J Scholastic Sports I

I've always loved scholastic sports. In my day, the main sport in the MO yeshivas was hoops. Today hoops plays second fiddle to floor hockey (in most of the Metro area schools).

On Sunday, our younger son (OYS) played a JV hockey game that reinforced my love of scholastic sports. In the final regular-season game of the year, his team, with one loss (which it later avenged), was playing a school that was undefeated. The winner of this game would be the regular season champion and, more importantly, would have a much easier road in the playoffs, virtually assured of a spot in the championship game.

Making matters more interesting was the fact that one of OYS's best friends from camp was the star player on the other team (indeed, the leading scorer in the league)and OYS the best position player on his (and probably the best defenseman in the league, IIDSSM). The fact that OYS plays defense and his friend offense made it even more intriguing.

The game was very intense and very physical, indeed more like a varsity game than JV. OYS and his friend each played over half the game and were at each other all game long. In the second period OYS took a penalty as he and his friend crashed into the boards (at least OYS got his money's worth!). In the third period, OYS's friend mugged him but they were both tossed with coincidental minor penalties.

The good news is that OYS's team won, 3 - 1. The better news is that after the game, OYS and his friend, wiped out and sore after going at each other for 36 minutes, were still best of friends, shmoozing and laughing and looking forward to the next time they get together.