Skyview’s tournament memories
A state tournament experience is so much more than just two or three games.
The Skyview girls basketball team spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Tacoma making memories. Some of them had to do with basketball. But there were other things, too.
- Some of the players met former NBA All-Star Brandon Roy.
- They had dinner with a grizzly bear.
- They had loud birthday celebrations at restaurants for people who weren’t actually having birthdays.
- They went to a movie, to catch up on some sleep.
It was all about doing these things together.
Then there is something they would probably like to forget. They welcomed an old reporter to their dinner on Friday night. 🙂
Special days:
Senior Carli Fultz became a spokeswoman of the team’s experience.
“It’s kind of bittersweet. Aubrey (Ward-El) and I have been playing together since third grade,” Fultz said, before adding names of other teammates who came along in the following years. “It’s the last week with your sisters.”
So they made sure to enjoy this time.
Even after a first-round defeat on Thursday.
“After the loss, we didn’t stop making memories,” Fultz said. “We still continued to be around each other. That’s what is important.”
Fultz said years from now, no one will remember how well they played, how many rebounds they got. They will remember hanging out at the hotel, team meals, and just trying to find another reason to laugh with one another.
Friday night, at Rock Wood Fried Pizza, the team ate their meal next to a skeleton of a grizzly bear. That doesn’t happen at the Skyview cafeteria.
Ashes to ashes:
Some of you might have noticed a dark “scar” on the players’ legs. It’s actually ash from a bonfire they had a while back.
At this team bonding moment, the players wrote on a piece of wood the things they would give up during the season, to show a commitment to the team. Soda. Fast food. Ice cream. You know the drill. Then they used that wood in the bonfire.
The next day, the seniors recovered the ashes from that fire. And the players have used that ash for every game this season.
Movie stars:
Here is a fun fact I learned Friday night:
Sydney and Riley Friauf have made it into the movies.
They did not realize it until the second time they watched the movie, but yes, that’s them, in a crowd scene of “Katy Perry The Movie: Part of Me.”
“We started freaking out,” Riley said when they noticed themselves.
Again, it was on the second screening of the movie that they actually noticed those two seconds. But important two seconds!
Down time:
After Friday’s consolation round victory, the team went to the Lego movie.
More than half of the team fell asleep for at least a little bit.
Hey, that’s what happens when you ask a basketball team to play at 9 in the morning. The players get tired.
But the Skyview Storm never got tired of each other. A memorable week, and for the seniors, a memorable career. For basketball, and for a lot more.
