet ran away from the field and got under the wire by nearly five seconds.
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Found myself out shooting baskets on Sunday afternoon in the 32 degree weather with my sons. I would have preferred staying inside, but how can you turn down a couple boys who didn’t see you much on Saturday.
February 14 is a different kind of day for me and no it’s not because of Valentines Day. Riding home in the dark on Saturday night I had the opportunity to reflect a bit on the last 19 years. You see, I’ve reached a tipping point of sorts. Nineteen years ago my dad passed away in an accident and I can’t help but look at some of the students at Dordt and see myself 19 years ago, when as a 19 year old sophomore I was called out of Political Science class and told there had been an accident and I was brought to the Hawarden Hospital where I was told of the events of the morning.
It amazes me how life can change in the twinkling of an eye. We don’t see the future–we don’t know it and yet we keep on going about the business of living.
In the 19 years I had my dad I learned some important things. The value of hard work. The meaning of honesty and what it means to be grounded with core beliefs that are unshakeable. Though I don’t know if he ever used the words “core beliefs” he knew what they were. He lived them. Something I can only hope my kids can say about me someday. That’s why I can find comfort in question and answer 1 of the Heidleberg Catechism. For those of you who don’t know it go ahead and look it up–it’s in earlier blogs.
Late Saturday when Dave Schenk and I crossed paths in the office–he wrapping up hockey stuff and me basketball we got into a conversation. After I made a comment I said, “When did I become my dad on some of my views?”
Dave replied, “That’s not such a bad thing.”
No. I guess it’s not.
And that my friend, is why you end up outside on a overcast, breezy and chilly day playing a game of H-O-R-S-E with your sons.