It can't rain all the time

Whew! What a weekend!

Dance, dance, dance revolution

Never too old for a pinata

Things kicked off on Friday with another party at the team house. There were grilled meats, tortillas, deviled eggs (huevos de Diablo) and dancing and a pinata. It was a super fun night and a great way to begin the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon we made our annual trip to San Cristobal for their tournament that coincides with the fair. Our good friend Hans coordinates the tournament and we have been playing and working with him for 16 years. For many of those 16 years it would always rain during the San Cris tournament, but about four years ago they put a roof over the basketball court and I kid you not, it has not rained once during the tournament since then!

We played five games that day and won three of the five. First up were the Hoops Young Guns vs. the San Cris (Xela) Mixto team. San Cris/Xela won 58 to 43 (Carlos 2P/3R; Alec 10P/13R; Djeder 7P/1R; Zion 1R; Manny 2P; Ronnie 8P/1A/8R; Christian 2P/2R; Demani 10P/3A/2R; and Xander 1A/1R).

Next up was the Hoops Mixto team and the game against the San Cris Young Guns was surprisingly close, but fortunately Hoops pulled out the win 48 to 47 (Bryan 5P/1A/3A; Diggs 1A/7R; Malik 8P/2A/12R; Renard 5P/3A/7R; Kevin 22P/1A/2R; Demani 8P/3A/1R).

The Hoops Sagrado Chicas were next on the dockets and this was Bryan's time to shine with the referees. He was in rare form over some the exceedingly egregious calls, but fortunately he didn't get a tech for the team. It was a great game and the Chicas won 42 to 30 (KayKay 8P/5A/3R; Tee 26P/1A/10R; Tevanah 4P/8R; Mackenzie 2P/4R; and Malaika 2P/6R).

While there originally was not going to be a third place game, the San Cris team wanted one and of course our young guys were game. Unfortunately the fell to the San Cris team 51 to 36 (Manny 2P/4R; Ronnie 7P/1A/13R; Alec 6P/4R; Los 3P/2A/2R; Djeder 4P/3R; Christian 2P/3R; Zion 1A; and Xander 2P/1R).

Last but not least was the championship game between the Hoops Mixto team and the San Cris/Xela Mixto team. It was touch and go, but then Arriola got kicked out of the game for the other team for making donkey ears at the ref and then the Hoops team took advantage of San Cris losing their tallest (and probably best, sorry Hans) player winning 63 to 55 (Bryan 8P/3A/5R; Diggs 8P/2A/5R; 10P/1A/9R; Renard 2P/2A/2R; Demani 19P/4A/2R; Kevin 12P/4A/4R; and Alec 6P/3R).

As an aside, there was a stage set for a rock show right near the basketball court and seriously, the longest sound check in the history of sound checks took place while the final TWO games were happening. Uno, dos, dos, tres, tres, si, si, uno, uno, dos, dos, tres, tres,si, si. 

Volcan Tajumulco

On Sunday we loaded up the bus at 8 a.m. and headed down from the mountains to the coastal town of El Tumbador. Before getting to El Tumbador for games, we spent a good portion of the day  at a local water park playing in the pool. From out of nowhere people were getting RKO'd left and right...which is apparently some sort of wrestling reference.

Jesse checks out the slide

Tevanah and KayKay enjoying some RnR

After the pool we were greeted by our friends Jose and Guillermo who organized the evenings games. To say that it was raining when we left the water park would be putting it mildly. It was amazing. We slowly made our way to El Tumbador where the faces on the students who saw the outdoor court were really sort of priceless. 

We waited out the rain for about an hour and then finally were able to pull off all three games. 

The ladies were on the docket first and due to some concerns about the conditions Hoops was down a player. Fortunately one of the El Tumbador players graciously agreed to play with the Hoops team. It was an interesting game to say the least with the Hoops ladies being cautioned about throwing elbows and the El Tumbador players jacking threes from mid-court.  In the end it was Hoops Sagrado Chicas 50 and El Tumbador 34 (KayKay 14P/3A/5R; Tevanah 18P/1A/7R; Malaika 4P/1A/5R; Mackenzie 8P/1A/4R; Zulma 6P/1A/8R).

Next up were the Hoops Sagrado Young Guns and this trip we have enough of them that everyone got to play two full quarters. It was an everybody eats sort of game with all 10 players getting in the stats book for the 51 to 32 (Alec 8P/9R; Los 4P/3A/4R; Manny 2P/2A/5R; Ronnie 11P/4R; Christian 2R*; Djeder 7P/1R; Zion 5P; Xander 6P/1A/2R; Max 4P; Jesse 4P). *Christian technically scored one bucket, but it was disallowed because he dunked it and got a tech for it. To his credit, and the rest of the team, he tried to score again, but those pesky traveling calls prevented at least five more buckets. He was definitely MOTM with at least five huge blocks and was a crowd favorite.

The final game was the Hoops Sagrado Mixto team vs. the adult men's team from El Tumbador. Not to be snarky, but it wasn't even close! The final score was Hoops Sagrado 63 vs. El Tumbador 20.

Hats off to Bryan for rocking the sunglasses during the game since he lost a contact at the pool (Bryan 7P/2A/6R; Diggs 2P/3R; Malik 6P/5R; Kevin 22P/2A/2R; 12P/1A/5R; Deman 15P/4A/1R)

After the game, we loaded up back on the bus for sandwiches and a cold ride back to Xela, arriving just before 1am. I am happy to report that no one was more than 10 minutes late for class this morning! 

Coming up next are blog posts from/about each of the five camps.