I Ain't As Good As I once Was....

Toby Keith had a hit song a couple of years ago. The lyrics summed up what happened to the Fab Five from Oak Ridge Fabricators this past weekend in Clinton High School while participating in a basketball tournament. One of my friends asked a couple of weeks ago if I would want to play in an upcoming tournament April 11-13. My calender was free so I told him I would play. The tourney format was set up so that we would play 3 games in pool play before the single elimination tournament began. We were guaranteed at least 4 games.
Our team was undefeated in the pool play so we had the #1 seed entering the tournament. We had a good team. Four of the seven players on our roster played high school ball together. Now, 12 years later we were lacing them up again to have some fun.
We made it to the championship game Sunday afternoon. We were playing the 1 seed from the other pool. It was a good match. They had superior players. We had superior heart. Three of their players were on the floor of Thompson-Boling Arena for four years at the University of Tennessee not even ten years ago. They were good.
Thy lyrics of Toby Keith's song go something like this, "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once, as I ever was." Could we win? I believe we could have. Old(er) age and injury hampered us from bringing home the 1st Annual Big Ten Championship. Were we as good as we once were? Probably not. Were there times during this tournament that we were as good as we ever were? Definitely. It was a blast for all of us. I hope we get to do it again sometime soon.