Whoa…struggling to find a place to start here.  This is the first day I actually feel like a somewhat normal person since returning from the 6A State Championship in Hutchinson, KS, with a fat speeding ticket in hand.  That’s right, I got out of there so fast, that I actually got a speeding ticket!  Doesn’t that officer know that I’m tired, completely wind-blown, and emotionally drained after watching my precious daughter agonize for days.  I mean, does this guy not have daughters!?  Surely he understands!?  Well no he doesn’t, he just sees my Johnson county plates and Patagonia coat in the passenger seat and he wants to stick it to me.  Ok fine, so I’m bitter about it.

Moving on. The girls arrived in Hutch on Sunday morning to play a practice round–9 sets of clubs and pull carts + luggage in 1 school van and 1 suburban.  eek!

On day 1, with wind gusts up to 60mph in the prairie lands of Hutch, these girls were fighting hard.  Morgan had an amazing first 9 holes in these conditions.  In fact she was sitting in a great position after 9, among 90 girls.  Job very well done, Mo!

The next 9 holes didn’t go the way she wanted and she ended up shooting 100.  She strives to shoot under 100, but in these conditions, I was so happy with what she did.  Especially considering there are girls out here that hire private coaches and practice in their basements all winter long.  As much as you try to console, it’s just flat out HARD to get mentally re-set.  There were tears, there were hugs, and there was Brian cussing out the taxi company that was late to pick him up to take him to Wichita to catch a flight for a business trip.  Anything to keep the day interesting!  

The head coach was sick in her room, the assistant coach was taking an on-line class in his room, so all the girls piled into my van (1 on the floorboard) and I took them to dinner.  We had a good time and spirits were fine considering we had just found out that our team was tied for 6th place (top 6 teams advance to play the next day), and we lost in the tie-breaker.

However, Morgan, and 3 of her teammates did qualify to play as individuals based on their Day 1 scores.  YAY!!

As I arrived at the course on Day 2, I reminded Morgan to just have fun and be grateful to be there, grateful to be playing on Day 2.  Many other girls had to pack up and go home and the weather was better–a sigh of relief.

The first 3 holes went well!  Then the wheels fell off and mentally Morgan was just not there.  I would like to be able to explain how that feels as a mom to watch your child mentally suffer for 6 hours, but I can’t actually put it into words.  She’s always the bright spot, the encourager, the happy one!

All I know, is whether she’s first or last, I’m always proud.  Some days do not go as we hope, but she’s a healthy, bright, beautiful, and hard-working young lady.  She’s honestly, the most amazing 16 year old I have ever known.  I  assure you that I was never that awesome when I was in High School, and I was a good kid!

Here are a few shots of her during the tournament!  These girls are AMAZING.  Some people may not be fans of the sport or think it’s boring and long.  I have an appreciation for these student athletes like I’ve never had before.  They have to be skilled and mentally tough and quite honestly, many of us could never hack it.  Congratulations to all these young ladies who came this far in the season!Last year Morgan shot her best round at the state tournament and I know she had hopes to do it again, and I think this pressure was the downfall.  It’s time to put this cart she’s been living on for the last 3 months, AWAY, and re-focus!  WE ADORE YOU MORGAN and you deserve everything good in life!  GO GIRL….we see you being AWESOME every day!

On a sidenote–we put together the best goodies bags for our girls!!  They deserve every bit of it!  Victoria Klausner, our #1, took 3rd place at State — she’s amazing!!

Morgan had so many well wishes from friends and family and we appreciate it so much!  Our favorite was a video clip she received from this precious little one that she babysat this summer…

Ok I guess I’ll get back to paying my stupid speeding ticket.  Ugh.