December 21-22

Tuesday morning: Jenny was in the city for an appointment at 9:30, I told her I'd pick her up at 10:00. At 9:00 the phone rang, she was already done-there had been a cancellation so she was seen early. No complaints here, it's better to be early than late any day. We did some shopping while she was in town and had lunch in Quarryville at the pizza parlor. On Wednesday evening the boys were in action at home, another Section II crossover game as Solanco came to visit. Solanco HS (or SOuthern LANcaster COunty) is in Quarryville, about two miles from where Jenny lives (although we should note that she's a McCaskey grad like me, she lives in Q-ville but she's JPM through and through). Over the years our program has battled through adversity that would make weaker teams crumble, this season is already proving a challenge. Between the three I's (injury, illness and ineligibility) we don't know who's going to be there from one game to the next. On this night we only had eight guys in uniform, with five of them in the game we had more coaches on the bench than reserve players. As Coach Powell would say, you just "lace them up" and play the hand you're dealt, on this occasion it was successful as the boys won 62-38 to even the record at 3-3. Everybody played and all scored except one, three players hit double figures. Calvert Gantz and Luis Fuentes had 18 apiece, Diante Cherry added 12. We had another injury scare in the fourth quarter, Diante went down holding his right knee. After the game he had ice on it and seemed to be walking normally, with the next game not until the 28th he hopefully won't miss any time. Maybe we need to call in a exorcist to get rid of the injury bug, it has certainly bitten us enough already. That game on the 28th is the first round of our annual holiday tournament, round two is the 29th. I'll be out of the mix on the 28th (the Royals are at home) but I'm good for the second night. The next few days figure to be quiet, the next major event on the calendar is hockey in Hershey on the 26th. Take care, thanks for reading.