What a tough day for the Landmark Eagles from Cincinnati! 0-3. There are not many days that we pitch an 0’fer, but today was one of them. I was talking to one of our coaches and last year we saw results that we at or above what we thought we would see. This year we have fallen a bit short for several of our teams. Today, our 14U girls lost their final four match up with the MHEA Lady Eagles. The city of Memphis has not been kind to the Eagles the week! The Lady Eagles are a quality team and they took great advantage of our poor shooting day and put us away by a score of 39-20. We then asked our girls to run to their 18U game vs. the SWMO Eagles and play a second game with less than 20 minutes in between games. The second gym was running behind but it didn’t matter much. Three of our starters play for both teams and the battle with the tough team from Memphis proved to take too much out of their legs. The girls played hard but it wasn’t enough. Our 18U boys rounded off a tough day with an 11-point loss to the Austin Royals. It will be interesting to see how our kids (and us parents too!) react to this adversity. Honestly? I trust our kids more than me! :) It's a good thing God is gracious!
Tomorrow many seniors will play in their last game in high school; for some it will be their last “real” game of their lives. These games will mean something different for each kid. It will also mean something for each program. Landmark says goodbye to three kids. Darwin Tolovar, Donald Gordon and Anna Davis will play their last games as Landmark Eagles tomorrow. Darwin and Donald are new players to Landmark. They came to us last summer and helped to fill a void left by 6 seniors on the boys’ side last year. They both stepped up and won the respect and confidence of the coaches quickly and provided great leadership and direction to our young varsity team. Donald and Darwin….We wish you luck.
The girls say goodbye to a very special young woman. Two years ago, the folks at Landmark in Cincinnati were looking to add a girl’s team to the successful boys program they had developed just a few years earlier. Knowing that the first year or two would probably be a struggle on the court, Coach Tom counseled Anna to possibly play for another program but she decided to stay and see what she could do to bring along a core group of seven or eight young teen girls and form some semblance of a basketball team. Last year Anna was a 3rd team All American as the girls finished in the 5A bracket and most of the rest of the girls won the 12U National Championship (anyone who says Anna wasn’t a part of that team is a fool!). This year she was a 2nd team All American and helped lead the team to a strong final four finish in 5A at the varsity level as well as being a leader to the jr. high teams that will finish 3rd or 4th in 6A at both the 12U and 14U levels. Anna is a great basketball player. Anna, however, is so much more than a basketball player. She has shown maturity and leadership beyond her years. This young lady was the force behind bringing together a group of girls and helping them to see what it takes to be a champion. She works harder than any high school athlete I’ve ever known. She is as competitive as they come, but she knows what is really important. She gets on her younger teammates when they don’t perform, but she lifts them up when they fail. She demands their best, but loves them when she doesn’t get it. She has played this entire season in great pain and rarely shown that pain, let alone blamed it for any failure. The Landmark Eagles will miss Anna Davis every time they step on the court next season, but they will survive and overcome. Anna will be replaced on the court. Anna Davis, however, never be replaced as a Landmark Eagle. This team, even this program, is Anna’s. My daughters and their teammates owe a great deal of their success to this young woman. As a dad, I could never express my gratitude for how she has modeled what I want my own daughters to be when they are seniors. We will miss Anna on the court but we will miss her in other ways far more.
Anna, I thank you for being what a Christian athlete should be. I thank you for your friendship and leadership to my girls. I look forward to seeing you play next year at CCU (I hope! J ) You will always be and Eagle in our mind. Next year we’ll just a Golden to the front!
I know each of you would have similar sentiments and stories for you seniors. Make sure you let them know how much they have meant to your team and their teammates tomorrow before you go home.
Good luck to all in your last games at the 2009 Nationals. Thanks to Tim Flatt for this forum and his hard work putting together this tournament for our kids. Thanks to Springfield Missouri for their hospitality. May God grant us all safe travel home.
See you all next year!
Go Eagles!
Posted on
Friday, March 20, 2009
by Jeff Johnson