Mundelein ends trip with great memories, gratitude

Editor's note: Mundelein's boys and girls basketball teams are spending this week in Arizona, taking advantage of the IHSA's relatively new rule that allows teams to travel anywhere for games. Samantha Panitch from the girls team has been writing diary entries throughout the trip; here is her final installment.

Our last full day in Arizona was today. It started off with another shootaround, which went very well as usual.

After our shootaround we went to MHS alum Shawn Harlan's house for a pregame meal. We hung out there for a little while and played knockout, because we are not allowed to play it in practice.

We headed back to our hotel, and then had to drive all the way back to Boulder Creek High School. This was a lot of driving and it pretty much took up a majority of our day. Then it was time for our game against Boulder Creek.

Once again, our second half was much better than the first, and we were able to wear them down with our fastbreaking offense and our full-court pressure defense.

The efforts of our fast tempo didn't show until late in the third and the fourth quarters, but we were able to come away with a 69-52 victory.

We then watched the boys' team once again dominate and win their game. While we were watching though, we became best friends with Mr. Harlan's 4-year-old daughter, Payton, and Toni's cousin, Charlie.

Payton actually even invited me and some of the other girls to have a sleepover and even to live with them. It was a tempting offer because their house is beautiful with a basketball court and pool in the backyard.

After the boys game we headed to McDonald's for some dinner and ice cream and then just went back to the hotel and showered and packed because we are leaving early Sunday to catch our flight back to freezing Illinois.

We will without a doubt miss the warmth and sunshine of Arizona. This trip has been an amazing experience for every girl on the team; it has helped us learn a lot about ourselves and each other.

I just wanted to say thanks on behalf of our team to everyone that has helped make this trip possible for our varsity girls basketball team. It was something that not many other high school basketball players can say they have done and we are very grateful for this opportunity.

(From Naviot Singh):

Hey everybody:

Today was more of a relaxing day, and an eye opener. We packed everything up last night so we could wake up and check out. After eating breakfast at the hotel we headed over to Grandpa Knar's house. After sitting down for a while, we went over to the Phoenix Children's Hospital.

There we met the family of cancer patient Patrick Abrahams. The young 14-year-old had attented Libertyville High School for two days when he found out he had cancer. They found out when he went to the doctor's office because they thought he had mono. So they moved out to Arizona so they could give him "alternative medicine" which they don't do for children in Illinois.

I don't even know how to put the experience into words, but I'll try my best. It just really puts life into perspective. I mean here's this 14-year-old kid who is fighting for his life and here we are complaining about bad days and things. It really shows you how fragile life can be and how much you should appreciate it. Anyway, we went up and gave him a Mundelein basketball shirt that was signed by all of us. For the position that he was in he was very calm and grateful. We took some pictures with him and his family and just talked about things. I hope for the best for Patrick and his family.

After leaving the hospital we went back to Knar's house. There we sat around and watched TV and relaxed. Grandpa Knar had tangerine, lemon, and grapefruit trees. We picked fruit and ate and they were delicious.

We spent most of the afternoon playing with a little boy named Charlie, Coach Knar's nephew. The kid kept us busy the whole time with his jibberish talking and his amusing actions. Sadly he grew attatched and when it was time to go he started crying. Hopefully we will get to see him some time in the future.

Grams Knar made us a great meal which consisted of bbq pulled pork, sloppy joes, baked beans, and these delicious brownies. We took a couple more photos over by the pool and then went to the mall.

At the mall we went to Coldstone and I had some delicious mint mint chocolate chocolate chip ice cream. After that we went to Just Sports because they were having some sweet deals and I think almost everyone on our team ended up buying a hat haha besides Ben cause he looks funny in hats.

So all-in-all we had a great trip. We took care of business on the court and behaved well off the court while still managing to have fun.

And Coach Knar owes me lunch on Monday after practice because I got 15 boards against Bolder Creek. We took Arizona by storm.