Graceketball

GraceAnne's Lightning AAU team has been playing very well. This past weekend they went 4-0 in the Silver Bullet tournament. Grace averaged 6 points 11 rebounds for the four games. They won 3 of their games by a wide margin 39-2, 37-5, 39-11 and their fourth game 37-21. The last game was against a team that was a combination of the St Patrick's team that beat Grace's Hudson Storm team in the CYO Long Island Championship and the Good Shepherd CYO/Wildfire AAU team from last year. Good officiating makes all the difference in the world. Grace played well but sprained her ankle in the first half of the third game. She played on it and got 8 blocked shots in the fourth game, seemed to be moving well. It's Tuesday and she says it still hurts so I'm a bit of a worried father, it's the first time she has been hurt even a little other than bloody lips, scratches and bruises.

Had a nice time in Princeton today. Carrie worked the girls super hard. They needed it because it had been a while and they don't push themselves as hard anywhere else the way they do with Carrie. We have to get them down there more on free weekends during AAU season. Great day with Carrie, Woody and Stone all going all out. Carrie had them do their ball handling drills and then it was all about footwork, shooting, taking what your defender gives you. Gave me lots of ideas of simple stuff to work with Grace on. Wish I had kept track of their shots because both girls shot some crazy percentage. I mean, they should be able to hit from their spots by now but this was just stupid, they weren't missing. Short jumpers, layups, didn't matter. Their reckoning came at the end when they played beat the pro with Carrie hitting three pointer after three pointer from every spot behind the arc and the girls trying to play catchup with short jumpers, they got smoked! Town was crowde...

Grace played in her first 2010 AAU Tournament this past weekend with her Long Island Lightning Hudson 10U teammates. It was the Long Island Lightning Spring Invitational played out of Island Garden and SUNY Old Westbury. They did really well and had a lot of fun. On Saturday afternoon they managed to beat their rival Long Island Lightning Prisco 10U team. That made them happy since the last time the two teams met it was a double overtime battle that Grace's team lost by 2 points. The two teams will almost certainly continue to see each other over the coming years and its great to have two teams so closely matched, they make one another better. Saturday evening Lightning Hudson beat the Christ the King team that we last saw in the second round of the CYO playoffs. In that overtime game Hudson Storm beat CTK by a single point on a Grace Stone freethrow. This time the Lightning beat them handily. Sunday morning Lightning beat a NY Elite team that was badly overmatched and later ...

Ms GraceAnne Woods is attending the 5 Star Basketball Clinic today at Island Garden. I'll be very interested to hear what she thinks and whether she gets some solid instruction. Dad signed her up too late and the day was sold out, they only take 50 players, so she was wait listed. This morning at 8:00am I got a call from Adam at 5 Star telling us to come down and that she would be able to attend. Well.... she was still sound asleep but dutifully got up and got out the door by 8:30. Thanks to Rikk Stone for driving her and Grace Stone out to West Hempstead. Not an ideal way to start a day of basketball but I hope she recovers enough to work hard and get everything she can out of it. She has practice for her Long Island Lightning team this afternoon at Glen Cove High School. Five Star Clinic ends at 3:00 practice starts at 4:00. I wonder if she'll be tired this evening?