Jim Babcock: Francoeur Babcock Tourney was again a tremendous success

To The Daily Sun,

In actuality, it took place only two weeks ago, but somehow, so much has happened since then, and in truth,it almost never happened. But it did, and the 27th Annual Francoeur Babcock Memorial Basketball Tournament went off as planned, and as expected, with tremendous success.

The final day, Sunday March 8, was especially wild as we had two brackets needing a second game to determine a champion! All in all, I believe every man, woman, and especially children and players, thoroughly enjoyed themselves to the very end. As most folks know, we at the Francoeur Babcock Tourney have very high expectations for the attitudes and behaviors of every participant, including coaches, players and fans. We believe strongly that positive support for your team and kids, understanding the effort made to make this happen, being the good role model you need to be, all go into making sure everyone has a great time!

This year was one of the greatest ever, with absolutely everyone in the gym cheering wildly for their kids, so many applauding all the nice plays regardless of team colors. Coaches were very positive with their players, constantly instructing, laughing, cheering. The players, despite some very hotly contested games, kept their cool and played hard. And all the fans, gosh you get so caught up in the games, but you did a really nice job of keeping your perspective throughout.

As a basketball official myself, I take great pride in the referees I ask to volunteer their time, folks that are knowledgeable, skilled at officiating, have integrity, and are even tempered. By keeping the games under enlightened control, few get upset, and hate whole show goes smoother. A SPECIAL THANK YOU to all my officials, many have been supporting us for most or all of the 27 years.

So many other things happened that make me smile and are worth telling. Our donation jar was stuffed with money and checks, one for $100! Larry Ruther brought his jar of change, but added in a check also! One official, who has happily giver his time for more years than I can remember, forgot a game he was supposed to officiate, felt so bad, sent us a check for $50! On Saturday, four girls from the LHS girls basketball team showed up to volunteer, and jumped right in. We had whole families volunteering for blocks of time all weekend, like the Flanders family, all five, with son Andrew, even getting tapped to officiate a game. I am so pleased we got the tournament in before things got crazy. We made a good sumo put towards the two scholarship programs, and made a lot of children happy.

We are beyond fortunate to have the caring crew we have, the Francoeur Babcock tournament committee that's works together every year, some for most or all of the 27 years. We have a really good man in our Recreation Director, Herb Greens, our leader and detail man. Thanks everyone, see you next year!

Jim Babcock

Gilford