If you want to have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself...you must be living in your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The Great Black Swamp was a huge, glacially-formed wetland stretching from far northeastern Indiana into a good bit of northwestern Ohio. It wasn't drained until the late 1800's, and is now primarily farmland. Being one of the last areas of the country to be settled, perhaps -I don't know why exactly, but there's not much out there.
Traveling to Defiance Ohio, there are beautiful old railroad tresses and narrow bridges under tracks in the town - a throw back to a railroad area. According to www.ask.com, Defiance got its name from General "Mad"Anthony Wayne, who was so proud of his moat and 8-foot thick fort walls he defied the English to overcome it.
At the Sherwood School on US 127, the local girls from this barren Midwestern location come out during March Madness to play some serious basketball. In the very first game, the die was cast. Number 35 from Holgate, OH was a tall, lumbering, awkward-looking player, but make no mistake: she knew the game of basketball. These are the teams with one great player the team is centred around - the other players are so inexperienced they are not used to being even touched on the back on the court.
In the first few minutes of the game 35 would take the ball down and our quick players would cover her, and she would immediately draw a foul - the slightest brush against this big girl was a foul. Then she showed herself to be the Yo Min of Ohio that she was - her first two free throws went in swish, swish, and then then next time she got the ball, she didn't drive in, she pulled back for a three pointer. And it went in, swish. And then in two more plays, she drew the foul again. And again swish, swish with the free throws. I yelled from the stands, "don't touch number 35!" and then I actually saw eye contact, and a smile, between the player and the official.
OK, Ohio wants to win the tournament they put on, and we've come the farthest, from the big scary urban area of the Fort. What's wonderful here is to see the love of the game, and how hard these girls play, and to watch a good player get in the zone. The girls from towns with names like Napoleon and Antwerp, OH, the parents who scream and fight it out and live for and through their kids - this is something to experience, something magical about basketball.
I won't tell you how the tournament turned out - our girls won more than they lost but had a poor shooting percentage. The Comfort Inn in Defiance OH served well enough - the kids liked the waffle bar and the free hot chocolate in the lobby. East of Chicago pizza was a parent's call, and it was decent - our first carry out choice at home is Marco's. We all brought lots of fruits, vegetables, and sandwich makings for the tournament also. Lots of hydration is important for adults as well as the children on these excursions. Water, Gatorade, whatever. It was fun to follow the sun setting in the West to pilot our way home on the rural county roads.
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