Game 51: United Township @ Galesburg (Boy's Basketball)

Game 51
United Township @ Galesburg (Boy's Basketball)
(12/17/10)

Christmas parties at work...not one of my favorite events. In all honesty, they are not all that bad, it's just very difficult to get work done in a bad part of the day, and they are usually on a Friday, my busiest day of the week.

If you haven't guessed already, our employee Christmas party was today. The food was excellent, catered by a restaurant...that is new I believe. Lasagna was what I had, and it was good. I passed on the pie, but heard from co-workers it was delicious.



Making things worse this year, was the fact that my day shifted to come in during the afternoon, since I worked the early, early morning shift twice this week (with games at night, leading to 3-4 hours of sleep). I'm sure I sounded like a nerd when I bolted at the end of our "Pictionary" game, because I had too much work to do.

We did the Secret Santa, a game that I failed at last year. Apparently, you write the intended recipient, not yourself, on the gift. I didn't feel bad this year, since half of the staff did this. However, in their defense, there was no instruction on how to do the gift exchange. At a staff meeting last month, we were given a slip of paper with an employee's name on it, but not told it was a Secret Santa. I played it safe, which was easy to do after shopping for the gift 10 minutes before walking into work.

I just read a story on the oddest employee gifts exchanged at Christmas parties. Whoever compiled this list, must have had a vision of what the radio station gifts would be. Here is how I rank the strangest gifts received during our party today.

1) Sardines, anchovies, and rocket balloons (all three to one person)
2) Toilet Paper
3) Fart Machine/Whoopie Cushion (in fact, one person received the fart machine, another the whoopie cushion)

Yep...we're a strange bunch, and anybody that has ever worked in radio, will agree with me!

After organizing the rest of my work schedule after our Christmas party, I was off to Galesburg for this Western Big 6 matchup against the United Township Panthers. When I walked into the high school, Streaks assistant coach Steve Cheesman caught up with me and said he had something for me. He brought up a copy of an old Galesburg basketball program from 1974, to put on the new Vintage Streaks blog I created. Check it out here: http://vintagestreaks.blogspot.com/

Jimmie Carr arrived shortly before the sophomore game tipped off, and went down to interview United Township head coach Marc Polite. Jimmie interviews the opposing coaches, while I interview coach Mike Reynolds before each game.

At the end of the first quarter of the sophomore game, I went down to talk with coach Reynolds. We talked about an interesting article in the Peoria Journal-Star regarding basketball transfers. A very intriguing read, check it out: http://www.pjstar.com/preps/x74196928/Old-faces-in-new-places

Mike Reynolds and Marc Polite were assistant coaches together at Danville High School, but became friends in high school. Polite went to United Township, and Reynolds graduated from Orion.

After gathering all of my game notes, I noticed on Facebook that Sterling head coach Ryan Brown was going to be in attendance. I've known Ryan for a few years, getting to know him while he was the coach at Annawan. His Golden Warriors will be in Galesburg next Tuesday to face the Silver Streaks. He came up before we went on for the pregame show and caught up, and he would later join me during the pregame show. He graduated from Knoxville, and spoke about getting out of practice and heading to Galesburg to watch Joey Range and Rod Thompson suit up for the Silver Streaks.

After one quarter, United Township held a 11-6 lead, and the Streaks came to within three points at halftime, trailing 28-25. Ryan "Bucket" McElmurry had 12 points for the Streaks, all in the 2nd quarter, and he finished with a team-high 21 points. He was named our First Glass "Breakout Player of the Game."

Galesburg had trouble stopping Nic Hoepfner, and he finished with a game-high 30 points, in United Township's 66-52 win. Hoepfner had five three-point play attempts in the game, and finished 10-13 from the free throw line.

The Silver Streaks were able to get close throughout the 3rd quarter, and even early in the 4th quarter. It was a six-point game after three quarters (47-41). The Panthers shot 74% from the free throw line (17-23). Neither team had trouble turning the ball over. Galesburg finished with 12, while UTHS had 10.

My postgame meal was leftovers at the radio station, while I tried to work ahead for Saturday. An early morning at the office, followed by a 5-game broadcast day at the Iowa/Illinois Shootout.

Game 51 Miles: 100