Loyola Blues and Orange Chicken...

The season has been over for almost two weeks now.  We have gone through the transitional process of letting Bill catch up on his sleep, and developing a new routine that does not involve two or three or four basketball games a week!  In honor of Bill's awesome season I have included a couple of special pictures from this past season that I took before I started my blog.  Here is Bill and the team after winning the Atascadero Christmas Tournament.  We have made this tournament a family tradition the past few years with Chris, Lori and family joining us. This year we rented out our favorite house in Cayucos and Chris went to all of the games with me, while my wonderful Mom watched the younger kids.  It was a great week!

 Here is the team after winning the Jurupa Valley Tournament in early December.  I really regret not bringing the kids to this game.  It was a wonderful win and not quite the same without my group of cheerleaders with me! 

 Here we are at Dino's restaurant before the start of what was going to be the last game of the season.  We had to travel down to Loyola High School in Los Angeles and decided to try a small place near the school.  It had lots of good reviews online, but was definitely an interesting spot.  Chris gave a homeless man $5 to watch my car while we went inside, and then of course he walked off with the money!

 When we walked up to order, there wasn't any menu.  We learned rather quickly that you just order however many of the chicken specials that you want.  As you can see from the above pictures, Gracie wasn't quite sure about it, but Dylan loved the orange spicy goodness of the chicken and french fries.  I can honestly say it was unlike anything I have ever had before and my fingers stayed orange for a quite a while afterward!

 Here we are in the Loyola gym.  Delaney made the trip out with us too!  Chris drove for us: Matt, Sarah, Dylan, Gracie, Delaney, and me!  I loved the beauty of the school and the gym.  That is about all I loved about this night though!

Here is the only picture of the game that I took - the tip-off!  We all recognized that Loyola was a great team, but it was hard to see the season end.  In Bill's words, we never wanted the fun to end!  I have been looking through all of the emails that Bill got over the past two weeks, and there are some I am going to include here just so Bill can remember these words...

I just want you to know that we have a superstar basketball coach and Athletic 

Director in Coach Blades. This year our boys’ basketball team won more games and 

moved to the quarterfinals of the CIF tournament and truly brought Cavalier pride 

back to this community. Bill also kept his students academically eligible and ended 

the year undefeated at home (11-0). Since you had the opportunity to watch our team 

in action on several occasions this year, you also got to see how Bill handled 

himself in game action and I am positive that you realized that he is a true role 

model for any coach out there. We are all blessed to have Bill as our coach and 

athletic director and to have him on staff at Montclair High School.

MH to MH
 

You have done such a tremendous job with the basketball team and they deserve 

every ounce of support they got!! I am truly proud to be a Cavalier and cheer you 

guys on!!! It was a great year......a year that will go into the history books of 

Montclair!! AMAZING!!!!!
ML

Proud of you guys!  You deserve a parade down Central Avenue!

FB

You, Danny and Dom did a fantastic job this year. Despite injuries and a couple 

of other bad luck events, you guided the boy’s basketball Cavs to one of their 

best seasons ever.  You impart dignity and correct behavior to all that you do.

The student athletes who have been associated with you learn important life lessons 

that they will carry with them all their lives.
JR