The Middle School Basketball (Boy + Eagles = Beagles) team continues to impress. After starting the season 4-0, we suffered our first loss in a hard-fought match against AIS Vienna.

We rebounded with a win against DIS, went 2-1 at our mid-season Festival in Budapest, and finished off a run of 7 games in 9 days with two more wins.

Our first game of the new year yielded another win for the Eagles. Or, as we’re now known, the “Beagles.” Shorthand for Boy Eagles. Apparently we needed to distinguish ourselves from the girl Eagles.

The home court at QSI Bratislava, if you can’t tell is in a bubble gym with and astroturf surface. This always makes dribbling a little adventurous. Entering the gym involves opening an outer door, crowding into a small entryway, making sure the outer door is shut, then pushing open the inner door to the gym. Opening both doors at the same time would begin deflating the gym.

In any case, the “Beagles” shook off the rust accumulated over Christmas break, played well and defeated QSI Bratislava on their astroturf court.

We hit the ground running next week with games on Monday and Tuesday. Stay tuned for more updates.

After a tough loss against the VIS A team (44-30), we rebounded at Saturday’s Festival to take 2nd place.

The Basketball Festival is an informal tournament against the teams in our conference. We cruised in our first game to a 27-7 win over the VIS B team, but it was in our 2nd game that we thrived. Against ICSB, the Christian school in Budapest, we really jelled as a team. We played great defense, moved the ball well on offense and emerged victorious with a hard-fought 24-20 win.

Winning our first 2 games placed us 1st in our pool and earned us a spot in the title game against DIS. Though we played hard and well, we fell behind early and never were able to catch up.  Even in defeat, they kept their heads up and played good basketball. I am really proud of all of them.

Highlights from the tournament:

• 2nd Place!!!
• Not one, but two bank 3-point shots made by our team.
• “Coach Klein, isn’t that a demonic symbol? You know, a Pentagram?” “Um, no. That’s a Star of David.” (Our tournament took place at a Jewish community center).

Watch this space for another update in the coming days.

Fly, Eagle, Fly!

Middle School basketball is well underway and the team is playing well. We’re currently sitting 2-0, due primarily to a brilliant coaching strategy I’ve implemented. It’s a system I call “The > Offense”. It’s a complicated system based on a fundamental concept: When we score more than the other team, we win. Or, stated mathematically, “Our Score > Their Score = Win.” I’ve done a lot of research and noted that every winning team without exception implements this same strategy. I really don’t know why everyone doesn’t do it.

Seriously, though, I’ve been blessed with a very talented team with a great attitude. They have fun, work hard and it’s paid off for them. Our victories came against QSI Bratislava(41-6) and VIS – B team(35-19). These victories came despite the fact that we can only practice once a week on a basketball court.

Next week we have a game on Thursday against VIS (A team) and a tournament on Saturday. Thursday’s game will be a big test for them, but I have no doubt they will rise to the occasion.

Please pray for us next week.  Check back for an update next weekend.