Here's a great photo of some of the team members in front of the Sears Tower.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Our Early Morning Wake-up Call
Our 'day' started out with a fire alarm at the hotel at 4:00 a.m. Because we were on the 5th floor, we had to descend five flights of stairs and go outside into the snow. The lobby of the hotel was full of sleepy people when the fire trucks arrived. They determined it was malfunctioning equipment at the hotel; this was our second duch alarm during the week. Fortunately, the first one occurred a bit later....more like 11 a.m. It was a refreshing way to start the new year!
Many of the girls stayed up all night, so the little adventure of going out in the snow at 4 a.m. didn't interrupt their sleep. At a more reasonable hour, we packed up the rooms and the cars, ate lunch, and headed off to the airport. While our plane has been here since the original departure time of 5:25, the crew isn't in yet. At this point, our flight is delayed with a scheduled departure of 6:15 p.m.
New Year's Eve at the Navy Pier!
We braved the snow and the crowds and went back into town for New Year's Eve. The weather and our game times had not cooperated earlier in the week when we were scheduled to go to the Navy Pier but we finally got to experience it tonight. It was awesome! We only wished that more of the stores and attractions had been open. Some of us wanted to go on the ferris wheel, but it was closed because of the wind. We spent an hour waiting in the freezing snow and sleet for the fireworks show off the end of the pier. It was well worth the wait. We made it back to our hotel safely, even though the snow is continuing to fall outside. The trees look awesome with the snow on them; it's just like in photos we've seen.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Day 6 in Chicago
As part of our last full day in Chicago, we went to a Chicago Bulls basketball game this afternoon. Although the score was tied at the end of the game and they went into overtime, the Bulls lost by one basket. We came out of the arena to a layer of white covering the ground and more falling from the sky. While we thought it was great fun the first time we watched it snow, we have found that it's very cold to be out in the snow for a long period of time, even just walking to the car. We went to a late dinner and are heading back into town for fireworks over the river. It's still snowing and very cold.
We will be checking on the flight status in the morning; however, we've been assured that O'Hare does a great job of keeping the runways clear. We're looking forward to seeing all the parents at the airport when we arrive at John Wayne tomorrow night! (and the coaches are looking forward to a few days of rest before school starts back up!)
Yes, there WILL be PRACTICE on Wednesday, January 2 from 2-4 pm at the Sunny Hills gym in preparation for Thursday's game against Whitney.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Day 5: No Basketball but Lots of Fun!
Since our tournament ended yesterday, we had time today to do the 'tourist' things we haven't been able to do yet. The coaches had a full day planned for us, beginning with breakfast at Lou Mitchell's, a Chicago restaurant that specializes in breakfast and lunch. After we ate way too much of the delicious food at Lou Mitchell's, we walked to the Sears Tower, enjoying the sights of Chicago along the way. Once we reached the tower, we watched a short video on the history of the building of the Sears Tower followed by a very quick elevator ride to the top of the tower where we enjoyed the Sky tower Observation Deck. Fortunately, it was completely enclosed with glass windows, providing views of the city from all angles. The elevator travels 1,600 feet in a minute; no wonder it was a quick ride to the top!
The next stop on our agenda was the Art Museum. Coach Weinreich provided a narrated tour of the history of Chicago for the girls, pointing out such landmarks as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the L, Union Station, the Board of Trade, and areas where scenes from several movies were filmed in Chicago's downtown area. Once we reached the Art Museum, we had plenty of time to explore and enjoy the exhibits. Contemporary art, modern art, sculptures, and miniatures were among the favorites.
After the Art Museum, we walked forever, or so it felt like, to get back to the cars to drive to Geno's for dinner. Geno's has authentic Chicago-style pizza. Coach Weinreich 'bet' the girls they wouldn't be able to eat more than one piece, and only Jackie could actually finish two pieces! We also had a chance to leave our mark on Chicago by signing our names on the walls of the restaurant.
It started to snow again tonight with big, fluffy snowflakes falling from the sky. Fortunately it waited to snow until we got to Geno's and ended before we drove back to our hotel.
The plan to tire the girls out with a lot of walking and fresh air may have paid off, as they will hopefully go to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour (maybe before 2 a.m.?) Tomorrow we plan to go to the Chicago Bulls game in the afternoon and see fireworks at midnight for our last full day in Chicago.
We've uploaded more pictures from several different cameras for another slideshow. We also have provided pictures from our day's events below.
Chicago: Day 5
We started our day with breakfast at Lou Mitchell's where we had an enormous amount of food. We didn't know that Coach was going to make us walk it off the rest of the day!
Chicago: Day 5 Continued
After breakfast we walked down to the Sears Tower. We took the elevator to the top of this very tall building. It's the tallest in the United States. The elevator went up 1,600 feet in one minute. There were great views of the city of Chicago from the top of the tower! It was a bit cloudy; however, it turned out to be a pretty nice day for looking at Chicago from the top of the Sears Tower. We couldn't see as far as we would have been able to on a really clear day, but we could see nice views.
Day 5 continues with a visit to the Art Museum
We enjoyed the museum while some of us took notes for our Art History Class...extra points count in this class!
Day 5 continues with dinner at Geno's
Where we ate tons of great pizza and wrote our names on the walls! Yes, all that walking made us hungry!!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Game 4: The Final Game!
While we had hoped for a win in our last game in the Oswego Tournament, it was not to be. We ended up placing 8th out of 16 teams; we did better than half of the teams in the tournament. Our fourth quarter was our strongest quarter of the game, scoring nearly half of all our points for the game during this quarter with 17. The ending score was 35-55, a loss for the Lady Lancers against the Plainfield Central Wildcats. This has been a different tournament for us, as they don't use a shot clock for high school sports in Illinois; it's only used at the college level. They also use three referees for each game, although some could argue that even three refs didn't help to see every foul that was made. In our game tonight, the top scorer was Crystal with 7 points followed by Vicky and Kendall, each with 5 points. Ji Hae scored 4 points followed by MacKenzie with 3 points. There was a four-way tie, each two points, from Rachel, Alannah, Jackie, and Jeralynn, completing the total team scoring of 35 points in this game.
Overall for the tournament, our team racked up a total of 139 points, with nearly all of the Lady Lancers contributing to the total points scored. All of the girls played hard both defensively and offensively against some very talented teams, with each girl having playing time during the tournament. Tournament totals for scoring are: Kendall with 38 points followed by JiHae with 27. Alannah scored 12 points and MacKenzie scored 11 points throughout the four days. Both Nicole and Rachel scored 9 points each while Crystal scored 8 points, followed by Jackie with 6 points and Vicky with 5 points. Janice, Jeralynn, and Kylee each scored 2 points, completing the team's total of 139 points during the tournament. Our next game will be Thursday, January 3 at 6:00 p.m. when we take on Whitney in our own Sunny Hills gym. It will be nice to be home for one more game before we begin league play with our first league game against the Troy Warriors at Troy on Wednesday, January 9 at 6:00 p.m.
Because we had a 3:30 game this afternoon, we didn't have time to go into the city. Most of us slept until nearly 11:00 a.m. this morning; only Macey woke in time to go to the Outlet Mall with Coach Del and his family. The earlier game left us time to go to the movies tonight. Tomorrow we will go back into downtown Chicago with our 'list' of sightseeing we hope to accomplish: the Sears Tower, the Navy Pier, and the Art Institute, followed by dinner at Geno's for some Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. We had a few snow flurries today but tomorrow is supposed to be clear and cold. It's even colder down by the lake, especially when the wind comes up.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Game 3: A great game, but alas, a loss
Tonight's third game of the Oswego Tournament was the best game the girls have played yet, but not strong enough to recover from a sluggish third quarter, resulting in a loss with a score of 45-55 against the Oswego East Wolves. The Lady Lancers played very well, both defensively and offensively. Top scorer was Kendall with 14 points followed by Ji Hae with 10. Nicole scored 9 points followed by Jackie with 6 points. Alannah, Rachel, and MacKenzie each scored two points, completing the total team scoring of 45 points. Sunny Hills girls once again scored more points in this game than in their previous game. Although they were leading at the half by 2 points, they were unable to keep the lead. Our next game is tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.
Off the court, we were so excited to wake up this morning to SNOW! Those who live in this area thought we were a bit crazy, as they are fairly tired of seeing snow by now; however, for us it was totally awesome! Our plans to visit the Sears Tower and Navy Pier changed because we wouldn't have been able to see much from the top of the tower today. We went into the city to shop this morning, enjoying the 7-story Macy's and the 3-story Niketown. It was very cold downtown and once the wind came up, it was even colder! We returned to the hotel with enough time to build a snowman and challenge the coaches to a snowball fight before heading off to our game.
The pictures in the slideshow give you an idea of some of the adventures we've had so far. These are from several different cameras, so there are sure to be duplicates. We'll upload a few more cameras tomorrow for more exciting photos.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Game 2: A Lady Lancer Loss
Our second game of the Oswego East Holiday Classic Tournament resulted in a loss for the Lancer Ladies with a score of 31-51 against the Lemont Indians. The Lady Lancers played hard; however, the jet lag may be catching up with them (or could it be that many of them were up way too late last night?). Top scorer was JiHae with 9 points followed by Kendall with 8. MacKenzie scored 6 points followed by Rachel with 4 points. Alannah and Janice each scored two points, completing the total team scoring of 31 points. Sunny Hills girls scored more points in this game than in last night's game but not enough to recover from the loss. Our next game is tomorrow at 5 p.m. against the Oswego East team.
Off the court, we spent today resting and relaxing and trying to recover from little sleep and too much junk food. Some girls went to a movie while others stayed at the hotel and swam. Tomorrow's plans include a trip into downtown Chicago where we hope to go up in the Sears Tower and visit the Navy Pier, weather permitting. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, which the girls find very exciting.
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Funniest moment of the day
Practice shooting off the court