Nadel-A-Thon in N.C. ... And a New Gig for Coach Mike

 ^

Dec. 21 was the first day of winter, and we got an early blast of frigid weather in North Carolina. But we were fortunate that we had something to warm our hearts -- a first-ever Charlotte visit from our grand-twins Logan and Jack.

Here they are with Ruthie, their "cousin" hound.

LoJack (and their parents Sammi and Ben) spent much of their vacay with their Aunt Katie, Uncle Ben and cousins Owen and Piper (and the aforementioned Ruthie), who live just a few minutes away from Grandma and Grandpa.

Here are the four cousins (from left - Owen, Piper, Jack, Logan) at an indoor water park. You know how difficult it is to get four kids ages 3 and under to smile and look at the camera at the same time?!?!

We also had fun at the Carolina Raptor Center, looking at hawks, eagles, owls and other birds of prey. Here are the three boys in a small cabin on the site.

And "Lady in Red" Piper, all warm and happy!

After going for a "ride" with Grandma and Grandpa ...

... artist Logan proudly displayed his renowned work, "Portrait of Grandma." The resemblance is uncanny!

One afternoon, Robbie and I and our offspring even got to sneak away for an hour sans kiddos.

Katie and her family moved to Charlotte from Seattle in September, and it's been fantastic having them here. "Fantastic" also is a great word to describe the visit from the Chicago Nadels. Come back soon, y'all -- warmer weather next time, we promise!!

+++

+++

The few birds of prey we saw at the Raptor Center aren't the only Owls in my life these days.

After a two-year Covid hiatus, I'm coaching middle-school girls basketball again. My latest assignment is at Socrates Academy, a highly regarded public charter school only a few minutes from my house.

Hoo are we? The Owls, the mighty, mighty Owls!

We played 4 games before the holiday break. That we won 3 of them is great, because I'm told that there hadn't been a whole lot of winning 'round these parts. More importantly, though -- and I mean it -- is that these kids work so hard, they are so coachable, and they want to improve so much. 

And they have improved a ton in just the time we've been together so far. They're a real likeable group, too, and they support each other and the coaches so well. 

Coach Katie -- yep, Payton Prep's all-time 3-point shooter is my assistant -- and I are very grateful that we get to work with them. And we're excited about what the rest of the season will bring when school resumes in January.

Go Owls!

^

Second stint as middle school coach: A fun first year, and hopefully the start of something big

^
Well, my first season in my second go-round as a middle school basketball coach is in the books.

Our Community House Cavaliers finished 7-7, tied for 4th place in our 8-team conference. Given that 8 of our 11 players had little to no basketball experience coming into the season, I'm pretty darn proud of what those determined athletes were able to accomplish.

Having been part of championship teams, bad teams and every kind of team in between, I'm not gonna try to fool anybody: Being a champion is special. 

Still, at this level, winning and losing really is secondary. My job at Community House is to give my players a fun experience, to grow their love of basketball, to help them improve, to show them tangible evidence that hard work is rewarded, to guide them in overcoming adversity, and other similarly high-minded concepts.

Each of our 11 players started at least one game, and most started multiple times. Every girl played in every game. I honestly believe that all 11 got better as the season progressed.

I'll take all that, and a 7-7 record. (Not that I have a choice - ha!)

We had a team outing to watch my former school, Ardrey Kell HS, play a game.
Community House is the middle school that feeds into AK.

Our season highlight was a 1-point victory at Crestdale in December, as we roared back after falling behind by 15 points. I haven't been part of many post-game locker-room scenes more joyous than that one was. 

When we played the same team at home in January, we again fell way behind (this time by 14 points). Again we rallied, tying it with about a minute to go. But this time, Crestdale made plays down the stretch and we didn't, and we lost by 3. 

As we got deeper into the season, it became obvious that our opponents included:

• 2 deep, talented, tall, well-coached teams (Alexander Graham and South Charlotte) we simply couldn't beat; we were 0-4 in those games.
• 3 less-talented teams (Southwest, Carmel and Quail Hollow) we couldn't have lost to unless we played really, really poorly; we were 6-0 in those games.
• 1 team that was a little better than us (JM Robinson); unfortunately, we went 0-2 against them.
• 1 team that was our absolute equal (Crestdale); we split our two games with them.

We finished last week with a decisive, satisfying victory over Carmel. Two players were out: Meniya, who had been our leading scorer, missed several games with health issues; and Allie, an 8th-grader with little experience but a huge heart, had to leave school early that day because she wasn't feeling well.

In her text telling me she was sick, Allie expressed sadness at having to miss her final game. I relayed that to the girls during my pre-game talk with the team. I encouraged them to appreciate this last opportunity to play with their teammates, and to show it by giving maximum effort on the court.

We then went out and played one of our best quarters of the season, building a 16-4 lead thanks to 9 points from our point guard, Skyler; 4 points and great all-around play from our other 8th-grade standout, Jalayah; and tremendous energy, intensity and defense by the other 7 players.

Jalayah inbounds the ball to Skyler

It was especially nice to see our 7th-graders, who likely will form the nucleus of next year's team, demonstrate how much they have improved by playing well in this season's finale. Emma and Bryson each finished with a career-high 5 points; Emersyn and Avery helped set the tone with their aggressive defense and hustle; Janita battled bigger players to grab several rebounds.

It was a great way to finish the season.

The next night, Community House held its winter sports banquet. My team, the boys team and the cheerleading squad were honored, and the three coaches got to talk about our athletes.

I praised my girls for their work ethic, toughness and resiliency. I talked about some of the challenges we faced and how we dealt with them. I joked about us scoring twice into the wrong basket -- including on our very first play of the season. That's some great coaching there! I said something nice (and true) about each player. 

I also gave out 3 awards: Coach's Award for Aggressiveness to Avery; Heart of a Champion Award, for going above and beyond expectations, to Emma; and MVP to Skyler.

Skyler ended up being our leading scorer, with 110 points. She was followed by Meniya (101) and Jalayah (78). Those three -- the only players who had returned from the 2018-19 team -- accounted for 81.6% of our scoring. 

Add in the three other 8th-graders (Chloe, Alyssa and Allie), and it means we have to replace 87% of our scoring. 

Eighty-seven percent!!

I told the girls, especially the 7th-graders, that it was time for them to do some serious recruiting. They need to talk up how much fun they had being part of the Cavs; they need to convince athletic 7th-graders and 6th-graders to go out for the team next season. I specifically encouraged them to point out how much playing time -- and how many shots -- will be available.

My single biggest surprise this season actually happened before we got started: Even though Community House is one of the largest middle schools in North Carolina, with about 600 girls in 7th and 8th grades, fewer than 20 tried out for our team. (By comparison, more than 120 tried out for the boys team.)

It wasn't what I expected after leaving Ardrey Kell High, where I had been an assistant for two seasons following my first 4-year stint as a middle school coach.

I've since been told that the CH girls program has been down for a few years -- and that we're trying to change the culture to make it a more fun and rewarding experience.

Hopefully, this season will have been a major step in that direction.

+++

Oh, and of course, I can't wrap up a post of The Baldest Truth without putting up a pic of Jack and Logan, my terrific (and terrifically cute) grand-twins.

Happy, 6 Month Birthday, LoJack!

^

My Cavs: Good, with a shot at being Very Good

^

I don't want to leave folks hanging, so here's a quick update on my Community House Cavs ...

We split our games this week.

Fell behind early against our biggest rival, JM Robinson, rallied within 2 after three quarters, but ran out of gas and lost at the end. We got sloppy with the ball when we could least afford it, and also gave up two offensive-rebound putbacks on consecutive possessions. I'm already looking forward to the rematch next month!

Last night, we played well in the first half, and a half-court shot at the buzzer by our point guard Skyler gave us a 13-point lead. Her reaction was precious -- an absolutely amazed look on her face, arms raised as she ran back toward the bench, and she kept shouting, "I made it! I made it!" It was as if we had won the WNBA title.

But despite my stern reminder that we had come back from a bigger deficit just last week against Crestdale, we got a little full of ourselves thinking the game was over. The opponent, Southwest, didn't get that memo. They played harder and better than we did, and we turned the ball over several times as they pressured us a little. Just like that, we were up by only 2.

Thankfully, led by our experienced 8th-graders Skyler, Meniya and Jalayah, we took care of business in the 4th quarter and pulled away to win by 11. Meniya, whose pursuit of the basketball is relentless, finished with 20 points, the highest total by any Cav this season. I liked the defensive effort and hustle we got from our 7th-graders: Emma, Emersyn, Avery and Bryson.

So we take a 3-2 record into the break. Coulda been 4-1 if we hadn't run out of gas against JMR. But coulda been 2-3 if we didn't rally to win at Crestdale or even 1-4 if we also hadn't figured things out last night.

Yep, 3-2 is just about where we should be.

We are a good team, with the potential to be very good. We'll see if the girls (and their coach) are willing and able to make that jump in January.

Most importantly, it's a good group of kids, and a lot of interesting personalities. Very different from most of the girls I coached at my previous middle-school stop.

They do play hard, they want to get better, they want to compete. It's fun being their coach, and I'm excited about the 9 games on our schedule after break.

^

A New Assignment For Coach Nadel

^
A couple of months ago, I received this text message from my basketball coach at Ardrey Kell High, Jeff Buseick:

Community House Middle School is looking for a girls coach. Do you know anyone that would be interested/good?

Community House is one of AK's feeder schools, and many of the best players I had the privilege of assistant-coaching during my two years at AK came from there. So it certainly was in Coach B's interest to get this filled with somebody he could trust.

I was thinking of my many coaching colleagues, and even called one to see if she knew anybody who might want to do it. And then I started thinking ...

Hmmm. I loved coaching that age group during my four wonderful years at Scholars Academy. And I want to be a head coach again. And I don't think I want to be a high school head coach because of the time commitment, especially with all the visits we have to make to our new grand-twins. ... I don't know about the "good" part, but darn right I'm interested!

I told Coach that and he thought it was a great idea. He sent out an email of recommendation, I set up an interview with the Community House AD for the next day, and the offer was waiting for me in my email inbox by the time I got home from the interview.

So I'm a middle school basketball coach again. This conference is a considerable step up from the one that housed Scholars Academy, so I knew it would be a challenge -- but a fun one.

Even though Community House is one of the largest middle schools in North Carolina, with nearly 1,800 students in grades 6-8, not all that many girls showed up for tryouts. (Only 7th and 8th graders are eligible to play.)

Our Cavaliers ended up with an 11-player roster that included 3 girls who were on last season's team (Jalayah, Meniya, Skyler) and 8 of various experience levels -- from some rec ball to having barely ever played (Alyssa, Avery, Emersyn, Emma, Chloe, Allie, Janita, Bryson).

Our season started last week and we were crushed in our opener by South Charlotte MS, whose outstanding point guard will almost certainly be a varsity starter in high school a year from now. We tried man, zone and box-and-1, and we never could corral her. Offensively, we committed too many turnovers and missed too many layups. The Cavs simply were out-played and out-coached. 

Oh, and the first points of my second go-round as a middle school coach were scored in the opponent's basket after some confusion following the jump ball. Yep, we made the layup ... and we were down 2-0.

Thankfully, one of the great things about sports is that you get a chance to play again soon. This past Monday, Dec. 9, we went to Quail Hollow MS and rolled to victory. 

Our energetic 4, Meniya, dominated defensively and on the boards; our do-everything wing, Jalayah, smoothly navigated around defenders, scoring and setting up teammates; our point guard, Skyler, ran the offense efficiently; everybody contributed; and 8 of our 11 players scored. It was rewarding to see the girls execute the things we had been working on in practice.

The boys coach snapped this photo of me in my CHMS polo during the Quail Hollow game. (My wife was like, "What? He couldn't have gotten any of the team in the photo? You look like some random bald guy standing in a gym.")

Then came Thursday, Dec. 12. We went to Crestdale MS and fell behind 20-5 midway through the second quarter. Skyler had 3 fouls. We couldn't make a shot. We were missing defensive assignments, leading to numerous layups by our opponent. 

Then a little life ... we finished the half with an 8-0 run that included Meniya's 3-pointer and much better defense. Down only 20-13, I told them at halftime that we were right in the game but needed to turn up our defensive intensity.

I started Meniya and Skyler in the second half even though each had 3 fouls. We outscored Crestdale 11-6 in the quarter to make it 26-24. It was a game now.

We finally caught them midway through the fourth quarter ... but both Meniya and Jalayah fouled out. Our role players, who had done well all game, really stepped up. Emersyn made a huge 17-footer, Chloe hit a free throw for our final point, and Emma grabbed the clinching rebound. 

Community House 35, Crestdale 34

Our bench exploded with excitement and I pumped my fist. After the handshake line, the girls went to the locker room to wait for me. I gave them a minute to let it sink in and then I burst through the door, clapping. The girls followed suit, clapping and hootin' and hollerin'. It was an incredible scene of exuberance that lasted a couple of minutes. You gotta love youth sports!

I told the girls how amazing that was: down 20-5 to a good team but battling back, never quitting, showing heart, showing skill, a complete team victory with so many contributing. I told them how proud I was of them, and that wasn't just coach-speak.

I left the locker room completely energized. It doesn't matter what level it is -- from Biddy Ball all the way to the WNBA or NBA --  a comeback like that feels awesome. 

Hey, here's an interesting aside ...

I got back to the bench to collect my things before the boys game would start, and the refs were talking to the scorer's table. It seemed the final score on the board (36-35) didn't match the one in the official book, which is always kept by the home team. I looked at the book my manager kept and noted the discrepancy: We still won, but it was actually 35-34. 

The refs signed off on it, and it was all good ... but can you imagine if they had determined that the game was tied, or that we had lost? I don't know what they would have done ... and I'm glad I didn't have to find out!!!!!!

Look, winning is not my main mission in this assignment. I want to give these kids a great basketball experience, help them improve as players, maybe even teach a life lesson or two along the way. I play every girl in every game -- all have made the commitment and all work hard in practice; they all deserve to play. I already have started 9 of our 11 players, and the other 2 will get a start soon.

Nevertheless, the scoreboard does have numbers on it, and at the end of the game one team's number will be at least 1 point higher than the other team's. So we might as well endeavor to be the team with the higher number, right?
^
^
I know I hadn't posted on The Baldest Truth in several months. A lot going on. And when I had posted, it was all about "LoJack" -- my beautiful grand-twins, Logan and Jack.

I figure I shouldn't hit the button on this without showing a few of the latest pix of these 4-month-old wonderboys.

Happy Jack

Laughing Logan

LoJack at 4 months

Life is good, folks!!

We Are The Champions ... Again!

^
In a satisfying finish to a fun, crazy, adversity-filled but ultimately triumphant season for my high-flying Scholars Academy Eagles, we used a big third-quarter surge Monday to put away our rivals, Fletcher, and win our second consecutive Charlotte Gastonia Athletic Association championship.

Scholars Academy, the No. 1-ranked elementary charter school in North Carolina (and No. 3 in the nation), had not ever reached the title game until 2015 ... but now we're on a roll!

Three straight appearances, including two consecutive championships - I'm so proud of my hard-working, determined Eagles.

When the final horn sounded for our 29-20 victory, we celebrated with hugs and high-fives and laughter and smiles, as parents clicked hundreds of photos. A few of the girls started acting a little weird and then I found out why, as they pulled out cans of Silly String and let me have it!

They later said they had considered the more traditional Gatorade bath but realized the clean-up would have been ridiculous. Another smart basketball decision by my girls!

The game was supposed to have been played last Thursday, but our opponent requested a delay because their coach had to leave town for a family emergency. We of course granted their request. At first, I wished we had played because we had a lot of momentum going after two playoff wins earlier last week. But in retrospect, it was great because it meant the season got to last a little longer!

We have one more team function, our season-ending party on Saturday, and I'll have a more detailed report after that.

Until then, I will bask in the championship glow for a few days ... and I'll keep trying to get all of the Silly String off of my clothes - a small price to pay for such a wonderful accomplishment.
^

Wow! What A Day!

^
I'm thinking that there will be even better days to come, but it will be pretty hard to top Jan. 24, 2017.

To date, it's my favorite day of 2017 ... BY FAR.

++ This morning, I received word that the captain and point guard of my girls basketball team, Ritika, was medically cleared after having suffered a mild concussion that had kept her out of four games. We had managed to win our first playoff game without her thanks to a tough-minded (albeit a little sloppy) effort by the rest of girls, but Ritika is the best player in our league and she makes everybody better. I was happy for my Eagles that she would be returning and, selfishly, happy for myself. But mostly I was happy for Ritika, because I think she loves basketball more than any player I've coached. Sitting out was driving her nuts!!!!!

++ A few hours later, we played our semifinal game and we were outstanding. Ritika was absolutely amazing - watching her, one never would have believed she had been sidelined. She and her teammates dominated our outclassed opponent in every facet of the game. We were up 18-2 when I called off the press in the second quarter, and we cruised to victory to advance to the conference championship game for the third consecutive season. Thursday, we go for our second straight title.

++ Right after our game, the school's boys team played really well to win their quarterfinal game. I was so caught up in the action that I made a few mistakes running the clock for the game. My girls, many of whom stuck around to watch their classmates, now have something they can make fun of me for. Or maybe I should say they have something ELSE they can make fun of me for!

++ Finally, my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles stormed from behind to beat defending national champion Villanova - the No. 1 team in the country - in a thrilling finish. Students and others in attendance stormed the court to celebrate the "signature win" for third-year Steve Wojciechowski, which came just three days after a huge road victory over No. 7 Creighton. Tuesday was the first time we had beaten a No. 1-ranked team since Dwayne Wade led the 2003 group into the Final Four with an incredible win over Kentucky. Wow!

I'm still flying pretty high from all of the day's excitement, and I'm already looking forward to the rest of what's shaping up as one heck of a week.
^

Another fantastic finish for the Sons of Pitches, another super start for my hoopin' Eagles

^
Election aside (I'll save my musings on that subject for another time), Tuesday was a wonderful day for a beginning and fantastic evening for an ending.

First, my Scholars Academy Eagles girls basketball team won our season opener. Although we lost a lot of offensive weapons from last season's championship squad, I was thrilled to see that our trademark "outwork-'em-to-death" style is back in full force.

We had trouble scoring early, but we were relentless on defense and just wore down our opponent to pull away in the second half. Our captain, 8th-grader Ritika, has been with me for all four of my years at the school. She controlled the game at point guard and, as is her custom, she nailed a dagger of a 3-pointer to break our opponent's back. She got strong support from Deirdre, our talented 6th-grader who matched Ritika's 8 points, and the rest of her aggressive, hard-working teammates.

It's always nice to start off with a win. You can't go undefeated if you lose your first game!

After my Eagles wrapped up the victory in Rock Hill, S.C., I jumped in my car and drove 35 minutes to Charlotte, where our Sons of Pitches won our second Carolina Senior Softball championship.

We tend to like to do things the hard way, and we outdid ourselves this time. Due to injuries, absences and, yes, a little bit of bad, old-fashioned poor play, we only had a 4-6 record in the Fall season. So we entered the postseason tournament as the No. 9 seed -- meaning that if we were going to win the title, we would have to do win four straight games as the visitors.

We opened the tournament with a 19-3 thrashing of the No. 8 seed. We then took out the No. 1 seed, a team that had only lost once, advancing to Tuesday's Final Four.

In the semifinal, we faced the No. 4 seed, Orange Crush. We proceeded to crush the softball all game long and rolled to a 19-13 victory. I had a couple of hits but most notably got a lot of exercise shifting from right-center field to left-center field and back again.

Our regular LCF, Rick, is one of the best outfielders around. Meanwhile, I'm primarily a catcher who has trouble seeing flyballs at night; I was needed for the outfield because one of our players was out of the country and another was hurt. So when there was a right-handed hitter batting, Rick would play LCF and I would play RCF, as he was more likely to get a ball pulled to him. And when there was a left-handed hitter up (or, in a couple of instances, a righty who liked to go to the opposite field), Rick would shift to RCF and I'd move to LCF.

Our inventive manager Pat devised this strategy and, unlike some of his strategies, this one actually worked - ha! I didn't get a single fly all game, Rick got several, and I think it messed with our opponents' minds to see us shifting constantly.

That win put us in the championship game against the same team that had thrashed us a few months earlier in the Spring title game, the Raiders. Unlike Al Davis' old Oakland Raiders, this time these Raiders didn't "just win, baby." Our bats stayed hot, we jumped on them for 3 in the first and 5 in the second (capped by yours truly's "mini-walkoff hit"), and we led from beginning to end in our 18-11 victory.

The final out set off a nice little celebration that put an exclamation point on an amazing two-year run for the SoPs.

In the CSS, teams are re-drafted every other year, so the nucleus of teams are together for two years. That's four seasons: two Spring and two Fall. In that span, we won two championships (2015 Spring, 2016 Fall) and a runner-up trophy (2016 Spring). The only time we didn't at least reach the title game was Fall 2015, when bad weather canceled the entire postseason. Pretty darn impressive, no?

More important than the championships have been the friendships. We have a great group of guys who pick each other up and cheer each other on. We like to clown around, but we're all business once the games start. (Almost all business. When Pat or Bob shout, "Come on guys, one out at a time," my response usually is, "Screw that, I'm getting 2 outs at a time!")

Peter and Eddie, injury-replacement players who joined us most recently, shored up our infield and brought big bats (and great attitudes) to our team. "Good Mike" (as opposed to me, "Bad Mike") and Doug were the injured guys they replaced, yet both showed up for the final four, coached the bases and rooted us on. Bruce was our resident wise-ass, and also a good hitter and outfielder. Gary, our left fielder and cleanup hitter, has a lethal bat to right-center field. Rick is the ultimate table-setter, a leadoff man who got on base nearly every time and had speed to burn (for an old dude). Jerry, our shortstop, never met a pitch he didn't like; he was especially adept at crushing pitches over his head. Bob was the best first baseman in the league and a perfectionist who, um, "gently reminded" everybody else to do things right. O.K. and Mickey, our two most senior seniors, are still going strong even though 70 has been in their rearview mirrors for quite a few years. Wayne was a good clutch hitter who, importantly, was reliable when it came to going out for a beer. Pat was our No. 3 hitter who pitched superbly in the playoffs after excelling at other positions during the season. And I was the keep-it-loose guy with the big mouth who had a few decent moments at the plate (too few) and tried not to screw up too often in the field.

This was my third season with O.K. and Wayne, and my fourth with Good Mike and Bob, and I've been lucky to be around them for all these years.

And Pat ... we entered the league at the same time, all the way back in 2012, and were thrown together on a team of misfits. We've been together ever since, for five seasons, as he kept trading for me after he became a manager. He loves telling stories about how he traded a blind guy for me -- or was it a double amputee or a dead guy? I'm pretty sure he just kept bringing me along because he wanted to make sure he had a teammate who would be willing to grab a beer after games. As much as I (and many of our teammates) like to kid Pat, he's been a great manager and a true amico.

Lots of teams talk about camaraderie, chemistry and other hard-to-quantify intangibles, but it really, truly has been the case for this group. I've been involved with a lot of teams in a lot of sports, as a player, a coach, a parent, a writer, etc., and this one has been extra special.

Here's to you, Sons of Pitches: great champions, great guys, great friends.
^

Greatness calls, and my Eagles answer

^

Our Eagles dared to fly high … and we kept soaring till we reached the mountaintop.

By early December, I was pretty sure our Scholars Academy middle-school girls' basketball squad was the best team in the Charlotte Gastonia Athletic Association. We showed it by going 16-2 during the season, and we clinched it by dominating our three playoff opponents. The combined score of those three victories: 103-37.

One year after going to the championship game for the first time in school history – but losing – we took care of our unfinished business. We won Scholars’ first regular-season conference title and then, on Tuesday, March 1, we captured our school’s first tournament championship.

Naturally, we celebrated on the court after our historic, satisfying victory. It was spontaneous and beautiful and even more joyous than I had imagined it would be. Hugs, high-fives and handshakes were plentiful as the 11 girls, their parents, their siblings, several students and many faculty members basked in the thrill of victory. The girls and I posed with the trophies as moms and dads snapped hundreds of pictures.

Because we had tied for the regular-season title and then lost a coin flip, we had to play the game on the road, and it was surreal celebrating our victory on “foreign soil.” There our opponents were, in their home gym, and they had to watch us carry on. I stole a few glances at the Countryside Montessori players, and I remembered the empty feeling we had a year earlier when we were the ones who had to force smiles as we posed with the runner-up trophy.

The 11 girls and I took a brief break from the on-court merriment, going into a conference room to celebrate in private. That, too, was a fun, rambunctious scene of table pounding and hoots. One of our captains, Olivia, interrupted the hollering with: “Guys … guys … I have something to say!” For a moment she got a serious look on her face and then she smiled and whispered: 

“We won the championship!” 

And everybody yelled and screamed and pounded the table again. Too much fun!!

We then went back onto the court to celebrate some more. Finally, players and families started filtering out of the gym.

My son Ben was visiting from Chicago, and he, my wife Roberta and I drove to a nearby restaurant. I had trouble winding down from the excitement, even as I enjoyed a craft beer from – appropriately enough -- Victory Brewing Company. Ben, who specifically timed his visit in hopes of seeing us in the title game, talked about the team and the season with me for about an hour. It was special to share this culmination of three years of hard work with my loved ones.

The warm glow of triumph continued for several days of congratulatory emails, texts and Facebook posts. Finally, on Saturday, we had our team party.

Compared to the wild post-game celebration, the party was relatively tame. Our gracious hosts (parents of our standout guard, Ritika) served up food and soft drinks. As the girls enjoyed hanging out together at their final team function, I chatted easily with their parents. Because I have been the coach since the 2013-14 season, I have gotten to know many of the parents quite well; three of their daughters (Ritika, Olivia, Celeste) were with me for all three years, and three others for two years (Sholeh, Beijul, Charlotte).

Then it came time for my annual post-season speech. I said something about each girl, recapping her contributions to the team, and also handed out the awards.

Our Heroes

Celeste, an 8^th-grade tri-captain, had the “monster season” I had predicted she would have. Tall and very athletic – a rare combination at this age – she developed a practically automatic 10- to 15-foot jumper from the high post. She led us in scoring in each playoff game and she dominated the championship contest, finishing with half of our 28 points. She was a rock on defense all season, routinely registering double-digit blocks and rebounds. Celeste scored 168 points, 100 more than in either of her first two years, and was our co-MVP.

Sholeh progressed rapidly from ex-soccer-playing basketball neophyte as a 7^th-grader to All-Conference performer as an 8^th-grader. Once she decided she loved basketball, she worked tirelessly to improve. She developed a picture-perfect jumper and outstanding layup form; the latter was especially useful because her aggressive defense at the top of our 2-3 zone created numerous layup attempts. Scholars doesn’t keep individual athletic records, but it’s hard to believe any previous girl had scored more than Sholeh’s 212 points this season. A tri-captain and co-MVP, she fought through a bad cold to score 8 points in the championship game.

Olivia, another 8^th-grader, has gracefully grown into her height. She sported a nice outside shot and became a reliable interior defender and rebounder. Mostly, though, she was our calming influence on offense. Whether I used her at wing, on the high-post or at point, she had a knack for sizing up the defense, making good passes and minimizing turnovers. Because she made her teammates better, she had a major impact even when she didn’t score much herself. Olivia was our Offensive Player of the Year.

Charlotte, another 8^th-grader, was a tiny but tough player two years earlier, and she thankfully returned to the team after taking a one-year break from basketball. She improved, oh, a bazillion percent from 6^th grade and was no longer tiny. She was as good a defender as I have coached, equally comfortable playing man-to-man, hassling the opposition at the top of our zone or defending the baseline. Particularly lethal at the point of our devastating 1-2-1-1 press, Charlotte was an obvious choice as our Defensive Player of the Year.

Ritika, a third-year player who joined the program as a 5th-grader, is the best 3-point shooter in the league by a mile: 20 made treys the last two seasons. She also has become an outstanding defender with quick hands and a nose for the basketball. And she plays both wing and point guard equally well. Unselfish almost to a fault and respected by her teammates for her tenacity and intelligence, she received the Coach’s Award for Leadership.

Deirdre, a 5^th-grader I call “Rookie,” was only supposed to be the team manager but she earned a promotion in December and quickly moved up the depth chart. She finished as our highest scorer off the bench, and I am very excited about her future … but I’ll probably have to come up with a new nickname for her next year!

Eighth-graders Beijul and Soenika and 7^th-graders Kaylee, Emma and Jackie were valuable reserves. I gave everybody plenty of playing time during the regular season, but I did explain to them that the starters would get most of the court time in the playoffs. I asked them to be ready to give us short bursts of energy when they got into playoff games, and I’m thrilled to say that’s what each of them did.

At our party, I reminded the girls and their parents that we had lost our three leading scorers from the previous season, so we needed our returning players to improve dramatically. And did they ever!

Celeste, Olivia and Ritika each scored more points this season than they had in their first two years combined. And Sholeh, our top returning scorer with 72 points in 2014-15, nearly tripled her output. Add in the return of a vastly improved Charlotte and the outstanding work by our reserves, and we had so much going for us that not even the coach could screw things up! We outscored our opponents 706-279.

Not bad for a bunch of “highly gifted” kids at a small charter school that is tucked inside a business park down the block from Costco. We have only a small practice gym and play our games at a church several miles away. My first year, the top returning scorer quit the day before our first practice because she decided to join the Mock Trial team instead. In 2014-15, one player missed practices because of her involvement in Science Olympiad, and another missed games this season to compete in Robotics tournaments. All schools claim academics come first; at Scholars Academy, they really mean it.

I concluded my speech by saying this team had set a standard that future generations of Eagles will be hard-pressed to match. And I got a little choked up when I noted how strange it will be to look out on the court at our first practice next season and not see Soenika, Beijul, Charlotte, Sholeh and, especially, three-year starters Olivia and Celeste.

After I was done with my (too) long soliloquy, Olivia's mother Jen, our "Team Mom," presented me with a framed, signed team photo and said several nice things about how lucky Scholars was to have me. Obviously, I have been every bit as lucky, and more.

This is my first head-coaching job, and I was as green as most of the players back in 2013-14. I like to think they have learned a thing or two from me, yes, but I know I have learned a ton from them. We grew together, which is why reaching the mountaintop with them was such a special, emotional experience for me.

While I believe I will return for a fourth season at Scholars Academy, I honestly can't say with 100% certainty what the future holds for me in this crazy profession. I almost left for a high school JV job last fall, but the voice in my head said to stay with the Eagles and take care of unfinished business. I have zero regrets.

As for the six 8^th-graders who have done so much for our program, I am supremely confident they will be stars in life and will contribute amazing things to society. It makes me feel good that we shared a mutual basketball experience none of us ever will forget.

Still, I admit I also feel a tinge of sadness. I am proud of my Eagles, and I am honored to have been their coach, but I hate having to say good-bye to these incredible champions.

I know that’s how life works, especially in sports, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

^

Two super teams, one Super prediction

^
In late December, after the Panthers lost to the Falcons to fall to 14-1, my son Ben asked who I thought would lose next: the Panthers or the girls basketball team I coach, the Scholars Academy Eagles.

"The Panthers," I said.

Ben was surprised by my response. I'm a huge Panthers fan and a second loss would knock them out of the playoffs. Did I really think that would happen before my team, which was only 5-0 at the time, would lose?

"Yeah," I said. "I'm guessing the Panthers will lose one game next September or October before my girls start our 2016-17 season."

Even my son, a tough critic, had to admit that was a pretty good answer.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be the wrong answer.

On Tuesday, we put our 12-0 record on the line and pretty much got run out of the gym by a quicker team. It was the same team we had defeated in last year's semifinals, but this time our outstanding center, Celeste, was home sick with a cold. Without our shot-blocker -- not to mention one of our best shot-makers -- we wilted in the second half.

Of course, I'm not certain we would have won even if we had Celeste, as we did lose to that team by a single point last season. We are a very good shooting team for this age group but made hardly anything Tuesday, and that very well might have doomed us even if our center had been healthy.

+++

Meanwhile, the Panthers have not lost again since their setback in Atlanta. They ended the regular season by crushing the Bucs -- sending Lovie Smith into the coaching abyss -- and then scored impressive victories over the Seahawks and Cardinals, teams many regarded as the two most dangerous in the league.

All of that good work has put the Panthers into the Super Bowl against the Broncos. Oddsmakers have established my heroes as 5 1/2-point favorites ... and although I won't place any bets, I certainly would side with the Panthers if I did.

Yes, I'm a fan, but I'm pretty objective as fans go. (Three decades of sportswriting does that to a guy.) I simply see Carolina as the superior all-around team: far more dynamic and balanced offensively, and every bit as impressive defensively. While Cam Newton has matured into being the best quarterback in the league, 106-year-old Peyton Manning hopes to keep his body in one piece for one last hurrah.

The Broncos' strength is their outside pass rush, but even that could end up working in the Panthers' favor. If DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller get caught a little too far upfield trying to get to Newton, he will run wild into the middle of the field. If the Panthers can do a decent job of keeping those great linebackers off of Cam -- and I think they will -- it could end up being yet another lopsided Super loss for the Broncos.

+++

As for my Eagles, we got to experience one of the things I really like about sports: the quick turn-around.

Wednesday, one day after having a less-than-stellar performance and suffering our first loss, we played extremely well in a dominant 36-10 victory.

Celeste was back to anchor our defense, our leading scorer Sholeh found the touch that had abandoned her the day before, our top outside shooters Ritika and Olivia each swished a 3, and our defense was active and effective.

Plus, the 5th-grader we affectionately call "Rookie" had her best game -- stealing the ball several times, setting some great picks and scoring on three confident, aggressive takes to the hoop. On the third, she used a hesitation dribble to beat her defender, drove, scored and got fouled for an "and-1." The girls on the bench went wild, not just because Rookie made such a nice move but because we had worked on hesitation moves just two days earlier in practice. Which made the bald, old coach pretty happy, too!

+++

So I was wrong about which team would lose next. But if you ask me the question again ... I'll STILL say next season's Panthers.

I'm not a big believer in an undefeated team "needing" to lose in the regular season to be more psychologically prepared to win in the playoffs, but I do agree with my athletic director that sometimes a loss will re-focus a team.

We have 7 games to go -- 4 in the regular season and then, hopefully, 3 in the playoffs -- and I'm confident this group will run the table.

And the Panthers ... well, a loss Sunday ain't gonna happen.

Yes, I know most of America is rooting for Peyton Manning to go out a champion, but he's got his ring. The Bears helped assure him of that. It's our turn, now.

Panthers 30, Broncos 16.

KEEP POUNDING, BABY!!!
^

Criticizing Cam is a lot easier than beating him; also - my undefeated Eagles

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I know it's been more than a month since I've posted. I'm a busy man! Well, maybe not all THAT busy, but busy enough that writing for free is not my first priority. OK, enough about not writing ...

The big story here in Charlotte is that Cam Newton celebrates too much.

Newton has led his Panthers to a 9-0 start. Barring an epic collapse, he will be taking his Panthers to their first back-to-back-to-back playoff appearances ever. While Tom Brady almost certainly will be the NFL MVP again, Newton is in the discussion. He has improved markedly at every phase of quarterback play while remaining a lethal weapon as a runner.

Did I mention the Panthers were 9-0?

And yet thousands of folks here think he celebrates too much.

I guess they'd rather have Jimmy Clausen, who in his lone year as Panthers QB certainly didn't celebrate too much. Because QBs don't usually celebrate when they throw interceptions or get sacked.

Just the other day, I had this conversation with a fellow Panthers fan:

Him: "Who do you root for?"
Me: "The Panthers, of course!"
Him: "Yeah, they're doing great. But I don't really like Cam."

I've had versions of that conversation with many others, too. I had almost that exact conversation with a guy at a Panthers game this season. One they were winning. One in which Cam already had two touchdowns. It's the damnedest thing.

I wonder if there would be a backlash if Cam celebrated with the Discount Double Check or by sprinting downfield with his arms out -- to cite the most recent Green Bay stars at the position.

Guys who also happen to be white.

I mean, are there any Patriots fans who don't like Brady because he's often seen cursing profusely on the sideline? Are there Texan fans who don't like J.J. Watt because he celebrates his sacks?

I know, I know, I'm playing the race card with no proof. But sorry. I just think there's some racism involved, and that's sad.

What I don't hear fans say too often is what a great leader Cam has become. How when WR Philly Brown dropped a bunch of passes this preseason and was booed mercilessly for it, Cam was the first guy to embrace him and tell him to hang in there. Brown, by the way, hasn't dropped a single pass during the regular season. Coincidence? Maybe.

I also don't hear fans talk too often about Cam becoming a big-time positive contributor to the community here in Charlotte, about his many dealings with children, especially those less fortunate.

Yes, Cam makes the first-down signal when he runs for a first down and he dances when he scores and he hands the football to a little kid in the stands after a Panthers touchdown. Ipso fatso, he is too brash and lacks humility. Riiiight.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed watching Cam and the Panthers this season. It's fun to root for a team -- something I didn't do for decades as a sportswriter. And it's been extra fun because I really did start following them closely well before they started winning big. It's cool to see a player like Cam and a team overall grow up before my very eyes.

I'm not counting on a 19-0 run through the Super Bowl -- heck, the Panthers might lose to the Scalping Savages this Sunday. But I do think there's a legitimate chance they get to the Super Bowl and maybe win it.

And if they do, I plan to dance!

+++

Speaking of unbeaten teams, my Scholars Academy Eagles are 2-0 going into our Thanksgiving break. The girls have soundly defeated our first two opponents, but I think they realize those teams haven't been very good. We will get severely tested in our next two games against the only two teams that beat us last season.

Even though we lost our top three scorers from last season -- all great kids and leaders, too -- I am really liking this team's personality, experience and combination of skills. We are fortunate to have several eighth-graders who have been with me for two or three seasons, and it shows in the way they work together on the court and have fun with each other off the court.

My first-year point guard (second year on the team, but she was exclusively a wing last season) has been outstanding, and our center has been dominant. We have a lot of nice role players, as well. Mostly, we still play with great aggressiveness and passion, and that's the best way to win at this level.

+++

It's not the same as being undefeated, but my latest article on financial site Seeking Alpha marked my 17th consecutive "Editors' Pick" dating back to April.

It's always nice to get a thumbs-up.

+++

I promise I won't go another month (or more) without posting again. Next week is Thanksgiving, and that of course means my annual Turkey of the Year countdown.

I know the tens and tens of you reading this now can't wait!
^

Not champs, but still a special season

^
After a mild ice storm that forced the conference to re-schedule the championship game to Tuesday, my Eagles finally got to play the most anticipated girls basketball game in Scholars Academy history. Unfortunately, we didn't play very well, we didn't coach very well, our opponent did both extremely well, and we came up short.

It's never easy to smile while holding the 

Conference Runner-Up trophy

just minutes after a tough loss, 

but most of the girls managed to do it.

Despite the final outcome, it is impossible to call our season anything but a huge success. We finished 15-4 - recording more than twice as many victories as last season, my first as a head coach. All five returning players improved, and our five newcomers for this season - none of whom had ever played competitive basketball - got so much better from the first practice to the final buzzer that it's hard to describe in words.

We reached the championship game for the first time in the school's 15-year history and had a season filled with memorable moments --  some of which I'll chronicle in a later post, after the sting of Tuesday's loss is a little less fresh in my mind.

I'll wrap this up by saying I am so proud to have been associated with this group of dedicated, hard-working, smart and fun ladies. These last four months have been special, and I'll never forget them.
^

One wonderful week guarantees that there will be another

^
All I wanted was one more week with my fun, fabulous Eagles ... and I'm thrilled to say they gave it to me!

We won two tournament games this week, including Thursday's victory over a team that had beaten us just 16 days earlier, and now we are the first Scholars Academy basketball team ever to reach the league championship game.

My girls -- 8th-graders Sienna, Margaret and Susanna; 7th-graders Ruta, Malika, Sholeh, Olivia, Celeste and Beijul; and 6th-grader Ritika -- are peaking at just the right time. Until a couple weeks ago, we had been struggling a little on offense. We made a few tweaks to our attack and we haven't lost since, playing progressively better each game.

We take a 15-3 record into the title game next Thursday (2/19). Two of our losses were to the team we will play for the championship, including a gut-wrenching 2-point loss in our most recent meeting. They haven't seen our new offense, which should do well against their defense. I am not worried about our defense -- it is the best in the league, IMHO -- or our effort. Nobody out-works or out-hustles my Eagles.

As satisfying as it was to win our semifinal game, I now find myself mostly thinking about other stuff.

Like how much fun we have together. And how much the girls love and support each other. And what nice kids they are. And how much they have improved since January and December and November ... not to mention since early last season, when I honestly wondered if we would win a single game!

My daughter Katie is visiting from Seattle this week and she served as my assistant for both games, as well as two practices. As we drove to Thursday's game, I confided in her that I was more nervous than I had been in a long, long time. I also told her my primary motivation for wanting to win so badly was this:

I wasn't ready for the season to end!!!

And thanks to Ruta, Ritika, Malika, Margaret, Susanna, Sholeh, Sienna, Olivia, Celeste and Beijul, the season has one more wonderful week to go.
^

Busy start to what figures to be an interesting, funky and hopefully fun-filled year

^
If the first week of January was any indication of how the next 51 are going to go, 2015 is gonna be a pretty eventful year.

It started out with Robbie and me arriving home from our Chicago visit, accompanied by her dad, Frank. He is going to be staying with us for, as we told him, "a few weeks." Now, I'm not saying yet that he'll never go back to Chicago to live by himself, but let's put it this way: We had his mail forwarded to us here in N.C., we turned off his cable service, we cleaned all the expired foodstuffs out of his fridge and cabinets (meaning pretty much nothing is left), etc, etc. You get the idea.

Frank is almost 89 years old and is in amazing physical health, but he no longer can live by himself. So it's either us or an assisted-care facility, and we're trying to make this work for at least a spell. We'll see how it goes.

By the way, I'm not too worried about him reading this given that he has never used a computer.

+++

Last Saturday, my new(ish) hometown faves, the Carolina Panthers, scored a resounding playoff victory over the Arizona Cardinals. We went to a sports bar to take in the game with like-minded fans and it was a lot of fun watching Thomas Davis, Luke Kuechly and the rest of our boyz hold the Cardinals to the lowest yardage total in NFL postseason history.

It should be a similarly festive scene this Saturday night when the Panthers take on the Seahawks ... although I'd like "our" chances a lot better if the defending champs would play their third-string QB the way Arizona had to!

Seriously, though, the Seahawks and Panthers tend to play close, low-scoring games, so an upset isn't out of the question if Cam Newton takes care of the football and the D bottles up Russell Wilson.

Two pretty big ifs, I admit.

+++

Meanwhile, my Scholars Academy Eagles went directly from Xmas break to a game on the very first day back to school. We started horribly, fell behind St. Anne's immediately and still trailed 21-10 early in the fourth quarter.

For those unfamiliar with middle-school girls basketball, an 11-point lead with a few minutes to go is the equivalent of a 30-point lead in men's college basketball. In other words, it usually is money in the bank. The girls stayed after it, though, and we whittled into the lead. We turned up the heat on our press, and the shots we had been missing all game suddenly started falling. A layup from Margaret here, a short jumper from Sienna there, a 3-pointer from Ritika here, two free throws from Ruta there. All of a sudden, it's a 2-point game and there's still 2 minutes on the clock.

The St. Anne's coach called time-out and I spent the minute reminding our girls to stay calm and to just keep playing the great basketball they'd been playing the previous several minutes. And how 'bout this for crazy ... they actually listened!

It was 23-23 with 15 seconds left when Olivia, Margaret and Sienna teamed to break St. Anne's press. Eventually, we got the ball to Ruta for the winning layup with 3 seconds to go. Wow! It was the best quarter of basketball in my 2 years as coach, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

The next day, we played again. This time, we rolled to a 51-6 victory in a game we could have won by 100 if I hadn't called off our press in the second quarter. Hey, I'm nothing if not compassionate.

We're now 8-1 at the season's midway point, and that's one more win than we had all last year.

Pretty exciting stuff for a school with zero basketball tradition -- other than the tradition we're building right now!

+++

I also had my 50th personal finance article published on Seeking Alpha.

My previous piece has garnerned more than 54,000 pageviews and 900 comments. To provide a little perspective, anything receiving more than 10,000 views is pretty darn good, and 100 comments is a lot. That article and a few other popular pieces before it helped me to my best quarter of freelance earnings since I started with Seeking Alpha about 2 1/2 years ago.

I didn't expect my latest article to approach that level ... and it hasn't. But it did give me the opportunity to unveil the new logo I designed, so check it out!

+++

Oh, and here's one other cool thing: Robbie was the featured employee on the Levine Children's Hospital Facebook page this week.

So now she's famous for something other than being my Sugar Mama!
^

Thursday: Win-win-win for the Nadels-dels-dels

^

It was a great Thursday for the Nadels.

My beautiful wife aced the exam she took to test out of a psychology prerequisite and now is on target to earn her Bachelor's of Nursing degree in a few weeks. Way to go, Robbie!

She then accompanied me to my season-opening basketball game and witnessed my Scholars Academy Eagles' 29-13 smackdown of our opponent. It was 21-2 at halftime, and after the game the coach of the other team thanked me for calling off our press early in the third quarter. That's me -- Mike the Merciful!

Everybody played, almost everybody scored, my girls played tough and aggressive and hustling basketball -- which is what we have to do to win. It's great to start my second season as a head coach with a victory, and we learned a lot about what we need to do to improve before we take on the defending league champs next week.

After a fantastic meal at one of our favorite Charlotte restaurants, Robbie and I had a nice long telephone conversation with Katie, who was celebrating her 28th birthday. While it's almost impossible to believe I have a 28-year-old kid, I am so proud of what a wonderful person Katie has turned out to be. With her in Seattle and us in Charlotte, that's a lot of miles between us and we miss her all the time, but I think we talk more often with her now than when she was in college not all that far away. Funny how that works. Happy birthday, Katie!

As for Ben, well, I'm guessing he spent Thursday curing Ebola or brokering peace in the Middle East. Not quite as impressive as coaching middle-school girls to a season-opening basketball victory, but not bad.

^

Learning hoops and catching zzzz's

^
I took not one but two naps this past week. And I could have used more.

Oh, and I normally am not a napper!

What made me so doggone pooped?

Well, the better question would be "who," and the answer would be the 15 girls in this photo:

The occasion was the inaugural Scholars Academy Girls Basketball Camp. After having some experience working at camps, this was my first opportunity to run one. Most of the girls, who will be in 4th through 8th grades next year, are students at Scholars. Only three played for my team last season. (A fourth former Eagle, Maddie, is to my left as you look at the photo; she is on her sister's back. Maddie graduated just a couple of weeks ago and served as my assistant at the camp.)

We had a lot of fun and learned a lot of basketball. And when I say "we," I mean it, because I learned a lot, too.

One thing I learned was that running a camp is an incredibly time-consuming undertaking requiring significant planning! I knew it would be going in, but it was all that ... times two.

And so when I got home each day, I was thoroughly exhausted ... and a couple of times I gave in and crashed. I'm glad I did, because I needed the zzzz's, but the naps meant I would have to stay up late those nights planning the next day's session. Which made me tired the next day, as well. Lather, rinse, zzzz-peat!

If it seems as though I'm complaining, I don't mean to be doing so. It really was a "good tired" each day because I had a great time and I felt we accomplished so much. Watching the girls improve from one day to the next -- heck, from one hour to the next -- was truly satisfying.

Camp got me stoked for the 2014-15 season. I wish I didn't have four months left until tryouts!
^