Our penultimate day in LA today and we started it like we started most other days - buying stuff. Our new bus driver arrived to pick us up and he was one cool dude. Ajay was his name and he was straight outta da hood. What a top guy and a great driver.
We moved along to the Orange County Factory outlets and some great bargains were picked up by all. Last minute shoe purchases, clothing, perfume and those extra suitcase we warned each other we may have to buy, were actually bought. Mr Bataille went nuts in the shops, in fact staying some more hours after we had gone to try on some more clothes. We pushed on nonetheless and made our way to St Margaret’s Episcopal School. St. Margaret's was named to honour the 11th century Queen Margaret of Scotland, Patron Saint of Education. Befitting its namesake, the school carries many Scottish traditions including Highland bagpipers processing in full regalia at formal ceremonies, student teams competing as The Tartans, the Scottie Dog Lower School mascot and the tartan plaid design seen throughout campus. No bagpipes to greet us but we were warmly welcomed by Coach Carmer and soon we were on the court. Just three matches today and we needed at least two wins to tip us over the 50% winning percentage for the tour. Up first were the Freshmen and they didn’t disappoint – pushing out a 53-40 victory to set the tone of the games early. Tayne McCann was handy again, as was Jack Valentino, Tom Stapleton and Dan Morley. The Junior Varsity team found themselves under the pump early and when some composure finally found its way to the team, they picked away at the deficit to record a 44-36 win over the hosts. Two out of three ain’t bad as the song goes. Jai Fisher proved the mainstay. The varsity boys tipped off on time and this was going to be a contest for sure and the boys were pumped for it. Despite skipper Eromon being under the weather, he did take the court for some good energy-sapping minutes. The score crept along and the final quarter of the tour started with scores separated by one solitary point. The pressure was relentless from both teams and in the final seconds we needed a 3 pointer to win it, but the shot didn’t drop and a 43-41 result went the way of the hosts. A great game with a healthy crowd in attendance. We made our way back to the hotel for a quick change before heading down to a local Italian restaurant for our final team dinner. We were luckily placed in a side room to ourselves so we could make some noise, have a laugh and close off the things that needed to be done. Brad made a great comment that the standard of our play since the first games in Dallas compared to todays matches are so vastly improved, despite the winning percentage south of where we wanted it to be. Both Joel and Brad did amazing things with the boys and the need to adapt to the US style of play was managed beautifully by these two. We are lucky to have them. Dinner was yummy (pizza, Chicken Parmy, spaghetti and lots of stuff to wash it down with). We held an impromptu awards ceremony while we were there – some were novelty (ie worst haircut), while the Freshman, Sophomore and Varsity Player of the Tour was announced to much applause. Tonight we must pack everything away, as we check out in the morning, head to Universal Studios for the day, then a few sights to drop in on before we are back at LAX for QF12 in the evening. A few boys are staying on with family while the rest of us head home. I think we are ready.
24 Comments
Tracy Dowling
12/19/2017 01:38:51 am
Good luck getting all of that shopping in those bags!
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Laurie Ingram
12/19/2017 03:27:18 am
Thanks again James, I second Tracy's comment above, these updates have been brilliant.
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Lucia Hains
12/19/2017 03:51:11 am
I’m quite sad that this is the last installment. We have looked forward to hearing of the adventures of the day and to have a good chuckle too! We look forward to being able to catch up with Alex and try and get some stories from him... and sharing in some of his experiences. Often after travels it’s quite hard to share the experience with people who didn’t travel with you but this blog has helped bridge that gap a bit!
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