That Was The Week That Was. By Tom Danehy ONE OF MY favorite sports weeks of the year is the one which includes Thanksgiving. It marks the start of high school basketball season, high school soccer gets started, and if we're lucky, there are still a couple local prep football teams in the state playoffs. The only thing that messes things up is that pesky holiday on Thursday, where the fried chicken places are closed, you're pretty much forced to eat vegetables in one form or another, there are no high school games, and all that's on TV are the damn Dallas Drugstore Cowboys. Still, the rest of the week more than makes up for that one, slow 24-hour period. This past Thanksgiving week was especially exciting. MONDAY. I ran the clock at the Seven-Up Salpointe Tip-Off Classic, a 16-team, week-long basketball orgy put on by my buddy Brian Peabody and a supporting cast of thousands, mostly Salpointe parents who bring free food for the refs and coaches in hopes their kids get more playing time. Just kidding. Actually, Brian doesn't do anything; it's all the parents. TUESDAY. The final score for the Sabino-Flowing Wells game was 49-48. At least that's what was on the scoreboard. I'm pretty sure it was right. I'm just glad that buzzer's real loud. WEDNESDAY. A kid from Sunnyside High School made a full-court shot at the end of double-overtime to beat Rincon. We're talking ESPN highlight stuff. THURSDAY. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Corn. Yadda yadda. FRIDAY. Over at the basketball tournament, Pueblo High Coach Barry O'Rourke threw a fit because his kids weren't announced before the start of the game. Seeing as how they were doing eight games a day at the impossible rate of one every 90 minutes, pre-game announcements weren't all that practical. Still, O'Rourke was angry that tournament host Salpointe and its opponent had their players announced before the final game of each evening. (Peabody got some guy who's possessed by the spirit of Don Pardo who does this real deep radio voice bit to add flavor to the Lancer games.) O'Rourke said he wasn't going to put his squad on the floor unless his players got introduced. I looked across the floor at the four people in attendance and thought I'd rather be just about anywhere than there. The ref took over and said, "Let's go." The Pueblo players didn't go out on the floor for the opening tipoff, so the refs called a technical foul. Flowing Wells hit both free throws and then got to throw the ball in. Still no Pueblo. This is where it got weird. The Flowing Wells kid took the ball in for a layup and a 4-0 lead. I wondered, with the Pueblo team still on the bench, why Flowing Wells didn't try a three-pointer. Heck, keep trying them until you make one. If a Pueblo kid steps on the floor, it's another technical foul. Even better, just have a kid dribble the ball. As long as the ball is in play, Pueblo can't take the court. Anyway, Pueblo finally went out after that layup. The chance for delicious irony was just missed. Flowing Wells held a one-point lead with a minute to go in the game, but Pueblo came back for the win. If the Warriors had lost by less than four, I'da' laughed. The next day, I was told by Peabody to announce the Pueblo players. I did, but O'Rourke started five kids who hadn't started any of the other games, just so they could hear their names reverberate throughout the empty gym. He subbed them out within 30 seconds. Oh, those inscrutable Irish. I suppose he was making a point, but damned if anybody knows what it might be. Later that night, I went to the Amphi-Mesa Class 5A football playoff game. It was a bitterly cold (for Tucson) night. I spotted Arizona Daily Star columnist Greg Hansen in the bleacers, sitting with a blanket on his lap. I was gonna kick his butt. Not for anything he's written; I just wanted that blanket. Amphi put on an exhibition of football that will keep me smiling for a long time. Lined up next to the Mesa team, the Panthers looked like middle-school kids. The Mesa players, on average, were two or three inches taller and 25 pounds heavier than the Amphi kids. But Amphi got deep in that Mesa butt. If Amphi quarterback/linebacker Lee Joplin isn't Player of the Year, they need to appoint a special prosecutor. The guy leads the top offense in Southern Arizona, runs the ball, throws the ball, runs back kickoffs, and is the leading tackler on the team. Oh yeah, the team that Amphi beat to open the season, defending big-school state champion Mayfield of Las Cruces, N.M., went undefeated the rest of the way and won its second straight title. Meanwhile, Sabino High, top-ranked in Class 4A, was beaten by Tempe and knocked out of the playoffs. If you asked for a simultaneous show of hands of Tucsonans who were happy to see Sabino lose, it would create an updraft strong enough to put the Goodyear blimp into orbit. SATURDAY. At the local soccer tournament, Canyon Del Oro, Amphi and Mountain View all ended up tied for first in their side of the bracket. CDO advanced to the semi-finals on the basis of having run up 16 goals on hapless Marana in pool play. Back at the Tip-Off classic, Salpointe won the title game in a thriller over CDO. Peabody and CDO coach Dan Huff both got tossed from the game for arguing with each other. Afterwards, they would both swear they were merely discussing who'd get to pay for the fries and sodas after the game. A large group of Salpointe kids stood up in the stands and chanted, "Don't be sad, Don't be blue, We kicked your ass, In football, too." There were probably long lines at confession that next week. Yeah, sure.

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