Bigfork Takes Care of Cherry

Bigfork defeated Cherry tonight on their home court, 57-32. The score at the half was 37-20. I don't have all the points for the girls so I will wait for the box score from Mesabi Daily News and add it tomorrow sometime.

They are ranked 5th in Class A in the State of MN right now. They moved down a notch after their loss to Grand Rapids.

I'm sure the girls are looking forward to a small break before the Hibbing Christmas tournament begins on December 28th, 29th and 30th. I'm looking forward to attending all three days of the tournament as I have those days off. Yippee! Finally get to see lots of basketball..Shelby will be coming with me to some of them. It will be fun for her to see the girls again...

Bigfork Takes Down the Orr Braves

Via a "basketball mom" telephone call, the Lady Huskies defeated the Lady Braves tonight by a score of 65-36. Sounded like it was a very physical and not so nice game! Megan had 16 points, Andi 15, Danielle 10, Lise 8 and Theresa 7. Don't know the rest....

I plan on being at the game this Thursday at Cherry...really, I am going to try!

The girls are now 5-1, the only loss being to AAA Grand Rapids. They are ranked 5th in Class A in the State of MN.

Nice Comment from a Northland Remer Lady Eagle

Sometimes I forget to look and see if there are any comments and I happened to see one this morning. It was from Kayla Heisler who is a senior at Northland Remer! She started her own blog to follow her team this year! Sounds like she is doing it for an English class project....said that she liked what I had done with mine! I'm so honored Kayla! Good luck and email me as I have a few things to share with you....

jgoble@paulbunyan.net

Bigfork Routs Chisholm

Bigfork handily defeated the Chisholm Bluestreaks on their home court last night. They were up at the half by 19 points and the final score was 68-28! Sounds like Megan had a monster game with 27 points, many from the free throw line. Andi and Lise had 12 and 8 points, respectively, to whittle their remaining points down to hit their 1,000 marks. I couldn't see the whole article on the Hibbing Daily Tribune as you have to pay this year to view the online articles!

I subscribe to Mesabi Daily News online but not Hibbing...Mesabi usually has box scores but didn't last night because the Hibbing paper was there I guess...just can't win! Since the article was written by Ted Anderson it should be in the Herald Review this Sunday so look for it there if you want to read the full article...

The girls next game is at Orr on Monday, Dec. 14th. I have to work that day also so won't be able to attend but will be going to the game in Cherry on Dec. 17th. Maybe I can finally get a few pictures to put up!

Great game girls!

Work Instead of Play...Awww

I was planning on going to the game tonight in Chisholm to watch the girls BEAT Chisholm, but got a call yesterday from da boss. They needed someone to work so I dutifully said I would....I will get an update from a couple of moms and post what information they can give me.

I did see this morning that Remer beat Deer River last night in OT, 60-58. Bet THAT was a good game...haha. A little physical too maybe? The Northern Lakes Conference title just might be very interesting this year!

I bet the next time they play Deer River will won't let that happen again! Then they will be split...could get VERY interesting down the road a little ways. Can't wait for the games between Nashwauk, Remer and Deer River....

Bigfork Defeats Littlefork-Big Falls

Bigfork defeated the Littlefork Lady Vikings once again...the final score was 67-20 in a game that started out pretty sloppy. As the game went on it got better of course. The Lady Huskies took over from the get go and never let up.

Adrianna led all scorers again with 20 (four three's), Lise 14, Megan 8, Teresa 7, Paige 6 (two three's again), Britt Hoyt with 5 or 6 (I thought she had two threes also), Carolyn with 3 and Danielle with 2 or 4...can't remember them all and accidentally lost my paper!

Score clock is getting easier and was a little worried when the refs walked in as it was Pollard and Erzar, two of the top refs around. It was fun sitting with Heather and catching up a little bit in between. She does scorebook and has for a few years and we used to coach volleyball together. I miss visiting with her everyday.

The girls play at Chisholm on Thursday and I plan on attending unless something comes up. I will finally be able to take some pictures!

It is sure different not watching Shelby play with the girls...just doesn't seem right! It is still fun watching the girls though and the younger ones coming up.

Waiting to see who won between Nashwauk and Cook tonight as that might have been a close game. We'll see....

Posting Again....

I decided I will post information as I have time for this season's Lady Huskies. Instead of starting a new blog I will just continue to add to this one as it is being "googled" and searched and still has many hits per day/week.

Last year the team ended their season at the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament and ended up taking fourth place in the State! Not bad for a tiny little town with the high school attendance being approximately 70+. They ended their season 31-3.

Interestingly, this years team pre-season ranking in Class A is 4th.

This year's team has four returning starters in Megan Powell, Sr., Annalise Klamm, Sr., Adrianna Ivanovic', Sr. and Theresa Stewart, Sr. Carolyn Thurston, Jr. has been starting so far this year in the fifth spot. I need to find the official roster and I will add the entire roster with their appropriate grades.

The girls are 2-1 so far this year with the first two games being blowouts against Cotton and Tower-Soudan and losing this past Saturday to AAA Grand Rapids. 57-46. Grand Rapids is a good team that also made a State appearance the past two years. Grand Rapids started the game off shooting well and took the lead. Bigfork battled back to tie the game and take the lead for a while until Rapids took it back and didn't let go.

Adrianna had a hot night shooting and ended up with 27 of Bigforks' 46 points, including four three pointers. Theresa Stewart had a nice game with 9 points and unfortunately two of our main scorers in Megan and Lise, just couldn't get a break and ended up with only two points each on the night which rarely happens as these two girls averaged in double figures last year.

Bigfork gave Rapids a run for their money and if our girls would have shot at their normal averages, they certainly could have walked away with a win.

They play at home tonight against rival Littlefork-Big Falls. Unfortunately I am not able to take as many pictures as I will be running the score clock and cannot do both at the same time. I may have someone take a few with my camera each game so I can post a few pictures of each game. We will see how that works out...

Also interesting to note is the fact that Annalise Klamm AND Adrianna Ivanovic will hit their 1,000 points this season, and early in the season. I'm hoping it is at an away game so I can take pictures of both accomplishments! That will make six Lady Huskies that have joined the 1,000 point club within the past four years. Quite a statement with this group of girls. Nicolle Worcester (07'), Jenna Beckner (08'), Shelby Goble (09'), Megan Powell (10') who is currently playing and then the two upcoming in Annalise and Adrianna.

Good luck tonight Lady Huskies!!!

Goodbye, Part II

Sorry it has been sooo long and I see several people keep checking the site to see if I have posted anything new....one neighbor from church nicely reminded me a few weeks ago that he was still waiting for Part Two!!

After I wrote Part One I realized that I'm just really telling the same story that this blog did over the past three years....I will write some more and if anyone doesn't want to read, just click out I guess....

I ended with the girls winning the tournament in Nashwauk and how that is when some of the parents got together and discussed starting a traveling team with these young girls. I wrote a letter with pictures no less, and sent it out to businesses and family and friends asking for any type of donations to help with the girls getting uniforms and paying tournament fees. Well it worked out and the girls were fortunate to receive over $2,000!! There were three businesses in Grand Rapids that were very helpful and Rick Ferguson of Swanson Motors actually came to the house to hand deliver a check that paid for the girls' uniforms....Rick ended up following the girls closely and actually played a part in their story as he was a sports commentator for KMFY with Mark Masters and they broadcast the girls' games ever since the girls all started on Varsity. The sad part was they both quit broadcasting the year that the girls actually made it to State....that was sad because they had been a big part of the story.

So the girls got their uniforms and their first ever Pacesetter tournament was in Bemidji at the new high school....I remember the girls all wanted their hair braided and also remember having that famous "basketball stomach" that never quit until after the State tournament!

The girls ended up winning their first game against Clearbrook-Gonvick in double OT....it was a fun game and I have it on tape. It is one of my favorites to watch because the 9th grade Red Lake boys team was waiting in the wings to play on that court and they were really getting into the game....Megan stole the ball and got to the three point line and swished a 3! Mind you she was in 5th grade....the Red Lake players were jumping up and down and bowing to her...it was really exciting. They ended up losing the second game against Bagley at the buzzer on a 3 point shot by Lise that rolled in and came out....they bawled their eyes out. That was a team that the girls ended up playing a few more times and we got to know some of them and the coach pretty well over the years. Just the start of many, many Pacesetter tournaments and tons of memories. I have the stat book somewhere for that summer and I believe the girls played in about 30 games!

This went on for about three spring and summers, so you can see why these girls played so well together. They did it for a LONG time!

There are so many memories of road trips, hotel stays and eating at fun and new restaurants and of course shopping....we used to find hotels that had pools, but the girls rarely swam as they were too tired or we got in too late from games. We finally figured out that we didn't to find a hotel with a pool and spend the extra money. We found ways to carpool, bring our snacks and waters, room share (tons) and on and on.

I have to throw this one in for Andi...we were driving home from a tournament and going through Garrison....it was the first time she had seen that Lake and asked us if it was the ocean!! We laughed and laughed and still tease her about it today....

Shelby and Adrianna were the first two to sign up for AAU with Tim Mayclin out of Bemidji. Along with Jenna who played on an older team. Shelby and Adrianna played together for two years on the same team with girls from Bemidji, Bagley, Pelican Rapids and Hawley. We finally got Megan and Annalise to play on the Gym Rats for one year and it was alot of fun, even going to Chicago for the Nike Summer Showcase...Menominee (sp) and several in the cities, including the North Tartan Meltdown, which was truly a meltdown of sorts. It was at Bloomington Kennedy and the air conditioning was not working the end of July...VERY, VERY hot to point of the fans (us) dripping with sweat! I couldn't believe the girls had to play in that heat and it was very hard on them as well as the other players. They sat on the bench with bags of ice on their heads and necks to try and cool them down...a few players even collapsing with heat exhaustion and having to be taken away in an ambulance!

The girls did however qualify for the AAU State Championship tournament in the cities, so were in the Elite Eight....it was during and after these tournaments that we as parents knew they had something very special....they had to play some very tough city teams and actually teams from all over the country, and always played right with them...they lost some close ones, won some close ones, and had a few blowouts on the losing end and the winning end....BUT all of these games made them stronger and tougher when it came to the regular season of Basketball in Bigfork and Section 7A.

Better get off and get something done here....more to follow later.

Goodbye, Part I

I have been procrastinating writing my final thoughts on the blog as I hate to end it. But, it has to be done...I had originally wanted to write a letter and read it the sports banquet with a slideshow but just did not have time with the graduation activities, etc. SO....I am going to try and explain to everyone just what these girls and these past few years have meant to me....it will take more than one writing as there are lots and lots of memories and I want to start from the beginning when they were itty bitty basketball players in the Saturday Ball program at Bigfork School.

We transferred Shelby to Bigfork in 2000 when she was a fourth grader unaware what adventures lie await for us there....she was welcomed warmly by her classmates and made new friends quite fast. It didn't take long to understand what basketball meant to BHS. Shelby's older sister and brother both played basketball so we started following their teams and were hooked....both squads had very good ball players, many who are on the 1,000 point board in the gym...I remember following the boys' team to Duluth for the Section 7A Championship game against Ely in which they lost and took 2nd place...it was an exciting experience and so sad to see those boys accepting their 2nd place medals and just "almost" making it to State. Shelby, Lise and Megan all dressed up and painted their faces and cheered along with Howler at UMD and that was the first taste for me....

December came and along with it came Saturday basketball....I have a picture of the three (Shelby, Lise and Megan) in their yellow team shirts and I remember putting it in a scrapbook along with the words "future Huskie basketball stars"....how ironic is that? This was the year before Adrianna came along and the four became close friends and got pretty serious about basketball. Of course there were many other young girls that played at that time, some that are still playing, some that left and came back and some that decided basketball wasn't their thing.

Another first memory was the very first "real" tournament the girls played in when Shelby was in fourth grade. It was Shelby, Britney Stewart, Ann Boessel, Morgan Scheff (can you believe that) as fourth graders, and Lise, Megan, Robin, Theresa and Ashley as third graders and of course Greg Powell was their coach. The tournament was at Kelliher and I have part of it on video...they are soooo cute running everyone in circles! Megan shot the lights out and Lise still dribbled low and around everyone....Shelby stole the ball alot and I can hear Morgan's mom Lisa in the background yelling the girls on....her mother passed away a couple of years after that so it's sentimental to hear her voice on that tape....my battery ran out so I didn't get to tape the whole game, but they did end up winning in a "free throw shootout" for first place. I posted the picture quite a while back and that was just the beginning....Britney and Theresa moved away for about five years and came back two years ago...Ann and Morgan quit playing and well, the rest are still playing except for Ashley her injured her knee and is still on the team, but unfortunately can no longer play.

The following year most of the same girls played Saturday ball and Adriana joined that year....this is the year that things got interesting and a light bulb went off in my head. The girls were signed up to play in a little tournament in Nashwauk and Rob (Megan's dad) was the coach. It was exciting because at that point (Shelby was in 5th and the rest were in 4th) you could see how competitive these little girls were...OMG. I remember watching them play from up above in Nashwauk's old gym and time after time Shelby would steal the ball at half court...she was so hungry for that ball...they easily beat the teams they played and then came Chisholm. Bob McDonald was coaching and we were a little nervous because it was "Chisholm" and Coach McDonald was their coach...the girls went out and played hungry and beat them by double digits. I remember they were a little shocked that they got beat by Bigfork...and the rivalry with those girls began. There was one little girl that we gave a nickname to that day that stuck until they were done playing her...."Mickey Mouse ears". She was a cutie and also a good basketball player. Ironically, she was the girl that a few years ago, with just seconds left, threw up a half court shot in which Megan fouled her....we were up by one point and she made two free throws to win the game by one point. That was also the year that Bigfork lost to Chisholm in the Section Championship....interesting, huh?

Anyway, the girls won that little Nashwauk tournament and I still have the notebook that Jesse Powell kept stats in....I also posted a picture of the girls from that tournament a while back on this blog....you know me, pictures of everything! I remember my sister-in-law came to watch one of the games and was very impressed with the girls..she had to leave and when the girls were done and had won the tournament I remember pulling off the road to call her to tell her they had won...I will NEVER forget the feeling I had at that moment. I was so proud of these little girls and was so totally impressed. That was when a thought went through my head that "one day these girls will have a shot at making it to the State Tournament". They were only in 5th and 4th grade, but I just knew they would get there one day.

That was the beginning of their little traveling team and endless spring and summer tournaments....I have no idea how I remember all of this stuff and I know lots of people think I'm crazy, but it brought me great joy to watch them over these past 8 years...and so the story began....

I will try and write a little more at a time....hope I'm not boring everyone! Just want the people that have followed this blog to understand why I even did it! Many reasons and many, many memories....

Shelby's Graduation Party

We had Shelby's party yesterday at the Marcell Family Center and it turned out to be a beautiful day and the party went great....was worried about not having enough food, but it turned out just right. A little bit left over to take to the church this morning for Sunday potluck....

Tracy Schaar of Tracy Cakes did an outstanding job on the cakes...they were beautiful AND delicious! Exactly what we wanted as far as the decorating went also....they went perfectly with our "green theme"! We went for green instead of blue & gold and even had a table with tree seedlings to that everyone could take one and go home a plant balsam or white pine seedling. Of course the reason being, Shelby will be studying Natural Resources and Wildland Firefighting in college.

She was given two beautiful quilts, one from Desirae and Cody's mom, Carole. She makes rag quilts and I had asked her if she could do something with some of the many, many t-shirts Shelby had acquired over the years from miscellaneous camps, tournaments and AAU stuff. She made a quilt with 20 blocks of her various t-shirts and surrounded them by blue and gold...it turned out great! (So save those t-shirts!)

Then Auntie Connie Gross, who has been making gorgeous quilts for years, brought her one made of a bright green and bright pink that she loves also! Auntie Delores made her a huge fruit salad platter that was delicious and almost too pretty to eat....but we all did of course.

There were three huge picture boards and one table with her sports honors and awards and another table that had all of the memory boards from every sport she was ever in since 5th grade! Plus of course a few scrapbooks...

I have to say I am glad that it is over and that it went well....I don't know that it could have gone any better! We were all blessed with a beautiful day, party and family and friends to share both with...thanks to everyone that came!

Here are some pictures of everything....

P.S. I will still write some final thoughts but can't wrap my mind around that right now....check back in a week or so.

Graduation

The day finally came for Shelby and her classmates from the BHS Class of 2009 to graduate! It seemed surreal to me and just did not seem like the day was here and she was actually graduating.

The Validictorian was Justin Mann who had just qualified for State in the shot put the day before and the Co-Salutatorians were Viki Krachtt and Britney Stewart. It was a very nice ceremony with Jacob Rahier (2008) and Jared Anselmo singing A Simple Man. The slideshow went well and when the choir went up to sing The Prayer was when I cried....seeing Shelby, Lise and Megan standing there together for the last time was what got to me.....ugh. So hard to believe she won't be with them next year!

Here are a few pictures from the day....the one of Shelby laughing was after they threw their caps and Joe G's got stuck up in the rafters! Leave it to Joe G!

I will post a few more pictures once I get them from Shelby's camera and my final note to end the blog after Shelby's grad party on the 6th....need to get through that this coming week!

Athletic Awards Photos

Just a few pictures from the Athletic Awards the other night. Megan received a ball for her 1,000 point and her 1,000 rebound. She made her 1,000 point the first game of the season and then reached 1,000 rebounds at the State tournament. That is quite impressive, both achieved during her junior year! Megan also was presented with her the 1,000 point club board that will be joining the others in the gymnasium.

There is a picture of the Senior athletes receiving their plaques. Missing was Sarah Rooks, Britney Stewart, Jared Anselmo and Michael Sheppard. Shelby and Justin both ended up with 13 letters each although Shelby was missing one year from volleyball, her ninth grade year, so I don't know what was up with that or if they just missed it.

Another picture is of the five girls receiving their Northern Lakes All Conference plaques and certificates. That was another first as Bigfork had five girls receive the honor this year, Theresa Stewart, Shelby Goble, Adrianna Ivanovic, Annalise Klamm and Megan Powell.

Finally, I took a picture of Shelby with Coach Powell and her "finished" board that will be put back up in the gym. She received the board last year with the final total. She did end up being the second highest scorer in Bigfork...so far. Mason claimed that title for a few years and it will be fun to see if his sister Megan will be able to claim that title back in the Powell family! You just never know what will happen!

Megan received the award for Most Assists, Lise for Most Steals, Andi for Most Rebounds, Shelby for Best Free Throw Percent and Lise for Most Improved. Greg has never given an award for the most points in a season. You can see how they worked as a team by the awards they were given. He mentioned that between everyone on team there were 500+ assists. (I can't remember the number he said but it was impressive)

He also mentioned that Shelby was picked as an All State selection for Class A teams in the State of Minnesota and that the Coaches Association picks 12 girls out of over 900 girls that are on Class A teams in the state, so she was in the top 2%! That was interesting to know....I knew it was a big honor and that really puts it into perspective.

It was a long night as the ceremony went for about 2 1/2 hours, but it was very nice. I didn't have my slideshow done and there were a few disappointed people, but they would have been there another hour if I had it done, so probably a good thing! I still plan on doing one and we will just get together one evening at the school and watch the show...then it can be as long as I want it to be!

Athletic Banquet Tomorrow Night

The BHS Athletic awards will be held tomorrow night at the Edge Center. I actually can't remember the time and will have to find out tomorrow! Last year they combined all the sports together and it actually went very well...the coach/coaches of each sport talk about their respective seasons and present awards, etc.

I was planning on doing a slideshow but never had the time to put it together the way I wanted so there will not be one....it would take hours and hours and I just don't have the time right now with graduation, etc. Maybe someday I will put one together for Shelby....

Lord's Army Youth Group Car Wash

Shelby is a member of the Lord's Army Youth Group from our sister church in Cohasset, Mn. The Good News Bible Church. They had a car wash today to raise money for a trip to Valley Fair that will be taken in August. The group started last September and has grown tremendously....they meet once each month and have had different trips and activities thrown in between such as a UMD football game, ice fishing with a ton of prizes, hayrides and bonfires and cookouts and more.

Today they had 54 kids show up and washed 53 cars! The cost was $10 per car and with that you got a free hamburger! Of course most people donated a little more than the $10 as it is going for a great cause...the kids were required to be at the car wash to be able to go to Valley Fair.

There are kids from Grand Rapids, Greenway, Deer River, Bigfork and Northome schools. I'm probably forgetting one or two....

The little girl in the pink shirt with Shelby is the one that I mentioned earlier in my blog that went home after youth group and emailed her grandma and said "you won't believe who was at youth group tonight! Shelby Goble! (right after they made it to State and her Grandpa was Shelby's coach and the Lady Huskies are her idols) It was so cute...

Here are some fun pictures that I took in a hurry....I thought the car wash was from 11-5 and it was from 11-1! We had church in Dora Lake until 11 so we got there a little after 12.....these are my favorite pictures to take....life in action (and kids and puppies to boot!)

Enjoy!

Senior Reception

Everything about the Senior Reception was very nice....simple, but yet classy and organized. The stage looked great and you can see in the pictures that they had their Stargazer flower with a quote as the backdrop. Char Westerman, Class President, gave a short speech and then they went directly into presenting a few of the awards. Jared Anselmo had a piano solo, that he composed himself. It was a beautiful piece.

Then onto more awards and presentation of the Class by Pam Francisco, who has been one of their class sponsors since 7th grade.

Here are a few pictures of the night....Char at the beginning, Shelby being presented the VFW - Orbin Holt Vocational/Technical Scholarship from Foster Bjorge Post 1764 and the three, Justin Mann, Britney Stewart and Shelby after being presented with "Stephanie's Gift" Scholarship from the Bigfork Ambulance Service representatives.

I am waiting for a copy of the picture of the class with the cakes but haven't gotten it yet and will post it at that time....

Senior Reception Tonight

The Senior Reception and Award Ceremony is tonight at the Edge Center at 7:00 pm. I have to pick up the two cakes that we ordered from Tracy Schaar over at Squaw Lake...she makes the BEST cakes and is very talented at decorating also...she will also be making Shelby's graduation cakes and a few other Bigfork graduates' cakes.

We always order our cakes from her...Desirae's wedding cake, Rod & Max's 50th Anniversary cake, Shelby's 1,000 point cake and many more....she is also a talented cook as her family owns the Mistic Strawberry Farm and they have a restaurant on the farm during strawberry season...her number is 659-4308 if anyone ever needs a delicious cake!

I will have to take a picture of them to post....(they are having two). One will have all of their names on it with the boys' names in black and the girls' names in hot pink with their class flower (a fresh Stargazer Lily) and the other will be the normal Congratulations Seniors in their class colors..

I'm hoping it will be a good scholarship night for all the seniors that put in scholarship applications. I know some didn't take the time to fill them out and others (like Shelby) filled out every single one they could! Shelby has heard back from some of them with bad news and some of them with good news...there will be others tonight that are announced that will be surprises. Shelby did receive a call last Friday from someone on the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce that she was in their Top 5 and they wanted to do a phone interview with her since she wasn't in town. She did the interview on Monday and they called her back yesterday afternoon and told her she would be receiving one of their scholarships! Yippee!!! Everything helps....will pay for her books for one semester!

I will post pictures tomorrow with the cakes and how she does scholarship wise....looks like it's clearing up outside as it was raining hard this morning...should be another beautiful day!

The End of Blog Coming Soon...

I have decided that I will end this blog once Shelby has graduated on May 30th, 2009....It has been fun keeping up with her and the Lady Huskies over the past three years and since her time will be done at Bigfork High School, it is time to end this blog.

The purpose of this blog was to journal her high school basketball career, along with her teammates on the Lady Huskies basketball team. I tried to post any and all accomplishments regarding the team and the individual girls over the years, along with photos from the games that I attended. (My favorite part!)

Truthfully, the comment that was made about my daughter on an earlier post has brought me to this decision. I can't even tell you how many hours I have put into this blog and I hope it did bring some enjoyment to a few proud parents and family members....hopefully another parent or interested Lady Huskie fan can start another blog to keep up with the team next year as I think they will have another successful season.

I was originally going to keep it going through next year but will now end it and focus on life after Basketball in Bigfork....mine and Shelby's at ICC in the Fall. She registered for her college classes last Friday and it made me happy to see her so excited about starting college and making new friends. We had lunch with Coach Bauer and he mentioned me starting a new blog on the Lady Viking basketball team next year...so that is what I will pour my extra time in.

I will post info the next two weeks up to her graduation and then will stop posting....the blog will stay up so people can view the past few years, maybe. I might just delete the whole thing too....haven't quite decided on that yet, but will in the next two weeks.

Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day today!

First Prom Out of the Way, Sort of....

Shelby went to the Blackduck Prom last night and had a great time...I'm happy that she was able to such a nice event.

Anyway, here is a picture of Shelby with her best friend Larissa and their dates....no boyfriends, just all friends.