#2 is still playing ball. I wasn't really aware of it until one of the other mom's posted a picture on Instagram. I had to bug Cal for his schedule. They were playing at Taylorsville Rec Center, and I'm okay driving there. It was fun to see him play again, and I knew most of the other guys as well. The team would shift up a bit from week to week as the guys couldn't make it some weeks and would get others to fill in.
According to the schedule, they were the "Gobots". They started out with mix-and-match jerseys, some from the old CHHS days, others from elsewhere. During their first game, they were penalized a few points for "not-matching" (never heard of that, if they'd happened to be the home/white team, it wouldn't have been an issue) ... and then they lost that game ... by exactly those penalized points. Stockton Short's mom was able to quickly rustle up a jersey order and get them some matching uniforms for the rest of the season.
I made it to several games, and got some video ... here's highlights from one game.
They ended up in the championship game, but lost by two points ... still got a shirt though!
Callahan then played in some tournaments up in Lehi, at the Karl Malone Training Center (Colton has played there a lot). Often, several games in a weekend, or even in a day.
The official basketball season wrapped up in February, but there was NO downtime. Colton was playing again immediately, as his Wolves got back together, and he continued playing for West Jordan (Showtime during the Spring/Summer months). Lots of practices and lots of games ... here's a little excerpt from my journal on Saturday, March 20th
FIVE games today (really six, but two were at the same time, so he missed one). The first was at 12:00 at the RedBarn ... and it was raining! The boys (Wolves) got beat pretty bad. Home for a bit then #5 and I headed out for his 4:00 game. Summit Academy High School ... first time at this location. Close to where I used to work with CK. That one started late, as there were no refs for a while. Not sure what happened there. Luckily it was okay, as we didn't have another game right after. The boys/Wolves won that, which meant another game at 6:00 at Sport City. We all just went straight there, no rush, but no time to do anything else. #5 had a 7:00 game with Showtime, which was going to be easy (based on previously playing that team) so we asked Coach Sawyer if he was okay with #5 being late, and he was fine with that - so #5 got to stay and play to the end, and it was close right up to the end, but the Wolves got the win. We then rushed to the 7:00 game, and they were doing fine. 20-5 when we arrived. Easy win. Then Showtime had a tough semi-final game at 9:00, and Wolves had a championship game at 9:00. We felt like we had to stay with Showtime, and Showtime got the win against Mountain Ridge. So we'll play again on Monday for the championship. The Wolves got the win, even without #5. Yea! Good basketball day, although long! #5's heel was hurting at the end.
So both the Wolves and Showtime won their respective championships in March (March Madness Tourney for the Wolves, State AAU/Freshman for Showtime). Most of these games were local (Summit, Sport City, Jordan High) and I was there and filming ... I'm not sure why I don't have highlights from any of these games. I think I was still a bit behind on the high school season and was giving that priority. At the end of the month (March 26/27/28) the Wolves headed to St. George for a tournament there.
April was busy with more practices and games for both teams as well as the end of year banquet for the Jags, saying farewell to the seniors and recapping the season. It was held at the school in the cafeteria. With Covid protocols still in place, there was no meal, just snacks. Early in the Spring, we got the news that Coach Sawyer had accepted a position in St. George, so West Jordan was losing him as a coach. Coach Wouden took over coaching the remaining Showtime games, and he was named Head Coach at the school. Game play continued on for the next few months. West Jordan had a full varsity team for the next year, so it was only seniors playing varsity in these games. Colton played Soph and JV.
The West Jordan team headed to St. George in June for the Crimson Cliffs Challenge (Colton wrote up his memories of that, see it HERE on the family blog). They'd had a car wash a little earlier to help raise funds for the trip. Thanks again to Berlin's for "adopting" Colton and getting him where he needed to be. The sad news about Coach Sawyer moving was eclipsed by tragedy, and there were several team gatherings in support of the family.
In July, Colton and the Wolves went to Vegas for a tournament there. Colton hurt his shoulder in the first game and wasn't really able to play, but he still had fun and was glad he had gone. In the Fall, the Wolves had more tournaments, while West Jordan started up their basketball clinic, having the gym available for play and practice in prep for tryouts in November. Colton was going to school at 6 am to shoot, then staying after for the clinic, then often staying later for school activities. A few times I did a Little Caesar run to keep the boys fed.
Here's the hoop highlights I have from the "off-season" ...
Covid was still a concern, but after a full year, it wasn't oppressive anymore. Most of the spectator limitations were lifted, but masks were still required at games. The vaccine was becoming available and finally, the mask requirement was lifted. There weren't any big basketball impacts (no Covid cancellations like last year). The rapid-testing that had been required during the official school season were not required for the off-season. Ticket prices for spectators kept going up ... the October tournament had a $25 entry fee for the two-day event.
High school basketball is a winter sport, and the previous season (Jan/Feb & early March2020) wrapped up before there were any Covid shutdowns. Colton went to watch many of the games and looked forward to trying out his upcoming freshman year. After Covid came, most tournaments were canceled, rules were changed (limited spectators, masks, etc) and everyone was on pins and needles wondering if the boys would even get a season at all.
November started up, and it was almost time for tryouts. The night before ... the Governor required a two-week shut-down. That was definitely a let down. But the moment it was allowed (two weeks later) a truncated tryouts happened (just two days instead of a week) and the season started. Colton made the team(s). Technically, all four. He was listed on the freshman team, but didn't play with them often, as freshman games were usually at the same time as the JV games. He was a starter on the sophomore team, and the JV team, and got a little bit of Varsity playing time ... he even started one game (see HERE). Each age had separate uniforms for home/away, and varsity had two away, blue and black. Colton had NINE different jersey sets! He got #5 for freshman, sophomore and JV, and #4 for Varsity (as a senior had already claimed #5).
... alas, the Christmas Tournament games didn't happen, at least not for West Jordan. Covid hit the team. A couple of Colton's teammates had it earlier in the year, most (all?) of the Varsity players tested positive over the holiday break. Several sophomores were out here and there. I often wondered if perhaps Colton was immune? He'd surely been exposed and around it a lot, but he stayed healthy. All the players seemed to recover quickly and completely.
I didn't make it to every game, but I went to most of them. I'd come to Sophomore and JV in person, and then I'd usually head home and watch the live stream of the Varsity game while I walked on the treadmill.
I'd try to make highlight reels, and #mycoltonclips (featuring just Colton's points, whereas the highlights got everyone's points, assists ... but I did miss much of the defense). It would be easy to get behind with so many games, so I would tend to focus on the wins, or ones where Colton had highlights, and then some of the video footage just ended up falling by the wayside.
I don't think I ended up making ANY videos of the few freshman games I had video for. I also didn't make any for Varsity. Here's a link to the SOPHOMORE PLAYLIST (7 games) and the JV PLAYLIST (5 games). Then I made a couple Colton Compilations ...
Colton's (Freshman) Sophomore Season Highlights
Colton's (Freshman) JV Season Highlights
Freshman Followup...
Colton (and Ethan and Carter) DID go play with the freshman in a President's Day tournament to wrap up the season. It was held at West High, and NO spectators were allowed (that is out of my drive zone, so I wouldn't have gone regardless). The games were streamed though (usually they weren't, as they were played in Aux gyms and on off days), and I was able to capture them. The first game against West (Freshman Game 1) was an easy win, then WJ had to face Bingham (Freshman Game 2)... the last game against them had been a loss, but here, WJ got the win and moved on to the championship game! Another rematch, against Mountain Ridge (Championship Game). In the previous three matchups, Mountain Ridge had walked away with the win. But not this one! It was super close and stressful until the buzzer beater end. Congrats to the Freshman team! A great way to finish up the season.
The West Jordan Varsity team had to face the #1 seeded team in the second round, and they got eliminated there. Westlake made it to the championship game as expected, but then there was an upset as Davis managed to get the win and take the title. West Jordan only had two seniors graduating, so here's hoping for a strong season next year with returning players. The Region boundaries are shifting again for next year as well (WJ had been shifted to pool with schools to the North/West, but next year will again face the tough competition to the South... back to Bingham, CHHS, etc).
