Tonight we celebrated the last four years of BULLDOGS Basketball at Phil's annual basketball banquet. You already know how much this program means to our family, so you can imagine the emotions that were involved in such an evening.
Phil's speech was three pages long and it's the first one he's ever actually typed up. He usually just flies by the seat of his pants (which he really excels at!), but this time he wanted to make sure everything was said perfectly. He wanted to mention every player on both the JV and Varsity teams and he wanted to reflect on their progress since day one. It was an EXCELLENT speech. He could be a writer, you know. He COULD do some guest posts on the Pearl Curriculum if he was interested (ah-hem, HONEY?!).
Anyways, before we left for the banquet, Phil asked if he could practice his speech with me. Obviously I said yes, although I really didn't anticipate the number of tears that followed (or the fact that I would have to go out in public afterwards). We'd had our tears at the Qatar tournament and it really felt like we were 'over' the whole no-longer-a-bulldog thing. Ready to move on. Ready to become OFFICIAL FALCONS. Alas, hearing the story of his program (and his kids!) from start to finish was so emotional for the both of us. It took about 40 minutes to get though the entire speech, with many pauses and Nory-do-something-hilarious-please breaks to bring back the composure we'd lost. I joked that I could no longer make it to the real deal, simply because I didn't think there was any way in HECK that I could hold it together for a round two....
I won't get into all of the details, but Phil did a wonderful job and you could FEEL the love pouring out of all 34 hearts in attendance. Should you ever question how great you are, Phil Parkinson, please inquire about the small mountain of Kleenex accumulated at our table. You've transformed the face of BBS basketball from UNDERDOGS to BULLDOGS and we're all cheering you on as you embrace your next coaching assignment (which does indeed begin on Saturday)!
It's time to open our hearts and our family to the Falcons. The Bulldogs will be missed, but a new beginning is here! Let's do this!
XOXO
Phil's speech was three pages long and it's the first one he's ever actually typed up. He usually just flies by the seat of his pants (which he really excels at!), but this time he wanted to make sure everything was said perfectly. He wanted to mention every player on both the JV and Varsity teams and he wanted to reflect on their progress since day one. It was an EXCELLENT speech. He could be a writer, you know. He COULD do some guest posts on the Pearl Curriculum if he was interested (ah-hem, HONEY?!).
Anyways, before we left for the banquet, Phil asked if he could practice his speech with me. Obviously I said yes, although I really didn't anticipate the number of tears that followed (or the fact that I would have to go out in public afterwards). We'd had our tears at the Qatar tournament and it really felt like we were 'over' the whole no-longer-a-bulldog thing. Ready to move on. Ready to become OFFICIAL FALCONS. Alas, hearing the story of his program (and his kids!) from start to finish was so emotional for the both of us. It took about 40 minutes to get though the entire speech, with many pauses and Nory-do-something-hilarious-please breaks to bring back the composure we'd lost. I joked that I could no longer make it to the real deal, simply because I didn't think there was any way in HECK that I could hold it together for a round two....
I won't get into all of the details, but Phil did a wonderful job and you could FEEL the love pouring out of all 34 hearts in attendance. Should you ever question how great you are, Phil Parkinson, please inquire about the small mountain of Kleenex accumulated at our table. You've transformed the face of BBS basketball from UNDERDOGS to BULLDOGS and we're all cheering you on as you embrace your next coaching assignment (which does indeed begin on Saturday)!
It's time to open our hearts and our family to the Falcons. The Bulldogs will be missed, but a new beginning is here! Let's do this!
XOXO
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