April 14th, 2013              

    The Elite United boys started their playoffs on Sunday, April 14th. As much as I hate to say it, I didn't give them any chance to win, based on their play throughout the season. While they have showed moments of solid play, they are more than made up for by moments of indecisiveness and poor play. For a while today, however, I really thought that they were going to prove me wrong. Tyler played better today, and he and his teammates looked very good for the first half of basketball. They stayed within a couple of points of the first place Second Chance team until the final minute of the first half, and things quickly fell apart in the second half. In the blink of an eye the lead was doubled, and by the time the game was over the Second Chance team proved worthy of their first place standing, doubling up the Elite United team 46-23, knocking them out of the playoffs and ending their "season" for this session of basketball.

    This would also be the end for Tyler with the Elite United team. As Tara is going it alone with the kids at night while I am stuck on second shift at work, something had to give. We have already made the decision to have Drew skip the Spring session of hockey, and now it is Tyler's turn to sacrifice. He will not be returning for the next session with the EU team. Tara's already busy schedule isn't the sole reason for this decision, however. Tyler will be playing with the school's Cage teams this summer, and parts of the seasons will conflict. In addition, the coach for today's game told the players after the game that he would cut all of the boys except for a couple. While this is more than likely a true statement, it must be noted that this season started when the 7th and 8th grade boys were still in their school basketball season, so most of these boys were likely already cut from their team. I didn't really see this as a way to build the boys confidence after an already tough season, and I think Tyler saw it the same way. Regardless, it is time for him to move on. He now has a month or so to work on his game by himself to prepare for this summer... that is if he really wants to play basketball for the school.

Playoff Game 1 - vs. Second Chance
	Tyler watching as a teammate shoots a free throw.
	Tyler shooting another long two-point shot.
	Tyler extending his defense out to the three point line.
	Tyler playing defense in the second half.
	Tyler standing next to his opponent while waiting for play to resume.
	In the final game of this session for the Elite United boys, they fell by a score of 46-23 in a game that started out very promising, but quickly fell apart in the second half.