Go Barlow!

I'm going to take this opportunity to publicly brag about my husband. Everyone okay with that?

Barlow won the district tennis tournament today, for the sixth year in a row! Andrew would be the first to say that coaches get too much of the credit and too much of the blame, but really he deserves lots of credit. This was the year that his team was young and had the possibility of loosing a match or two, but they were undefeated in league (I think now it has been over five years since they have lost a league match). Yesterday and today was the district match, and because of some strange tennis rules I don't understand even when you beat every team in individual matches, you still have to get a certain number of points at the district match to win the league title. Barlow got a REALLY bad draw, the details of which I have had explained to me repeatedly and I'm still a little fuzzy on, and during the tournament yesterday one of his players was walking by a post and the post randomly FELL on his foot requiring a trip to the ER. Yet despite these circumstances they still won.

The boys on the tennis team are so fortunate because not only do they have Andrew for a coach, but Randy Alcorn volunteers as his assistant coach. Randy puts in an amazing amount of time and really invests in the kids. Earlier this season he was interviewed for an article for the Bruin Banner (being in a high school newspaper probably not top on the list of important accomplishments for someone who has written books that have been on the New York Times Best Selling List, but you know...) and this is what Randy said about Andrew:

"Probably the best thing is that Andrew Pate is such a great coach. If I didn't think he was a great influence on the kids and had a great attitude it wouldn't be worth it. I can't say enough how much I respect and appreciate coach Pate and what a great person I think he is."

It is one thing for me lavish praise on him, but it is nice to have it come publicly from someone like Randy.

Way to go Barlow... and Andrew. Love you!