*Ketch-up*

Okay, okay I admit I took a two month break for many reasons but mostly because I have become super busy doing more important things.

I recently have started coaching boys and girls youth basketball which takes up more of my free time every week. Therefore the Clip Joint has been neglected to some extent, not really the team itself but this blog to be completely accurate.

So I began stories of our first season in the big time and our early struggles which manifested themselves into mid-season struggles which culminated into a finals appearance despite said struggles. That's right, you heard me correctly the first time, despite carrying a regular season record of 1-7 into the playoffs as the lowest seed we made the championship game. Despite losing many a game we managed to find a little more cohesion towards the back end of the schedule and our losses were by 9 points or less except for two blow outs early on.

Since the league schedulers insist on being idiots we only had to win 1 game to make the finals. I know, I know seems like a cheap way to do things but we really did not care so when we defeated the #2 seeded team to get an entry for the championship we were extremely confident that we could get it done. All season long we have been playing the role of the underdog despite carrying 5 titles into this league. Nobody expected us to compete with such a small and somewhat undermanned team but we scratched and clawed our way into every game we could.

Last night we attempted to pull the big upset against the #1 seed and for a half it was back and forth as close as you could get, yet we still trailed by a point at the break. An early run and a change in defense made things difficult for us and we dug a hole for ourselves that we could not climb out of. Down by 7-10 points the rest of the way we got it as close as 5 with the ball and a couple of 3 point chances away from making it 2 points but the ball wouldn't go down for us and you combine that with their excellent free throw shooting (somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% at least, 18-20?) it was over Johnny.

So there we were on the bench after the game dejected as our shot at shocking the league had come and gone and another season had ended. A new season is on the horizon but there will be more changes coming...

K.J. has chosen to sit this one out for personal reasons to get in better game shape as he put it and to take a mental breather from all the weekly preparations needed. I will be undergoing surgery that will put me on the shelf for almost the entire season. Despite not suiting up I plan to attend most of the games if not all of them so I will be back on track with the recaps from here on forward. New players coming in, a few moving out and maybe the debut of the long promised Clip Joint movie.....I say maybe because the director has gotten a bit too lazy the last few months...or should I say pre-occupied?

Needless to say that is all for now....until next time...which I promise will not be in 2 months..