Hoop Shoot- State Level

Well, the State Competition came and went last Saturday.  It was a BIG day for Charity!!  She was so good and so brave!  We got to the ghost town looking school way early, and had to stand around for a long time and let the nerves build up.  She started out so calm, but after a few minutes of practice shooting with the competition, the nerves just took over. 

We all couldn't believe how good the other girls were.  And not that Charity wasn't, but they were just REALLY good!  They were the kind of girls who look, walk, and act like guys, so they're super athletic.... not that there's anything wrong with that.  Charity definitely didn't fit that profile in her cute pink jersey and pink warmups with her twinkle toes shoes :)  I was so proud of her and how sweet and cute she looked :)  I'm glad my girl looks like a girl :) basically.  But anyway.  She kept at it, kept practicing, and kept getting nervous :)  We all knew she would do well and that she would do her best.  I had to keep telling her that I knew she could do it!  She really does have SO much in her.  She amazes me so much sometimes.  She's just so ambitious, and so strong and brave.

A nice little action photo.  You'll have to excuse the blurriness and overall crappiness of these pictures.  The place had incredibly terrible lighting and we were not allowed to use flash photography, so I did these all in manual mode to avoid the flash.... it was tricky for me :)  Too bad Brent couldn't have been there!

Charity has so much confidence and so much faith in herself.  It's fun to watch her try new things just for that reason.  She just KNOWS that it's possible!  Even with how good those girls were, I know she had an inkling that it was possible to win.  So she kept at it.

A weak moment/pep talk from Daddy.  Nate was so amazing and helped her through all of her practices and all of the nerves at each competition.  He's just amazing and so is she.

I love that she kept at it!  I LOVE that she tried her best and didn't let herself get down about things DURING the competition.  Those other girls didn't leave a lot of room for mistakes. 

She did really well.  Not as good as at the last two comps, but I really think it was just those bad nerves that got to her.  She did make 9 out of the 25 though, and we were so proud of her!!!  Third place!!!!  (we don't talk about how many people there were competing :) )

And hey, with a trophy like that, how can you not be happy with your performance!!!  She got the bronze trophey, a medal (which they didn't give her till the end when they realized they'd forgotten, so I don't have a picture of it on her there), another basketball (this is her second!) AND a certificate!!!  Doesn't sound like a loss to me :)  She was definitely much happier when she got the trophy.  I kept telling her that to make it as far as she had is nothing to be ashamed of.  And really, it had to end somewhere :)  Those girls spend a LOT of time practicing and have probably been involved in basketball most of their lives.  Sweet little Charity gets to do other things, and still made it to State, so we decided she has the sweeter deal :) 

She wants to try again next year and now she knows what to expect and can practice and get all excited for it.  They have made a shrine to her at her school.... there's a big poster with a bunch of pictures of her receiving tropheys and such.... pretty cool if you ask me.... she's practically famous!  So anyway.  This was a really neat experience for all of us.  I loved being the mom of that cute girl with the fun granny shot :)  She really made us all proud.  Thanks to the Elks lodge for putting this all together and giving us something to do and look forward to.  What a neat organization they are.