Bizarre Saturday Night

One of our best friend's sons plays on Archibishop Mitty's basketball team (rated #5 in the nation in HS boys varsity). He's awesome and the team is awesome and we've enjoyed being spectators at many of his games. On Saturday, the Mitty boy's team was playing Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep (SHCP) which is in San Francisco. The girls varsity also played (right after the boys) and so we decided to stay for that game, as well, because the SHCP girls are the #1 rated womens varsity HS team in the nation.

So, Jules and I went to San Francisco, did some sightseeing, ate in Chinatown and headed for the basketball games. That was the normal part of Saturday.

The bizarre part came as we were in the stands of the girls game just after halftime. One of the Mitty parents came back to her seat just behind us - saying that one of the mom's from SCHP was all upset out in the lobby because she had just witnessed a shooting outside the gym. At first, our thoughts were that she must have been being dramatic. We were far from correct.

In fact, the father of one of the SCHP girls basketball players was killed right outside the gym. Unbelievable! The game continued as information was starting to trickle through the stands. The players remained uninformed, playing their hearts out until with 17 seconds remaining in the game a public announcement was made that 'an incident' had occurred outside the gym and when the game was over we needed to exit via alternate doors and not through the lobby.

It was a bizarre sight to exit and watch as the medical examiner's wagon was pulling up to the front of the gym. A truely sad, sad evening.

Please pray for the family of Tierra Rogers - as they lost a father and husband Saturday. While we watched an innocent high school basketball game - her father walked across the street outside the gym at half time while talking with a friend. Two men approached him - shot him 5 times - and ran off; forever changing Tierra's life.

At times like this I am grateful that we have a Heavenly Father who understands our world, is capable of comforting the needy, and is able to provide justice for the acts of evil men.