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97 National - Tullis
TEAM INFORMATION
NEXT GAME: TBD Practice Schedule and Locations Tuesdays - 6:30pm - 8:00pm at St. John's School in Olney. Fridays - 7:00pm - 9:00pm at Julius West Middlle School.
Flames Summer Challenge 2008
In preparation for the team to go to the AAU Nationals in July, the coaches felt that in order to improve and give us a “summer challenge” we needed to compete against teams that were older and stronger. So, three out of the four teams that we competed with in the Flames Summer Challenge were older teams. The three teams, The Vogues, Maryland Elite and Arlington Matrix were challenged by our tough defensive press and our much improved offensive passing. Both of these skills led to steals, fast breaks, and drives to the hoop. The three older teams did win as these teams all executed their offensive strategy quite well and were as fast, big and strong as our team.
In the second game of the tournament , our team did succeed at winning against another Flames National team. Although the other team did fight hard, we were successful at playing as a team by executing our defensive and offensive strategies. Our strengths such as our defensive press, rebounding, and offensive spread were the key reasons for our win.
In the end, the team learned that they need to be strong minded and physically strong in order to beat teams that were older and more experienced. Perseverance and smart playing will pay off when the team starts the exciting but long journey to compete in the AAU Nationals
Bronze Medalist - 2008 Potomac Valley Regionals
The team continued its successful season with a 3rd place (Bronze Medal) finish in the 2008 Potomac Valley Regionals. In pool play, we played our best game of the season in defeating the Dreamakers. We played great defense, we executed our offense efficiently, we rebounded well, and we had a lights-out shooting game. Unfortunately, we could not duplicate this result and we suffered three straight losses: to the Fairfax Stars, a close one to Team Sol and a close one to the Vogues. Overall, the coaches felt that the girls played hard and put forth good effort.
Coming into the medal round, we were upbeat and positive about our chances. We started out by losing to the Fairfax Stars although we fought hard the entire game. In our next game, a must-win game against the Vogues, we turned it on in the second half and won by double digits. In the semifinals, we lost to Team Sol as we suffered our worst shooting game of the tournament. As a result, we earned the Bronze Medal for 3rd place and a berth in the 2008 AAU 10U National Championships at Disney World in Orlando Florida. We can hold our heads high because the two teams that finished ahead of us in the Regionals both finished in the top 5 nationally last year. Orlando, here we come!
Silver Medalist - Team Sol Super Regional
The Flames 10U National team just capped of a successful run in the Team Sol AAU SRT Qualifier with a Silver Medal. On Friday night, we survived an overtime scare against the Dreamakers, an aggressive offensive and defensive squad. Saturday afternoon, we defeated a scrappy York Unity team by playing great pressure defense and getting quality minutes from every girl on the team. Unfortunately, we were not able to duplicate this effort on Saturday evening as we lost to Team Sol. Sunday was a new day and we defeated the Vogues in the last game of pool play. As the 2nd seed in the Medal Round, we had to play the Vogues again. We came out with a lot of energy and we won by playing great defense and rebounding well. Once again, EVERY girl on the team contributed - even our two injured players pitched in by encouraging and coaching the players on the court. This victory set up a showdown with Team Sol in the Championship Game. It was a game for the ages as both teams brought their "A" games. We played great defense and executed our offense efficiently. The scoreboard says that we lost by 2 points but we think that this game (and our performance in the tournament) demonstrated to everyone that we are a force to be reckoned with in the Potomac Valley.
2008 YBOA Maryland State 10U Champions The Flames 10U National team won the YBOA Maryland State Championships. It was a particularly impressive given that we had only 5 practices together as a team. We played against some scrappy teams with a lot of hustle, but we were able to pull away in each and every game - our closest game was 11 points. By winning this tournament, we qualified for the YBOA Nationals in Polk County, Florida. Congratulations to the Gold Medalists. 2008 Potomac Valley Winter League Champions
Players win games, teams win championships!
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