Thunder strikes the Black Kats

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By Jon Tait

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The past two weeks have been busy around our little household.

First off, we acquired a new family member … at least for a short time! The Rotary Youth Exchange student, who was a featured article of this paper back in September, came to live with us about 10 days ago. The same day he moved in, my little Princess and her Prince Charming came home from Upper Canada for a short visit. So in a matter of minutes, our household doubled in size!

Not only did we double the people staying in the house, but our pet population tripled as my little girl brought her two cute puppies with her as well. These two can turn any serene household into a frantic frenzy in mere minutes. But overall, it was good.

The kids have now returned to their regular life up in ‘Tario and our new nuclear family is settling into a comfortable harmony. I will report more on the exchange student as time goes by. To say the least, it is a new experience and we are welcoming it with all our might!

Also in the past week, basketball and travel has started up in earnest again. The mighty "Thunder" travelled to Moncton and won both games. The boys played at the Lion's Den Invitational in Fredericton one weekend and were royally thumped by the powerful Black Kats of Fredericton. This team has run roughshod over most teams in the province for many years now. The Kats are usually a fixture at the finals that are played at the Aitken Centre in the spring.

Now with the creation of just two sporting divisions in high schools this year, Woodstock and Fredericton will meet regularly.

So to get back to the main reason for this column, the Black Kats royally thumped our home town team. And then we had to travel back down to Fredericton to play the same Kats again, but only in the Thunder's first league game of the season.

The gymnasium was a madhouse when the game started. The home team's booster club showed up in full force! These unofficial cheerleaders brought along pots and pans to beat, drums, bongo drums and even a megahorn with sirens. Our team brought along a bunch of noisy parents with a few coin-filled plastic bottles.

Well, our kids must have learned something from the thumping the previous Saturday, because they came out like a house on fire. At the end of the first quarter, they were up by 15 points, at the half five points, and, at the end, a weary but ecstatic crew were sitting on a two-point victory!

Yes, the Woodstock Varsity Boys Thunder had gone into an opposition's home gym and won! Who cares whether they won by two points or by 20 points. The fact of the matter is they won.

According to one sports reporter for the Daily Gleaner, our team shouldn't be able to compete in the same league, let alone the same gym, because of the disparity in school size. It's not the size of the school that counts, it's the size of the heart that competes!

The Kats will not take this defeat lying down. The next time that these two teams meet, it will be another see-saw battle.

The Black Kats are used to scoring between 80 to 100 points per game. Our boys held them to 59. All of the "Thunder" should get a pat on the back whether they played in the game or not.

Every timeout that was called, the bench rose as one and greeted the floor team with high fives, pats on the back, and words of encouragement. Basketball is a team sport and the whole team won the game.

So the next time you hear the Boys Black Kats are coming to town, why don't you drop up to the high school. I promise you will be pleasantly surprised by the calibre of play from the local squad and it will be a good game. I will not promise any guaranteed results by one team or another, but it will be a great game to see. And if you are going to come, don't forget that bongo drum set, our kids appreciate all the support and cheering we can give them.

That's it for me. Stay positive, keep safe and stay warm and don't forget to wear red on Fridays!

Oh and by the way, happy belated birthday to my little brother! It's flamingo time!