This year, the Arrowhead Girl’s Basketball Team was invited to the Viking Invitational at the S Elizabeth Center in Wilmington, Delaware. The Viking Invitational Foundation, founded in 2020, puts on the invitational, which was held from December 27th to 30th. Its mission is to bring competitive Boys’ and Girls’ tournaments to the St. E. Center over the holidays.
December 26th (Day 1)
With the gates to our flight from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport to Charlotte Douglas International Airport departing at 6 AM, everyone on the team had to meet at school at 4 AM. However, by around 4:15 AM, the bus driver who was supposed to take us to the airport had not shown up, so a coach and three parents had to drive and drop us off at the airport. We managed to board our flight on time and had 30 minutes to spare before our layover flight to Philadelphia International Airport started boarding. However, after the plane started taxiing, there was an issue and we had to go back to the gate. That problem delayed our flight by about two hours. After that flight landed, the team planned to rent cars and have practice at Villanova University, but the university got the dates mixed up. We drove to Wilmington, Delaware, to go to St. Elizabeth High School and practice. After that, we went to our hotel, found our roommates, dropped off our bags, and then headed to Olive Garden for dinner which everyone loved. Then we went back to our hotel, had a quick team chat, and then everyone went off to their rooms for the night.
December 27th (Day 2)
The morning started off with everyone meeting downstairs for some breakfast before our walkthrough practice at the host high school at 8:45 AM. After the walkthrough, we went back to our hotel and some people went to Chick-fil-A for breakfast. After that, everyone went back to their rooms and most people took a nap before we had to leave at 2 PM to watch the game before us that determined the team we would play the next day. After that game was done, most of the teams in our bracket of the invitational went to a room for a pizza party and then our game started at 4 PM. The game was against Central Dauphin from Pennsylvania, and we won 51-34. Junior Natalie Kussow scored 21 points with junior Presly Samz and sophomore Sidney Zehner each scoring 12 points. Once the game finished, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner which was at an Ale House.
December 28th (Day 3)
In the morning, we had another walkthrough for our next game at 8:45 at the high school. After that, we all went to the First Watch restaurant for breakfast and then back to our hotel to rest. Before our game, we got to the school around 2:30 to watch other games. The game was at 4 PM against Red Bank Catholic High School from New Jersey and they were ranked the #4 in the nation according to MaxPreps. We won the game 68-60 and the leading scorer was Natalie Kussow who had 34 points and broke the Arrowhead Girls’ Basketball all-time scoring record, passing the 1,475-point mark. She was also picked as the MVP of the championship game. Presly Samz and Sidney Zehner each scored 9 points. After the game, Landry Nelson was picked to win the A.C.E. award which picks one girl and one boy from the entire invitational that best represents community service. The award was presented by the founder of the Leukemia Research Foundation of Delaware. After we took pictures, we went back to eat pizza and made friends with the players of Olmsted Falls who were cheering us on during our game because they had lost to the Red Bank Catholic team the day before. We hung out with them for a while and then went off to our rooms to rest.
December 29th (Day 4)
We met downstairs at the hotel at 9:15 to drive about 45 minutes to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to do a day of team bonding. We started at the Philadelphia Art Museum, recreating the famous video of Rocky running up the steps of the building with Head Coach Reichle. Inside the art museum, everyone had to find a piece of art that reminded them of someone on the team and had about an hour to do so. After that, we went to the Reading Terminal Market, a food and shop vendor. We went to an escape room after that where we split into two groups to each do a different escape room which was very fun. We then went to our new hotel to check in and relax and later we got Raising Canes for dinner before going to bed.
December 30th (Day 5)
We started the day meeting in the hotel lobby around 6 to get some breakfast before we went to the airport. Our flight to Chicago left at 9:45 so many people went to get food and shop. After that flight, we had about a two hour layover before our flight to Milwaukee took off at 1:20 PM so we walked around the airport until then. After we landed in Milwaukee, our parents picked us up and we headed home.
