Texas - day 2+3

Log start: dudes... I lost track of time... I don't know if it's a good thing or if it's a bad thing.. But gee... I'm in so much pain, I really don't / can't / not-able-to care

Note: this post was originally written to combine day 2 and 3 into one... If I give up later and keep it to day 2 only, I'm in too much pain to keep pressing buttons on my blackberry.

So. Day 2. The team wakes up at 8am and meets at the hotel lobby at 8:45.
Let me just say that this messes up my normal sleeping schedule HARDCORE.
My usual schedule is to sleep at about 4am and wake up at noon. To sleep before midnight and to wake up when normal people wake up is something really different.

So we meet at the hotel lobby and we walk together to the YMCA across the street. (I know, super convienient! Can I get a steak sauce on that?? YYYYEEEAAAHH) <- reference to How I Met Your Mother
We're probably the last ones to check into the tournament because we were supposed to be there wednesday night but our flight got delayed so much that we missed it and just left it for today.
So we get our stuff and we sit.
we're all playing in seperate divisions so all of our game times are different, some are at 10am some at noon and some at 4pm. I believe mine was at 11am so we sit until the first ppl play. This is my first collegiate handball tournament so the atmosphere was pretty new to me. Everyone was on a different skill level and everyone was from different parts of the country. The best part of the trip is probably this part. Just meeting new people that you usually don't meet, get to know them, and you either see them next year in the tournament or you don't. Lol.
So let me explain the divisions. The division I originally signed up for was called "contenders." It basically means that I'm not that good at the sport but I'm not completely trash. LOL.
The placed about 5 divisions together in 1 bracket so that we can play each other to find the correct placement. With this in mind, a few weeks before the tournament started, I actually decided on losing my first game so that I could drop down to the correct seating.
My logic was that I didn't want to play games that I couldn't win, so I might as well keep it real and play people that aren't better or worse than I was. I would be playing people around my level so that I would have an equal chance as anyone else to get a trophy!
When I type it out now, I feel like such an underachiever... But that's what some of these competitions are about, playing it smart. (Although... I wouldn't call myself that smart....)

The first game I was in, I didn't want to lose that badly, just a few points here and there so I could see how well I could actually do against this fellow.
I played against some dude from missouri state I think... Not 100% sure. But he actually wasn't that good. At first I was winning at 15-6 but then his coach came along, figured me out and gave the fellow some tips...
Good job.
See, the only thing bad about being just a club is that we have no coach. We live off of peer advice and we learn the sport faster. But without actual training and tips during game time outs, our style cannot surpass coaching tips.
Needless to say. I lost my first game.
No worries I told myself. The match was best out of three. Since I lost my first game, I planned on winning my second and losing at the tiebreaker.
Didn't happen.

Seems like mr baldy coach gave the fellow some godly advice to destroy my weakness and it actually worked for half the match.
The score is 15-3 him and I see some of my team gather around. I got some tips and I finally figured out what to do against him.
The only problem was is that his score was too high and I didn't have enough leeway to win the second game. It ended 21-18 him. See the comeback that I made? :p

If only I had more points to spare againt him... Gee.

My next game is tommorow so I just chillax and watch my teammates play. I can't stress how important supporting your team is. That's what I love about us. We're pretty damn supportive of our teammates. That's what you have to do and that's how we rolllllllll.

Other things happened too but it was pretty boring...

And I'm tired... Day 3 written tommorow as I go to sleep to play in day 4 right now..
SSSSOOOO SORE!!!

So much pain...

HakoneDayDreamer, gonna bring back a trophyyyy (I hope)