When we last left the drama of the 2009 season, the boys in orange had lost a heartbreaker in Round 2 of the tournament. That loss stung and still feels like the better team got robbed to this day. (I know, I know – then you wouldn’t have lost to them twice…but, still…)

So as we had known the winner of our Round 2 game would face a losing team in Round 3 – and as expected the team that knocked us out defeated them handily in a 25-0 rout. Which meant they were now in the final four and one game away from the championship game. Who would they face in that game? Exactly who I suspected we’d be facing had we won as I expected – the team that we went toe-to-toe with in the final game of the season. I said then (in that post, actually) that if felt like our two losses on the season came to two of the best teams in the league. Turns out it was true as they were facing for a spot in the championship game.

Ends up that it was the team that beat us in week 8 of the regular season (not the team that knocked us out in Round 2) that won the game, 19-6. Which hurts even worse because we know we could hold our own against them from experience – we came within a hair of winning our regular season game.

So it turns out that those guys ended up winning it all this morning in the Championship game.

Ouch.

Our boys could’ve made a serious run at it.

Next year we move up to third grade and so do all the second graders, but the current division is first & second combined so you see how a team that’s strong in this division could drop off in quality if some of the skill comes from first graders. Luckily, it looks like we have a good deal of talent moving up. With three teams (Orange, Black, White) what happens if the roster runs too thin with the move up in age group is that the third team (usually the White team, I believe) is broken up and used to fill the Orange and Black team rosters. I hate to be too optimistic with 2010 practice still 8 months away, but these boys could remain one of the better teams in the third grade division (and beyond).

I know I sound like one of those sports parents and I like to think nothing could be further from the truth, but this year was a lot of fun. Here’s to 2010 football consuming my late-summer/fall.