January 8-9

Monday morning lunch at the mall started the week in the accustomed manner, on Tuesday evening it was a basketball night at McCaskey. The boys played and lost two games over the weekend in my absence, on this night Manheim Township visited for the sixth divisional game of the season. Before the game MT's head coach told me he watched the tape of our home game from the previous Friday for scouting purposes and didn't hear me on the PA, he was concerned my absence might have been health-related. I explained that it was due to "professional obligations" (as I refer to it), thus far there have been five such instances with two remaining on the 12th and 20th. On this night the JV squad suffered a fourth consecutive loss, the varsity's losing streak reached seven with a 70-60 defeat despite three players reaching double figures: Tallian Lehr had a season-high 18, Isiah Speller added 14 and Eddie Simmons had 10. The club stands at 2-4 within the league and 2-10 overall. This season is no longer about wins and losses (to be honest, I'm not sure it ever was), it's about gaining experience and building for the future. They say high school sports runs in cycles but it's been some time since the program has had consecutive seasons below .500. The boys have another two-game weekend upcoming, I'm absent Friday but good for the game on Saturday. Take care, thanks for reading.