I certainly hated to see local hoops season end last week. I was holding out hope for at least one more week, hopefully two. Instead I am headed out to the local pitch to catch up with the soccer teams before their playoffs start. Of course it could be worse. We could still be having that blizzard that roared through last week.

I was very surprised to see the Pflugerville girls bow out before the region tournament. They really looked like they had the talent to get back to the state tournament this year. The good news is pretty much all of that talent is going to be back next year. I did not get to the see the Panther boys final game either, but I heard it was a great one. I was treated to a bit of a classic game myself as I took the long drive out to Fredericksburg to watch Hendrickson play Kerrville Tivy. I am not one to usually put blame on officials for the outcome of a game, but in my humble opinion there was something a little fishy with the way that game turned out. By the time the final whistle blew, four of the Hawks five starters had fouled out of the game. When you factor into this equation that the Fredericksburg gym was about 80 percent full of Tivy fans then you kind of get the idea Hendrickson’s season was in serious jeopardy long before that game started. That said, I remain a firm believer that games are decided by the players and not by the refs, so I guess we’ll all just have to live with the result.

Speaking of Tivy, not sure if you noticed but they seem to be turning into the Hawks’ playoff nemesis. Hendrickson is 0 for 4 in their last four playoff matchups with the Antlers over a variety of sports. Tivy has twice ended the Hawks’ football season and last year they knocked Hendrickson out of the baseball playoffs. You add those three losses to this year’s result and you see what I’m getting at. I’m not sure where Tivy went in the recent UIL realignment but for the sake of the Hawks’ championship aspirations I hope it is far away from Hendrickson’s region.

Something else very dear to my heart ended last week as well. Yes, I am talking about the Olympics. And I have been lost, looking for something to watch late at night ever since. Of course there is no way HBO or Starz can replace the excitement of midnight hockey or curling or even short track speed skating. I love movies in a big way but I became way too hooked on all those icy sports to have to stop cold turkey.

The final hockey game was certainly a good way to go out though. Admittedly I wanted the U.S. to win that game. I was really looking forward to seeing all those Canadians looking sad as the American players celebrated on their home ice. Unfortunately this didn’t happen and by the time the game ended I wasn’t really surprised. The Canadian team was simply better. They peppered the American goal with shots in the overtime and it quickly became apparent they would not come out on the wrong end of that result no matter how good Ryan Miller played. When they finally won I was hardly surprised and really was unable to be that disappointed. Our boys put on a great showing in the tournament. They proved themselves to be the second best hockey team in the world and when you think about it, that is something we all should be able to take pride in.