Padre Serra survival, a broken nose, whiplash, overconfident opponents' coaches, huge comebacks, left-behind coaches, a strategic yellow card, playing out of position, fights to the finish, 128 teams. Put it all together and you have the ingredients for the second-place, bid-winning performance by 14 Black over the weekend at the Mideast Qualifier in Indianapolis.

The weekend started with eight players in Indianapolis and two, middle Rachel Ambroch (St. Roman's) and d.s. Katie Acker (St. Luke's) in the quarterfinals of the Padre Serra basketball tournament. When both won their quarterfinal games Thursday night, we knew we wouldn't be seeing them in Indy.

Seeded first in our pool (they don't know about the Padre in Indianapolis) we went 2-1 on Friday, losing a tough three-gamer to MOJO Black that featured some interesting scoring (think 1 + 1 = -3), but getting great play in the middle from Kirsten Henning, normally an outside. That dropped us to fourth in our pool at the Fairgrounds on Saturday, which started out badly when Coach Savanna was left at the hotel. "They couldn't leave you, you have the med kit," said a Sting parent from another team. "Why don't you call the coach and find out where they are?" To which Savanna replied: "I am the coach."

After losing in three games to PLVC (otherwise known as the Pink Socks, or Plivick), we beat the No. 1 seed, GJAC National from Florida after being down 8-1 (get used to it) in a third game that featured a yellow card on Coach Jerad for a clipboard "drop" and a lost point mid-rally ("They never would have called it on Ted," he said). Then we won in three games against Fort Wayne. When we didn't win in two against Fort Wayne, the Florida coach proclaimed, "We've got it now," only to see the Plivick Pink Socks beat his team in two, putting us in the Gold Division on Sunday and knocking out Florida.

At the team dinner on Saturday night -- with Coach Jerad in a tie (okay, it wasn't cinched up) -- we put down our forks and ignored our pasta in a moment of silence for Kate Acker, who, in the Padre semifinal that afternoon, did a header, broke her nose and suffered whiplash in the last seconds of a double overtime defeat. Wait! Who is that at team breakfast on Sunday? None other than Kate herself after a middle-of-the-night drive, swollen nose and all, unavailable for the rigors of a third-place basketball game on Sunday but able to serve and play back row for us on Sunday.

Kate's return was the first "comeback" of Sunday. The second was against our nemesis MOJO in the first round (after their coach before the game had proclaimed: "Oh this team. We beat them already.") Down 9-0 (there's no feeling quite like having no points at the crossover) and 12-3 in the third game, we came back for a 17-15 victory, with Kate's serving a big part of the rally. In the second round, against Union, the comebacks continued, from 20-8 in the first game and 23-17 in the second to a two-game victory.

Niagara, our quarterfinals opponent, must have heard about our comebacks, because they went down 25-15 , 25-14. We took out Team Kansas City in three games in the semifinals, then lost to A5 Suzanne from Atlanta in the championship in two, including a 28-26 second game. Coaches Jerad and Savanna overcame our disappointment by putting the defeat in perspective: We finished second out of 128 teams and got our bid to the Nationals.

Next up is the Northern Lights Qualifier in April, where we will turn our American division bid into a National division bid. The girls will draw numbers to see who has to have her nose broken for good luck.

The 11 Gold brought home their 1st Gold medal from the Block Party Classic on March 25. This was the first opportunity that the team had to play in an 11’s only tourney, and they were not going to be denied the title. The day began typically enough. The kids showed up crusty eyed and smelling of Froot Loops. All of them that is, except Martha Blanchard. Martha has been experimenting with a new diet of spinach. "I saw a documentary on spinach and it worked!" she exclaimed. She continued, "This guy, he would eat some and then blamo!"

"Spinach? A whole documentary about a guy and spinach? Was it on NOVA?"

"No, the Cartoon Network."

"Ooookay. Gotcha." As the team suited up for their first match of the day, the effects of Martha's new found energy were in full view of everyone. The thunderous sound of balls coming off of her hand during the hitting warm-up were almost deafening.

"I was scared for my life!" proclaimed one bystander.

"Why? Were you on the court during their warm-up?"

"No. I was two courts away and that kid was creaming balls everywhere!"

So it seems her new found strength is in need of some fine tuning and control but she may be on to something. With all players contributing the 11 Gold defeated Midwest Penguins in a hard fought match right to the end. This is a team that has improved dramatically over the last few months and they are looking forward to bringing home more hardware.

[Editors Note: There may have been some creative license in the re-telling of this story.]

Today is the first day of the 2007 Mizuno Mid-East Qualifier and Sting has 4 teams fighting for a shot at Nationals. This weekend the 12's division, 14's divisions and 15's divisions are all taking the court in Indianapolis and our 14 Gold(Open), 14 Black(Club), 15 Gold(Open) and 15 Black(Club) teams are all playing. As I type here is where everyone stands.

Sting 14 Gold opened the tournament with a 3 set match victory over TVC out of Ohio. Sting 14 Black played monkey-see-monkey-do with a 3 set match win of their own. Sting 15 Gold had a little smoother start to the tournament with a 2 set win over Southwest Illinois (SWIL). Sting 15 Black won't take the court until the second wave begins later today.

For those of you who are relatively new to the whole club thing there are two divisions at the National Qualifiers. The "top" division is called "Open" and the next division is called "Club." In Open if there are more than 15 teams competing 3 bids will be awarded. One bid for each of the top three finishing teams. For the Club division, if there are more than 63 teams 1 "National" bid and 1 "American" bid will be awarded. The National bid will go to the first place team and the American bid will go to the second place team. That is probably an oversimplification of the process but it's a start. As the qualifier season goes on and then winds down, things change a little bit due to "trickle down" bids and other factors. The Badger Region Qualifier is a little different but that's for a different time if and when needed.

Keep checking the site for updates. I will try and keep things posted so long as I'm around to do it.

UPDATE - 11:45am

Sting 14 Gold - 2-0 in Pool Play
Sting 14 Black - 2-0 in Pool Play
Sting 15 Gold - 2-0 in Pool Play

UPDATE - 3:20pm

Sting 14 Gold - 2-1 to finish day 1
Sting 14 Black - 2-1 to finish day 1
Sting 15 Gold - 2-1 to finish day 1

UPDATE - 4:35pm

Although their wave began an hour and a half ago Sting 15 Black is playing at a different site as they are taking court at the fairgrounds. Apparently the results are hoofing their way back to command central via donkey. We shouldn't complain too much. Some of us can still remember the days of, *gasp* pen and paper results at National Qualifiers.

UPDATE - 8:15pm

FINALLY some results so we can sleep well tonight! 15 Black ended the day 2-1. I sense a theme……Let's hope tomorrow someone finds a bigger carrot to dangle in front of the results pack mule and traffic isn't so congested in the circle city.

UPDATE - 5:05pm - Day 2

After two days of play all 4 teams are still in the hunt. Each team will begin the day tomorrow in the Gold bracket. Congratulations everyone! Keep it up.

Day 2 Results (pool play):
Sting 14 Black - 2-1 to finish day 2
Sting 14 Gold - 2-1 to finish day 2
Sting 15 Black - 3-0 to finish day 2*
Sting 15 Gold - 2-1 to finish day 2

*There are ONLY 168 teams competing in the 15 Club division……Yeah, for 1 bid in National and 1 bid in American. 15 Black begins the playoffs as the number 12 team overall.

UPDATE - 7:40am - Day 3

Drum roll please….The playoff brackets are up and the teams should be playing as I type. Here is how our teams will begin the day:
Sting 14 Black plays MOJO (Ohio). If memory serves correctly, MoJO is the team 14 Black lost to on Day 1. I'm not typically a vengeful person but, here's to revenge.
Sting 14 Gold will play against Team Z Orange (Ohio) and have a rematch against Rockwood Thunder. They lost to Rockwood earlier in the tournament.
Sting 15 Black will face off against Blackswamp(Ohio) in their gi-normous Gold bracket of 32(?) teams.
Sting 15 Gold is in a pool with Club fusion (IL) and KiVA 15 Red (KY).

The Open divisions playoff a bit differently on day 3 compared to the Club divisions. Yours truly needs to get to practice so you'll have to look up the explanation. Not that anyone at the CC is reading this, but GOOD LUCK just the same!

UPDATE - 2:10pm - Day 3

Rumor has it 14 Gold and 15 Gold both ended the tournament in 9th place. The online results haven't been keeping pace today and no results can be found anyhere other than word of mouth.

UPDATE - 5:05pm - Day 3

The miracle of modern technology is something. Alas, despite the advances of technology, word of mouth (or messageboards) seems to be the only way to get updates from the MEQ. Because of that I can only state as RUMOR (once again) that Sting 14 Black found themselves in the finals but came up just shy of 1st place. If this rumor is true 14 Black would be the first team of the '07 season to secure a bid (American) here at Sting. Until the MEQ's online system gets more organized we'll be happily looking for more rumors to keep you informed.

Sting 18 Gold player Nicole Sheridan (Muskego, HS) has verbally committed to the Bison of NDSU! Yes, Nicole is going to trade the balmy 10 degree winters here in Wisconsin for the -30 degree winters in North Dakota. In Wisconsin an apartment search perk is finding a place with free laundry. In Fargo it's finding a place that has an electrical outlet for every parking stall to plug your battery into during the winter months. Nicole will join at least 2 other Wisconsin athletes heading to Fargo, ND this summer so home will never be too far away. Congratulations, Nicole!

For a local account of Nicole's verbal check out the "In-Forum" (Fargo's daily newspaper) press release.

In years past the Badger Region Championships (BRC) was held later in the season. The problem with that was some clubs were done playing by then and didn't participate. This year for the first time the BRC was held in March and what a great turnout! Not only were there a record number of courts laid down for this event (32) but the competition level was also more intense than it has been in the past.

Some of the best matches were in the 15 Open division which was won by Sting 15 Black. After a great 3 set match against a very solid West Bend Power team in the semi-finals, 15 Black had to turn right around and take on another very solid River City team who had just knocked off Wisconsin power 15 red in the previous semi; a team 15 Black lost to in 2 sets on Saturday. That set up a fantastic championship match and another 3 sets later and Sting 15 Black pulled it out for the win.

In the 12 Open division, Sting 12 Gold went undefeated en route to their championship match. Javelin catcher enthusiast and MB Kaysie Shebeneck was sidelined with a minor hand injury but will be back in about a month. In the meantime Kaysie has been fitted with a chain mail glove and fellow javelin enthusiast Shelby Shumaker is taking private target lessons. Good luck in your other pursuits girls.

Sting 13 Gold saw it's most competitive BRC in years. They went the limit with a very physical West Allis Lightning team in pool play on day one. In the finals they met up with a very smart Muskego Stars team who also pushed them pretty hard. 13 Gold fought it out for the win to take home the Gold in the 13 Open division.

Sting 14 Gold played Sting 14 Black for the Sting sweep in 14 Open. Both teams had to get through a well coached and very good Wisconsin power 14 red team.

Sting 17 Black had two very hard fought matches agaisnt a solid Kaepa FC Elite 17-1's team to claim their championship crown. It wasn't easy as they went three in the first meeting.

Congratulations to all of the teams that entered. Sting was very well represented this year and everyone did the club proud. If this tells us anything, the Badger Region Qualifier in May will probably be the toughest it's ever been and that's exciting. We are all looking forward to see how the qualifier season unfolds.