[Young Drachma]

So we're still cruising in league play, things just aren't that interesting right now even compared to when I started, which is saying a lot.

So after we breezed through our 3 regular season league matches last week, we got up at 5am and headed 3 hours for this 6A/5A tournament with 13 other teams participating.

The original way it was setup when there were just 12 teams was nice, because we were basically in a World Cup group with 2 other teams and the two teams in our group we actually beat, so we'd have ended up playing a 6A powerhouse (a team that rarely loses and finished 2nd in the state last year in 6A) in the semi-finals, which made sense.

But instead, when they went to 14 teams they stuck us the "First Four" style part of the bracket against the host school who we dispatched easily 7-1, only to have to take on the 6A powerhouse in the quarterfinals, meaning lots of other schools that we would've beaten handily while still fresh on Day 1 managed to get further in the bracket, mostly because they probably assumed 3A school meant "not very good" despite not doing any research.

Anyway, we indeed lost to the 6A powerhouse 7-1, mostly as we emphasized our doubles pairings where we thought we'd have more success and I was mostly right. My all-freshman duo actually led in the first set 4-3 before their excitement got the best of them and they lost steam. But the real story is how my 3rd doubles team comprised of one half of my real 3rd doubles pairing (only because we're deep in doubles) and our sort of floating singles player teamed up to knock off this squad in straight sets.

For context, only 5 other schools in the last 4 years have gotten a match off the 6A powerhouse...and needless to say, all of them are other strong 6A powers, so for us to do it -- even if you'd call it a fluke -- is really wild.

Playing such a good team was so cool for my young team in many ways and I'm glad we got to do it, because I saw them happier after this LOSS than I've seen them after matches where we dominated and it validated my decision to really upgrade our schedule. Given how much work it took me to make that happen, I was really gratified about it.

In the end, we went 2-2 at this tournament knocking off 2 of the 6A opponents we faced and making it to the finals of silver bracket, where we lost narrowly to a 6A opponent after 1) we had to forfeit 4th singles because of an injury that happened in the previous match (which we won despite forfeiting a spot, thanks to clutch play from my 4th doubles pairing who were JV subs) and because it was our 7th match in 5 days (and 4th full match in 24 hours) I let the kids pretty much do whatever they wanted; pick your partner, don't play singles, whatever.

Had we played the real lineup, we'd have won...but by that last match, I told the kids there was no pressure and to treat it like practice. My goal is to win state, not 5th place at some 6A tournament where a bad bracketing job denied us a semi-finals spot, lol.

Anyway, it was a really really good experience even with my modest complaining because there simply never get opportunities like this and this the 2nd year in a row where we have -- by far -- the toughest non-conference schedule of any team not in 6A/5A and it's a tradition I intend to continue.

The regular season wanes on, we have 3 games this week and 3 next week before we're done for the year and head to the District playoffs.

We'll clinch our 4th straight league title with a win next Wednesday against our rivals who'll come to our court (assuming neither of us loses a league match between now and then...) and then we have a post-season tuneup match against a non-league opponent on the last day of the regular season next Friday.

I'm still finalizing our playoff lineup, but I feel pretty optimistic about our chances if things break well for us.

Also, I've been named State Coach of the Year for our classification and will get honored with the others in late May. Pretty wild story arc.