Life on the road with Mundelein

Editor's note: Mundelein's girls and boys basketball teams are spending the week in sunny Arizona and getting in some games, as well. Several girls players have been generous enough to write a daily diary to keep us up-to-date on the two teams' happenings.

Day 1

"We've arrived!"

Goodbye, Mundelein! Hello, Arizona! We started our journey in the wee hours of the morning, arriving at the high school at 4 a.m. At the airport, we realized that we would get nowhere if we continued to take pictures at the rate we were. After finally reaching the security check, a problem arose. Both Coach Evans and his father were stopped to be further searched. We didn't realize we had a criminal on our hands. Mr. Evans was threatening the nation with his breath spray that the security guard was hesitant to take. After everyone passed through security we made our way to boarding. By the time the plane was ready to take off, the team was ready to catch some shut-eye. As the players and coaches were sleeping on the plane, Coach Knar decided it would be funny to snap some close-ups of the sleepy heads. Landing in Las Vegas, we were happy to see a bright shining sun and no snow on the ground before we left for the final leg of the trip to Arizona.

(In Arizona), we claimed our luggage and then played UNO and charades while waiting for the vans. During that time we realized that whatever happens at the airport STAYS at the airport. The scenery of our drive to the hotel was filled with mountains, cacti and palm trees. We decided to go to California Pizza "Chicken" for our first dinner in town. Dinner was a success with many pictures, crayons, kids' menus and Mrs. Knar's singing. Some girls took advantage of the warmer weather and went for a night swim. With all that said and done, we are ready to sleep and prepare for tomorrow's game and adventures.

- Alison Richards and Kate Wallen

Day 2

"Let the games begin!"

We awakened to the lovely voice of Mrs. Knar calling each room for a wake-up call. Breakfast was served from 6-9 a.m. and there were waffles, hard-boiled eggs, sausage, eggs and pastries - YUM, YUM! After breakfast we had down time in the rooms until 12:30. In the meantime, we watched "World's Strictest Parents," played card games and Apples to Apples. At 12:30, we met in the lobby and headed out to the boys game. The Mustang boys had a tremendous victory against Sahaurd (Ariz.). GREAT JOB, BOYS! At the game we were united with some entertaining Knar relatives, including Charlie, who kept us all entertained with his dance moves. After the game, we headed out to Panda Express and Subway for lunch. In Panda Express everyone grabbed a fortune cookie, not realizing that they cost 99 cents! OOPS! Back at the hotel we had about 3 hours to spare before game time. So we all met in one room and played mafia. It included many intense deaths and lovely story telling. After three rounds, other games began such as spoons. Others just relaxed listening to music or watching "Jurassic Park." Around 5:30, everyone headed back to their own rooms and got ready for the game!

We met in the lobby at 6:30 and headed toward Horizon High School to play our first game against the host team. Before the game we met a lady who knew Coach Knar from an old school where they used to coach together. What a small world, huh?! Then we were informed that a three-point contest was going to be taking place before the game. We chose Brooke (Evans) as a shooter. She hit 6 awesome 3-pointers in one minute. Then we had 10 minutes of warmups before tip off. Right before the game a Horizon player was awarded a black plaque for accomplishing 1,000 points in her basketball career. So let the game begin! After the first quarter we had the lead 18-13, but we also had six fouls. In the second quarter they were in the bonus almost the entire quarter. We still had the lead at halftime but in the locker room, our goal was to stop fouling and putting them on the free-throw line for easy points. At the end of game we fulfilled our goal! We only fouled three times and put them on the line twice. It was a great first game and we came out with a 65-52 victory. Tomorrow we are looking forward to seeing another boys game at 10 and playing our own game at 6! WHOA! Almost midnight where you guys are, so we gotta get to bed! Good night, everyone!

- Megan Woit and Amanda Davis

Day 3

"We're in the semifinals!"

The Lady Mustangs defeated Deer Valley 64-39 to advance to Wednesday night's semifinals of the tournament at Desert Mountain High School.

This morning everyone woke up to a "lovely sunset," according to Megan Woit. During breakfast she tried to convince everyone that they could all see it even though we were on the wrong side of the hotel. We also had to convince her that the lovely sunset she claimed to have seen was a sunrise not a sunset. After all the criticism we all had a lovely breakfast in each of our hotel rooms. We weren't all together apparently, as we were all watching the movie "Ace Call to the Wild" in each of our own rooms. At about 10:20, we all gathered in the lobby to head off to the boys game. They had an awesome win! On the way back we found a Davis sign and an Evans sign and they each took a picture next to it. After that we went on a mustang excursion. A mustang excursion is similar to eye spy. We basically drove around all over Scottsdale looking for mustangs statues to take pictures around. We're proud to say that we were able to find six different locations with huge mustang statues that we all stood around and took pictures. After that, we were STARVING so we decided to have a lovely lunch at T. G. I. Friday's. The only problem was that it took FOREVER to get there. Coach Harding was sure that there was one at a strip mall so we circled the mall several times going over hundreds of speed bumps to discover that we were in the wrong location (I guess GPS systems aren't always correct). Mrs. Evans finally decided to take the lead and we finally found the real T. G. I Fridays. Then we waited another 30 minutes for our drinks and food to arrive. Because lunch took so long we had to hurry and get dressed for our game at 6:00 against Deer Valley. We're proud to say we were victorious by the final score of 64-39. The boys were even there as our cheerleaders. They even had cheers and everything our actual cheerleaders would be proud. With that win we came back to the hotel and ate some Domino's pizza and now we're writing this blog and it's taken us a while because Coach Harding's brother keeps interrupting. It's now time for us to head back to our rooms and rest up for tomorrow's excursions and games. Good Night!

- Olivia Dunigan and Rachael Millner