D's Notebook

Tag: soccer (Page 2 of 9)

Weekend Kid Sports Notes

May 3, 2021 /

The pace is winding down but still kid sports notes to share from the past few days.

Track

Yesterday was CYO track meet #3. This one was a little different: kids were free to make their own schedules. They picked a race, show up when it was called, and then scanned their wristband at the finish line to “register” themselves for that event.

L kept bouncing around on what to run. The 50 and 100? The 100 and 200? All three? She settled on the shorter sprints. Despite running into a pretty fierce headwind she dropped 0.11 off her 50 time, winning the race in 7.57, nearly 0.3 faster than the second-place runner. That wind slowed her down in the 100, but it slowed her opponents more. She beat her St P’s buddy by over 0.7 and the third place runner by a full second. Her time would also have been fast enough to win the 7th/8th grade girls race.

She was again taking names. After the 100 she was excited about beating “all the fast girls.” I’m not sure how she gets this information, since we didn’t have previous times for any of the new girls she ran against. I wonder if she asks when they are lining up, or if girls are just always bragging. I need to make sure some girls are talking smack to her before the city events!

She ran the first 100 of the medley relay, got a big lead, her buddy stretched it out in the second 100, but our 200 and 400 girls had issues with the baton pass and gave all the margin away. No worries, our 400 runner is the fastest in the state and won easily.

C had a good day, too. She decided to only run the 100. She got put in the second heat, which she won by about five yards. Her time was good enough to take third overall, 0.02 behind a teammate who ran the faster heat. I like to think C would have caught her if they ran the same heat.

She ran the second 100 of the medley relay. She got the baton in second, passed it off in second. Mission accomplished. Her team got destroyed in the anchor leg, though. Still, she had two good runs for the day.

Next Saturday are the preliminary rounds for the City championships.

Tennis

M played a match Friday right across the street from our house. Unfortunately she played at the same time L and I were at kickball and before S could get there. They actually played multiple sets this time, playing to four games rather than six. She and her partner lost two sets to none, but did win a couple games in one of the sets. She’s hoping to get to play tomorrow, assuming the rain passes by then.

She’s also asked about continuing lessons through the summer with the plan to play next year.

Soccer

You may recall that last Tuesday C scored a goal, earning her an ear cartilage piercing. That happened without either S or I there to see it.

Wednesday she played again and I was able to attend. I was sitting right at midfield. Late in the second half there was a loose ball near the goal, she pounced on it, and it looked like she made terrific contact, sending the ball towards the corner of the goal. The goalie did a full-out stretch and, from my perspective, seemed to knock the ball wide.

C started jumping up and down, shaking her arms, clearly yelling because she was upset. The St P’s parents around me and I started laughing, thinking C was pissed that this kid made a phenomenal save on her shot.

And then the referee blew her whistle and pointed at midfield, indicating it was a goal.

She had scored again!

Immediately I got the questions, “So does this mean two piercings?!?!” That night one of her coaches, who wasn’t at the game, texted me, “I hear the belly button piercing got approved.”

I texted S, who was at a meeting, with the news. “I only signed off on one piercing!”

After the game C said that the goalie did get his hands on the ball, but pushed it into the corner of the net where there was a big tear and the ball sailed through, making it look to those of use 50 yards away like it had missed. She was jumping up and down thinking the referee didn’t see it and she wouldn’t get her goal.

She was very pumped to have scored again.

Thursday she did something totally unprecedented: she skipped a kickball game for her team’s final soccer game. I wasn’t sure about this. We agreed at the beginning of the year that kickball would always come first. I’m a coach, for crying out loud! What kind of message does it send that I let my kid skip for another sport? But she’s having so much fun with soccer that I said it was fine with me if my kickball coaching partner agreed. Luckily her daughter plays soccer, too, and she saw the happiness on C’s face. She gave us her blessing.

In the finale Thursday C had a couple scoring chances that she couldn’t take advantage of. In the dying minutes of the game, she looked to have a breakaway with a kid in goal who did not want to be there. But one of her teammates came over and knocked her off the ball. As soon as he did that, the referee blew the whistle ending the game. I stood up and yelled, “Thanks a lot, Stephen!” All the parents around me thought I was thanking him for keeping C from scoring. In fact I was being sarcastic: I wanted her to score again!

Oh well, she had a ton of fun this past week, and that’s the most important thing.

Kickball

Turns out the game C and I missed was kind of a big deal. Just as the soccer game ended, I got a text from my coaching partner. “We won, 31–30, in 9 innings!”

Extra innings in kickball?!?! That happened to M’s team in 7th grade – they had a ten inning game – but that was the only time I had experienced it.

The next day I got the scoop. We were missing five players total, so had just enough for a team of 10. We were down seven going into the bottom of the 7th, with the bottom of the order up. They all got on base – which NEVER happens for those girls – then we scored seven to send it to extras. Neither team scored in the 8th, then we scored three in the bottom of the 9th to pull out the win.

Her team is supposed to play tonight and tomorrow, but we’ll see if weather allows that to happen.

L’s team played their final regular season game of the year Friday. They faced a team that was mixed 5th/6th graders and had been getting killed all year. So we were a little nervous when we were only up 5–4 after two innings.

Our girls scored 14 in the third, 13 in the fourth, and seven in the fifth to win by mercy rule.

L was not happy, though. The field we were playing on was weird. There was a sidewalk in left field that meant balls she normally kicks that way would be ground rule triples instead of home runs. She started the game trying to kick to center. That produced a double and a fly out. She started shifting her aim to right field, where the ball could roll. One of those kicks turned into a single and she was tagged out going to second, although she insists the tag didn’t touch her. She got another double. Then she came up in the top of the fifth with the bases loaded. She aimed toward right and absolutely smoked the ball. This was a no-doubter, everyone can walk because the defense isn’t getting it, kick.

And then the umpire raised his fist and called her out for stepping over the three foot kicking line. Which is bullshit; she was at least four inches short of it. Short enough to see clear asphalt between her shoe and the line.

This was her first game of the season in which she didn’t kick any home runs. She was not happy. After the game she wouldn’t talk for two hours. I told her to knock it off: they won by 32 on a day she didn’t kick well, and that was a good thing. Plus I had been warning her about getting close to the kicking line for a week and she kept blowing me off. Maybe this will make her adjust her technique.

Her team went 7–0 in the regular season. There are three divisions in her age group, and her team will play in a City semifinal next week. The division they matchup with has a three-way tie for first place, so it requires two playoff games this week to determine who we play. At track yesterday the coaches were trying to convince me to go scout the second playoff game. I didn’t say that I wouldn’t do it…

Mid-Week Kid Sports Notes

April 28, 2021 /

I mentioned that this would be a very busy kid sports week. That has proven to be true. As there were a couple big developments, I’m going to go ahead and get you caught up on what’s gone down the past two days.

Tennis

Monday M played her second tennis match. We never heard why, but they mixed up the partners and she played with one of her best friends. Just like her first match, she and her partner raced out to a 3–1 lead, then lost the fifth game. This time they held it together and won their one-set match 8–3. She and her partner – who lost 8–0 a week ago – were pretty pumped to get the win. It was extra fun since both S and I were able to watch her play.

Now I’m not going to blow any smoke up your collective asses and claim this was a high quality match. A lot of balls into the net or hit way long or wildly out-of-bounds. There were a few service games that were lost at love. But there were also a handful of decent rallies and M and her partner both had several decent winners.

I told M after she got home that my only piece of advice was to swing more confidently. She has a tendency to hit cautiously, with a weak arm, which sends the ball into the net (sometimes bouncing its way there). She rolled her eyes at me, but I reminded her that she’s had six months of lessons; she knows how to swing a racquet.

“I’m not saying you have to try to kill the ball,” I said. “I’m just saying you’ve had good lessons and you’ve worked hard. Take a confident swing each time and I guarantee you’ll have better results.”

In her defense, most of the JV girls have the exact same issue.

I was proud that after hitting several balls into the net, she looked like she wanted to throw her racquet. That is definitely a trait she picked up from me! Although I would have 100% tossed my racquet.

The weirdest thing about the match was it was my first trip to the CHS campus since November 13 when the school went virtual for the end of the fall semester. Crazy, huh?

Soccer

C had a soccer game last night. As it was both across the street from S’s office and L had a kickball game, she got a ride to the game with a friend knowing S could come over, watch the end, and bring her home.

We were a couple innings into kickball and I was standing in my normal scorekeeper’s spot behind third base. Suddenly my phone and watch started vibrating like crazy as a bunch of texts came in. I glanced to make sure the messages weren’t from M telling me the house was on fire, but after confirming they weren’t from M didn’t read any of them.

Between innings I unlocked my phone and reviewed what had come in.

“C just scored!”
“Are you at the game? She just scored!”
“OMG, C just scored a goal!”
“U owe a piercing!!!!”
“Guess who is getting her ears pierced???”

Alert readers may recall that at the beginning of the season S promised C that if she scored a goal this year, she could get her ear cartilage pierced. She had a chance two weeks ago but put the ball over the crossbar. Apparently she did not waste her second opportunity.

This was at the beginning of a defensive inning for L’s team, and she was playing third base. When she reached her spot I yelled out to her, “C scored a goal!” L’s eyes widened and she got a huge grin on her face, “Really?! WOW!!!”

When the game was over, a 3–1 win, C texted me:

“I scored a goal. Dubs.”

When she got home she broke down the play for me. It came on a throw-in deep in the offensive end of the field. The ball bounced through the defense, hit her arm, dropped directly in front of her, and she calmly put it away. I doubt there was anything calm about it but it sounds better that way. I didn’t point out that if the ref had been paying attention it should have been a handball since the ball hit her arm. He didn’t see it so the goal was 100% valid. I guess it was the same referee who screwed up the snow game last week, so he owed us one.

My kickball coaching partner texted me after the game that all the St P’s parents went nuts when the ball hit the back of the net.

I wish I could have seen it, but I’m very glad she was able to score. C has a tendency to let sports disappointments drag her mood down. This was a fine way to begin to close out her CYO sports career.

She has another game tonight – it will likely be her final game – so I’ve encouraged her to not be satisfied with one goal.

Oh, and it was sunny, breezy, and 84. A HUGE difference from last Tuesday night.

Kickball

A ho-hum night for L in kickball.

She kicked seven times.
She reached base safely seven times.
She kicked one double.
The other six kicks were all home runs, including one grand slam.

I’m honestly not sure what got into her: this was the hardest she’s ever kicked the ball. She had three home runs in the first two innings and each sailed over the deepest outfielder’s head. She could have walked in from second and still reached home safely.

The one time she kicked a double it was because the defense tried to get tricky. The opposing coach was one of her basketball coaches last winter. He was talking to me while he was trying to stack his left field with an extra defender and get them to back up. He got everyone situated how he wanted then looked at L and muttered to me, “Oh jeez, she’s going to kick it to right field, isn’t she?” Sure enough, L was angling her body to kick to right. She didn’t get 100% of this ball and sent it directly at the right fielder. As in youth baseball/softball, you usually hide your weakest fielder in right field in kickball. This girl wanted nothing to do with L’s line drive. I think she may have even closed her eyes. But she hung in there, the ball ricocheted off her legs back toward the infield, and L had to be content stopping at second.

Mother Nature’s Fury

April 22, 2021 /

It was some 24 hours we experienced from roughly 5:00 pm Tuesday to 5:00 pm Wednesday.

On Tuesday we got hit by that freak, spring snowstorm that blew through the Midwest. Both C and L had kickball games scheduled, and both games were cancelled. C’s was actually cancelled on Monday night when their opponents all went into quarantine. With kickball out of the way, she decided to join her soccer team on Tuesday. I warned her that it was supposed to snow, be very windy, and very cold. She didn’t care, she was all in.

Wouldn’t you know it the worst of the storm hit right during her game. When we showed up the field was already covered, but the snow seemed to be stopping. As soon as the game began, the winds kicked up and started blowing heavy snow right into our faces. The players, at first, were having fun. But as soon as they all got soaked and chilled the fun ended. As the snow increased in intensity, it became almost impossible to control the ball. If you tried to dribble, the ball would either stick in the snow and go nowhere, or collect snow as it rolled like you were making a snowman. The best bet was to hit it long and hope someone could run onto it.

Soon kids started wiping out left and right. I have no idea why the coaches or referees allowed them to keep playing. In the midst of the slipping and sliding, our goalie got absolutely destroyed three times. The first two times the ref just signaled the kids to play on.

The third time, when our goalie was rolling around in the snow holding his head in pain, the ref finally relented and gave the attacking player a yellow card. The goalie’s dad is our head coach, and he was screaming at the ref, “THAT’S THREE TIMES, SIR!!!” I love how soccer coaches always say “Sir” to the refs. The ref didn’t like that. After he literally told our goalie to get up rather than check on him to see if he was ok, he walked the length of the field and gave our coach a yellow card for dissent.

My friend I was standing with has a very loud voice. He was getting super frustrated. He had cancelled the practices for his lacrosse teams, and his high school junior’s soccer practice had been cancelled. He thought it was ridiculous we were playing. He let it all out, “OH YEAH, GIVE HIM A YELLOW CARD BECAUSE YOU’VE TOTALLY LOST CONTROL OF THE GAME!!!” Everyone within a mile probably heard him.

The other dads and I were almost falling over laughing. After he finished with the coach the ref walked to us and said, “Which one of you has the big mouth?” Dave raised his hand and the ref said, “You’re out of here!” There was some back-and-forth before Dave slowly walked away, only to return two minutes later with a new coat on and an umbrella to cover his face. Hilarious!

It kept snowing harder. Despite wearing long underwear, snow pants, snow boots, a thick fleece hoodie, a down layer, a rain shell, and a stocking cap with the hoodie pulled over it, I was miserable. My glasses were totally wet, so I could barely tell when C was on the field. Every two minutes I had to brush the snow off my body because my clothes were completely covered.

On April freaking 20th!

This was the worst sports viewing experience of my life. It didn’t help that we lost 3–1. Although, to be honest, if we played that team in good weather it would have been 7–3 or worse. I hate that there are no requirements for how evenly balanced co-ed teams have to be in CYO. We were playing with mostly girls while the other team only had two girls on a team filled with really good male players.

Oh well. C was nearly frozen solid after the game. We sat in the car for at least 15 minutes, waiting for our bodies to warm and the windshield to defrost/defog. Once she stopping shivering she said, “Well, at least we had a memorable game!” I liked that attitude.

We ended up getting between two and three inches of thick, heavy snow. That was a problem.

I went to bed fairly early that night. I woke sometime around 11:30 and realized I wasn’t getting any airflow through my CPAP mask. I kept hitting the button on the machine to restart it, but nothing changed. After about five attempts I realized the power was off. That sucked! I tossed my mask aside and went back to sleep.

Fifteen minutes later C came into our room saying that something downstairs was beeping. I got out of bed, looked around, and finally found that the power supply our networking gear is plugged into had drained its battery and triggered its alarm. I flipped it off and went back to bed.

But this time I couldn’t sleep, so after tossing and turning for awhile, I got up, found my Kindle, and read for about an hour. I went back to bed around 2:00 and, after more tossing and turning, finally drifted off again.

Sometime after 3:00 I was again jolted awake by a loud noise. The smoke detectors were all ringing and the girls were wandering the hallway trying to figure out what was going on. S and I raced downstairs. Nothing on fire on the main floor. We went to the basement, where her parents were staying in our gust room. My eyes were blurry from sleep, but our flashlights seemed to show some smokey air as we rounded the corner. Her dad was walking towards us holding something that was giving off a cloud of smoke. Apparently he had woken up earlier, realized the power was off, and lit a couple small candles so he could see. One of them had nearly burned out and when it began to smoke, caused the smoke detectors to go off

We were all extremely thrilled by this development.

Once we got the air cleared and the alarms to stop ringing, it was back to bed. The rest of the night I woke each time I heard any traffic outside, thinking it might be the power trucks coming to fix whatever had caused the problem. It never was.

Finally morning arrived. Fortunately there was enough outside light that the girls could get ready without too much trouble. I found it odd that both of our neighbors seemed to have power. The neighbors to the north are on a different grid than we are, so it wasn’t unusual for one of our houses to have power when the other did not. But the house to the south was brightly lit, and I was sure we were on the same circuit. We don’t have any above-ground lines on our property that could have come down, so it didn’t make sense that only our house would be without power. The folks across the street seemed to have power as well.

I checked the power service website and it claimed 47 homes in our local area were without power, and nearly 2000 across the city. At least we weren’t alone, I guess.

I had no trouble getting the girls to school. All the traffic lights were working and the roads were clear. On the way I heard that we had set a record for both the most snow this late in the season, and the coldest day this late in April. It was a balmy 27 degrees.

I sat at home and waited for the power to come back on. And waited. And waited. I kept checking the power company’s site. Steadily the number of total outages dropped, but our little dot on the map remained. When I went to pick the girls up it was down to about 300 total homes without power, with our 47 all still dark.

By 5:00 everyone was getting antsy. The girls had homework to do and devices that required both Wifi access and charging. The house was getting cold. The food in our fridge had passed the point where it was safe to eat. I texted a sister-in-law to see if we could come over so the girls could do their schoolwork. She said of course and we began grabbing charging cables, devices, and materials needed to do their work and get everything powered for the night. I hoped we could take off for a few hours and come home to a lit and warm house. I had already warned S to do her charting at the office rather than save it for the evening.

We were seconds away from stepping outside when our electronic appliances began chiming. The internet gateway started its power-up cycle. The furnace woke and rumbled as it waited to fire. The one light that was switched on came to life. Nearly 18 hours after losing it, we had power!

We let out cheers, and the girls began debating what to order for dinner while I started throwing all the perishables from the fridge into the trash can.

I think this was a record for our longest-ever power outage. It could have been much worse. We have some friends who went a week without power two years ago. Still, 18 dark hours sucked.

The forecast says it is supposed to be close to 80 by Tuesday. Freaking Mother Nature…

Spring Sports, Pt. 1

April 15, 2021 /

We are about 10 days into the spring CYO sports schedules, which means we are at roughly the halfway point of those compact seasons. Here’s a quick look at how the family has done so far.

Both C and L are two games into their kickball seasons, with a third game rained out for each team.

L’s team is 2–0. They won their first game by 10 runs against a team that is usually pretty good. She had a magnificent day: 4–5 with three home runs and 10 RBIs. The gold star moment of that game came in the fifth inning. She came up with the bases loaded twice. Both times she kicked monster grand slams. Call her Fernando Tatis (senior), I guess!

They played again last night and romped to a 37-run win in five innings. It could have been much worse. In the top of the first our first two kickers both made outs before we scored 11-straight runs. In the third inning we went scoreless. Because of Covid the inning run rule has been bumped down from 20 to 14. They scored 13 in three innings. Seriously, they could have won by 60 under the old run rules and without that one bad inning.

L went 4–6 with two more home runs.

They play their biggest game of the year next Monday. The winner will likely be division champs and move onto the City championship in May.

C’s team is 1–1. In our first game – I am again helping to coach – we played the team that has been our nemesis for three years. The same team we beat in dramatic fashion last fall in what we thought would be the 8th graders’ final game. So of course we had to play them to start this unexpected spring season! We scored 11 in the top of the first and were never really threatened, winning by five. It was the least drama we’ve had in five or six games against this school since fifth grade. C went 3–4 with two triples and a double. The bummer about the 8th grade league is even if you kick the crap out of the ball, like she did, the defense can get it back in and hold you short of a home run. Even with her speed she got stuck on third.

Tuesday they played St L, a school that we’ve taken turns winning and losing close games against for the past four years. It was another close one, but we had a bad defensive inning in the top of the 7th and lost by seven. The head coach and I had our first run-in with an umpire this season, arguing about a rule she was interpreting incorrectly that cost us an important out. We would have lost anyway but we both get super bothered with the damn umpires don’t know the rules.

C went 3–4 again with two home runs.

So the B girls are kicking the shit out of the ball so far!

C is also playing CYO soccer. It’s become a St P’s tradition for 8th graders who either have never played soccer or haven’t played for years to join the team and play just for fun. C hasn’t played since fourth or fifth grade, but wanted to jump in and give it a shot. Before her first game S told her if she scored a goal this year, we would let her get her ear cartilage pierced. Some other parents heard this and had mixed reactions. A few thought this was a terrible idea because then their kids would want the same thing. A few others started telling their kids to pass to C so she could score. I think it was more to see if S would follow through than to help C get what she wants.

In her first game, a 6–0 win, she didn’t have any chances. She’s missed a couple games because of kickball, but got a chance to play last Thursday. I was with L at kickball but apparently C had a great chance to score and just swung too early, putting what should have been a sure goal over the crossbar. Her team is really good – they are 3–0 – and I have a feeling the boys that score most of the goals will start looking for her when the game in no longer in doubt.

Most importantly she’s having a really good time. She quit playing soccer because she had gotten kicked hard a few times and wasn’t enjoying it as much. She actually looks forward to the practices and games. It helps that she’s on a solid team.

Both girls are also running track. Their first meet will be this Sunday. C will run the 200, the 800 (which she’s not happy about), and one relay. L is running for the first time ever and has, apparently, dominated the sprints at practice. Each night she gets in the car and tells me how good she is. She’s going through a not-very-humble phase. There are a couple pretty quick girls in her class, and she’s always been fast on the kickball bases. But we won’t know how fast she really is until we see her in a meet. She’s running the 50, 100, and 200 this week.

We are busy! It’s kind of nice that kickball will wrap up in the middle of track so the girls will have a couple weeks to concentrate on running and get ready for City.

Those are the middle schoolers. M is playing tennis at CHS, and her first match is tomorrow. She’s been taking lessons, either privately or with a group, for seven months. I hope they pay off enough that she can at least get her serves in and win a few points. Luckily since last spring was wiped out, most schools are keeping all their sophomores and there will be a lot of chances to play other girls who have limited experience.

Weekend Notes

November 4, 2019 /

As has become routine, a quick-ish rundown of what went down over the weekend.

Halloween

OK, not technically the weekend, but worth a few words about how the girls spent Halloween.

M went to a friend’s house to hang out and watch movies.

C, along with most of the girls in her grade, dressed as Dalmatians. They didn’t quite make it to 101 but you get the idea.

And L dressed as Robin from Stranger Things and joined two friends who were dressed as Dustin and Steve from the show.

The big thing was that this was the first year ever our girls did not trick or treat in our old neighborhood. Last year we were still trying to sell the old house so we went over to turn on lights, put a car in the driveway, and then hang out with the neighbors. This year C and L were in separate neighborhoods near St. P’s, hanging with school friends.

Although I missed the annual dad chili cook-off and sitting in the driveway and drinking, it was nice to drop the kids off, come home for a quiet evening, and then go pick them up when they were done. We only had one group of three trick or treaters at our house. That was mostly because it was snowing, the windchill was in the 20s, and kids were not spending a ton of time outside.

World Series

Again, not officially last weekend. But that was some game seven, with the Nationals coming back to win with a 2015 Royals-like, late-inning rally. I’m still in a little shock that the Nats were able to pull off the upset. It will be interesting to see if they’re any good next year, between having the oldest roster in the league and a number of free agents to be.

L Sports

Basketball on Saturday. A nice win by eight over a team that was a good match. She scored one basket.

Soccer on Sunday, a makeup of a game that she was supposed to miss. She was kind of reluctant to play, we think because of getting hurt in her last soccer game. But she ended up being very glad she went. They won 5–1 to clinch first place by two games. She had an assist and then, finally, a classic L goal. She had a defender on her heels, faked her both directions until the girl turned her hips, cut the ball inside, flicked it outside to get an angle on the goalie, and then finished. She raised her hands and threw her head back, as if she, too, was saying, “Finally!” This was her only goal that was from her work this season, rather than a tap-in or from the penalty spot. Think she was glad to know she still has it.

Royals Hire Mike Matheny

Not happy about this. At all. His one, glaring weakness in St. Louis was his inability to handle young players. That’s what the Royals need right now, someone similar to Ned Yost who can nurture the young prospects as they begin working their way to the majors.

But I also thought Ned was a bad hire and he clearly learned from his failures in Milwaukee, although he was still driving us crazy deep into 2014.

So I guess I’m open to being surprised if Matheny ends up working out. Doesn’t mean I have to like it right now.

High School Football

Friday was week two of sectional play. Cathedral had a bye in week one so it was their opener. On a cold, clear night they ran up a 38–0 lead before halftime, played the sophomores through a running-clock second half, and advanced 38–13. M and C really wanted to go, so I bundled up in my ski trip clothes and sat through it. Thank goodness for that running clock. This Friday they play the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year. That team has won eight straight games so it should be a good game.

KU Football

One of the most reliable things in fall is KU coming off a big win, there being excitement around the program, and K-State kicking their ass and sending us Jayhawks back to reality. Bill Snyder may be gone but the math remains the same. For now.

Just an ugly loss. Pushed around on both sides of the ball, Carter Stanley playing his worst game of the year, and not converting when they had chances to keep the game close early.

I didn’t expect to win. I was hoping we could keep it competitive, though. There’s been progress, but still a long way to go.

Colts

I was at L’s game when I heard groans go up. I looked at my phone and saw that Adam Vinatieri had missed another field goal, this one that likely would have won the game. So two of the Colts’ losses are directly on him and his misses. He gets credit for winning last week’s game – although his misses in that game made the game-winner necessary – so he’s still trending to the bad side. It might be time, Adam. It might be time.

Of course, none of that matters if Jacoby Brissett is out long-term. Brian Hoyer was decent yesterday. But if the Colts have to rely on him for multiple games, I think winning my bet that the Colts will not win 10 games is back in play.

Fall Sports: The Wind Down

October 21, 2019 /

We are one step closer to being done with fall sports. L played her final soccer game of the season on Saturday. They won 3–1 to push their record to 4–1–1, including four-straight wins.

It was kind of a bummer day, though. Early in the second half she was standing near a defender who was trying to clear a ball and took an absolute blast in the back of her head. She went down in a heap and took several moments to gather herself and get up. She sat out the rest of the game because she felt dizzy. In the evening she was still a little dizzy and was showing some light sensitivity. That had all cleared up by Sunday morning but this may go down as her first concussion, even if it was mild.

Her team was strange. I loved her team from last fall, the last time I helped coach her team. Her teammates were sassy and fun to be around, plus they were almost all really talented. We had girls who could play anywhere on the field, didn’t complain, and knew how to play together. I think that team would have roasted this year’s team.

But the U12 league is a lot weaker this year, and despite this year’s team not being as talented, they won more games. I don’t want to make it sound like the team was bad. You don’t luck your way into four wins. They have some talent, but it’s a different and less across-the-board talent than we had last year. The biggest thing is only a couple girls knew how to play together. There was a lot of crowding around the ball rather than staying in the spot they were supposed to be in. There were very few passes to open space. There was very little work to get open when someone else had the ball.

I think that all frustrated L a little. For the first time she wasn’t at the top of the formation all the time. Her coaches put her on the right wing where she could win possession then operate down the line in hopes of crossing to someone. She would put in the work out there and move to make a central pass only to find three teammates chasing her and no one running to the spot she would pass.

Thursday she got asked to play on a U14 team for a night. Although she was a little nervous about playing up – she was worried there would be high school girls on the team – she fit right in. It helped that three of her teammates from last fall were on the team and they all ran over to give her hugs when she showed up. She subbed in about 10 minutes into the game and once she got settled in played really well. She was winning possession, pushing forward, and sending balls across to the forwards. A couple times she made nice runs on her own but since her new teammates weren’t used to her being there no pass was sent to her. At the end of the game she was happy that she had joined them for the night.

For her season, she ended with just four goals, by far the fewest she’s ever had. Three of those goals came on penalty kicks (she was 3–4 on the year from the spot) and the other came when she tapped in a loose ball.

While I think that also frustrated her, I believe this was a good experience for her. If she is going to continue to play, she’s going to have to learn to play in positions other than up top. As she grows, she may move back into that position. But in high school particularly, there are going to be bigger, stronger, faster girls that are the forwards and she will most likely be in midfield.

Her team actually has one more game this Saturday, against the same team they played last week and at the same time her basketball team has a game. We let her choose what to play, and she picked basketball. Which is a little bit of a surprise. But she’s also loving basketball so much that it makes sense.

Her basketball team plays Wednesday after taking the stupid two week break so everyone could avoid playing on fall break. They are 1–2 having crushed a team in their one win and having been crushed in their two losses. I’d like some competitive games, please.

L is having a lot of fun. She’s one of three fifth graders on the team and the only one starting. The sixth graders have kind of adopted her, one in particular. That girl lives a couple blocks away and they have hung out some after school and on weekends. The sixth grader calls L her “fifth grade bestie.” Those new friendships, as much as the hoops, are why she is loving it.

She’s playing ok. She’s the starting point guard, which is a tough spot when you’re playing against older girls. The two teams that beat us were both filled with sixth graders who play year-round. She kind of got abused, struggling to get the ball across half court or make a pass if she did cross the line. But in the win, she was flying up-and-down making plays. She’s scored a bucket each in the losses and had eight points in the win.

With the break over they have four games over the next three weeks before the tournament in mid-November.

Kid Sports Notes

September 23, 2019 /

First off, obviously there are some changes here. I finally got everything moved over to my new site host and, hopefully, functioning properly. There’s still work to do: I need to pick a new theme that I like, I’m having some trouble getting footnotes to work, and the Markdown text language I’ve been writing in for years doesn’t seem to be converting properly, which is messing with my head. Ten years ago when I was constantly messing around with how the site looked and worked, those fixes were easy. Now that I’m out of practice, they are awfully tedious.

But it does seem like I can post from my desktop and I can once again include images in my posts, so we’re moving in the right direction.

Now for some kid sports updates.

The kickball season wrapped up last week. Neither C’s or L’s teams were super successful; C’s team won only one game, L’s team went 4–3 in a very tough division. Both girls had solid seasons. They both kicked pretty well and L was very good on defense. C has always played the suicide position next to the pitcher. She finally reached the age where that’s not as important, so we tried to move her to the outfield against good kicking teams, but she was uncomfortable out there. She made a lot less plays because she was out of the spot she’s been in since fourth grade. Amazingly we had only one night rained out all season, which is a new record. L said that was likely her final season to play, although I’m hoping I can talk her into one more in the spring.

While their teams didn’t do all that well, one of our fourth grade teams won the City championship last week. That was a big deal, ending at least an 0–7 stretch in kickball City championship games for St. P’s.

Cross country is getting close to wrapping up. For C it’s been a challenging year. She’s been saying all season that she doesn’t enjoy it as much as in the past. Her times have been a little slower, and it has not helped that our very warm September has meant she’s been running in heat every week. She had still placed in three of her first four meets, and in the fourth meet she missed placing by one spot and 10 seconds. Saturday she ran her best time of the year, her second fastest time of the past two years, and her best time ever on that course. She snuck into the top 25 to get another ribbon on a day when a lot of good runners were really struggling. It looked like she was going to finish the season really strong.

And then yesterday she could barely walk. We haven’t taken her to get x-rayed but based on how the pain had been building for a few days and its location, S is reasonably certain C has a stress fracture in her foot. So we’re pulling her out of this week’s practices and meet, putting her into a walking book, and hoping that with the next weekend off, she’ll be ready to run again for the City meet in two weeks.

For M, XC has been a struggle. The practices are hard. The meets are really hard. She’s often one of the very last runners on the course. She kept telling us that she was enjoying it, but we know that her performances are getting to her. Especially when she looks at her per-mile pace and compares it to C’s. We try to find some positive in each week, and I remind her how many girls on her team decide not to run every week. She might be bringing up the rear, but she’s out there trying. She did miss this weekend’s meet because she was sick. That may have been a blessing because the course they ran on was super hilly and it could have gotten very ugly. She has just two more meets left. I would guess that she will not run next year, but this season has served its purpose: it helped her ease into high school and gave her an instant group of friends. And she will always be able to say that she earned a (JV) letter in cross country if she can survive the last couple meets. It’s also been fun to hear her and C talking about running together. They struggle to connect at times and C craves her big sister’s approval. Although their abilities are very different, at least XC has given them some common ground.

While kickball has wrapped up, we are three weeks into soccer and about to start basketball for L. Her soccer team is 2–1–1, she is tied for the lead in goals and has the lead in assists despite missing a game. She’s playing well, often more in a midfield role than her traditional forward spot. But she’s also playing with a lot of girls who have a much lower soccer IQ and I think that frustrates her at times.

It’s been a little hard for me to watch from the sidelines. Although I was happy I did not have to coach her team this year, after doing it for three years I have a different perspective. I also don’t believe parents on the sidelines should be yelling at kids on how to play. So I tend to lean over to S and mutter, “What they hell are they doing?” or “Why does he have that girl playing that position?” I also get unreasonably bitter when L subs out, because it always happens at the worst time. Example: Saturday she started the second half on the bench. No big deal, it was hot, she ran hard in the first half. Naturally we get a penalty kick for a hand ball in the box. The girl we send to take the shot has no idea what to do and hits a dribbler the goalie saves easily. Last week when L took a PK, she blasted it into the corner where the goalie had no chance. Obviously, this was totally random; the coach didn’t know we were going to get a PK while L was out. Yet I was bothered. Fortunately L took a great corner later in the half that a teammate tapped in for a goal and the 1–0 win.

Her first basketball game is Wednesday night. They’ve been practicing 2–3 times a week. I got asked to help last week when both of their coaches, who I coached with two years ago, we going to be late. The team is super athletic. We have some size, lots of speed. And our center is a setter in volleyball and knows how to make quick passes out of the post to cutters. If they can learn how to hit shots they could be really good.

My expectation was that L would play off the bench. But from what I saw Friday, and from what she’s told me, I think she’s going to start at point guard. I hope she’s ready to face sixth graders who play year-round.

She’s been loving it, though. I don’t remember if I mentioned this already, but she told me a couple weeks ago that she wants to play basketball this winter and is reconsidering whether she plays club soccer next year because she likes basketball so much. It’s been cool to see her connect with the sixth graders, too. I’ve seen them run over and start talking to her as the walk into school in the mornings. One who lives near us invited her over to hang out this weekend. In some ways I think she connects better with them than her two classmates that are also on the team. Game recognizes game.

Weekend Notes

September 17, 2019 /

Some belated weekend notes.

HS Football

Friday was M’s first football rivalry game, as Cathedral took on Bishop Chatard. St. P’s is usually evenly split between those high schools, so it is always an emotional matchup. CHS was ranked #4 in 5A, BCHS #1 in 3A.

CHS won by 10 thanks to a big fourth quarter. They were down 21-17 going into the fourth but got an 88-yard TD pass and a 76-yard TD run with consecutive interceptions on defense after each TD.

I’d love to tell you it was a great game. But we got to the stadium a little late and all the seats at the rather small stadium were completely filled, so we stood on the track the entire game.1 We could only see what was going on when the plays were inside the 10 yard line directly in front of us.

M was happy that she is 1-0 against her old classmates.

KU Football

I had pretty much put Friday’s game against Boston College out of my mind. I would be at the high school game and wouldn’t bother keeping tabs on what was sure to be another blow out. What genius scheduled Boston College anyway?

So I was shocked when I got texts at halftime telling me that KU was actually ahead. I was even more flabbergasted when I saw that Carter Stanley had thrown for three touchdowns. Our Carter Stanley? I was sure my boys were playing tricks on me until I confirmed the score on ESPN.

And then the Jayhawks went out and played even better in the second half to get an easy, 24-point win.

This makes no sense. Apparently KU looked tough on both lines, made smart calls that were converted on offense, and basically made BC give up in the second half. Amazing.

Appropriate that it came the same week nine years after Turner Gill’s first team beat a ranked Georgia Tech team the week after losing to an FCS team. So I’m not getting too excited about it. But it does show that maybe Les’ shit is working. There was a lot of good national run for KU over the weekend. That’s Les’ task for this year: generate some buzz and turn it into signing good kids in December and February.

Other Weekend Sports

I’ll save the kid sports for another post. Saturday night S, L, and I went to the Cathedral girls soccer senior night. It was also CYO night so L wore her summer camp shirt and got to do some stuff with the team. We have friends who have a daughter who is a senior. She’s always looked out for L at camp. She made sure that she grabbed L when they were lining up the starters with kids to walk onto the field with. L had a big grin on her face while she stood there with the team during the national anthem.

Unfortunately CHS lost in a really competitive 3-2 game. We also saw the end of the JV game, which was a win. L’s teacher is the JV coach so she was sure to check in with her as well.

We had people over on Sunday for the last pool party of the year. Most of the dads sat in front of the TV watching the Colts get a big win in Tennessee. That’s how you win road games: contain on defense and make just enough big plays on offense. The city is in a bit of a tough spot trying to figure out what to think about Adam Vinatieri’s second-straight terrible game. There was lots of speculation that he would announce his retirement on Monday, but that did not happen and Frank Reich pronounced in faith in Vinatieri.

It’s kind of crazy he has hung on and been this good, this long. It is equally crazy if he basically lost it overnight. Once again, Father Time is undefeated.

1. Strangely, CHS does not have its own football field. They traditionally play their “home” games at one of two public school fields. BCHS has a stadium, but because they are smack in the middle of a neighborhood, they went 20 years without a home game until last year. You would think the two schools that have won the most state titles in Indiana history would have better facilities.

Fall Kid Sports

August 26, 2019 /

Fall sports have begun. Right now we are actively involved in five sports, with another to begin tomorrow. Joyous times.

The fall kickball season started last Monday. We have nine teams at St. P’s this year, and got off to a great 7-2 start on opening day. The two teams to lose? My girls’ teams.

C’s team, which I’m helping to coach, gave up four runs in the 7th to lose by one. They did not play all that well and I was honestly shocked that we had the lead going into the 7th. C absolutely blasted the first pitch of the season, maybe her most powerful kick ever, but had bad luck when it went to dead center and hit a telephone pole that is an automatic ground-rule double. A foot toward left field and she has an easy home run. As tends to happen, that got in her head and she didn’t play well the rest of the game. I told her before the game I just wanted her to play and have fun this year. I wasn’t going to get on her when she made mistakes. I took that pledge back when we got in the car after the game, though, when I had to ask her why she failed to field a couple balls that are normally easy plays for her. Teenage girls are a challenge, and she’s going to be our most challenging in terms of moods and how we push her to work through them without pushing too hard and making them worse.

L’s team was playing at the same time, against the team that beat them in the City championship game last spring. This game wasn’t much better, with our girls losing by 16. I talked to her coach afterward and she insisted it was one bad inning that killed us and we were fully capable of beating them if we played them again in a division championship game.

That opportunity went out the window Thursday when L’s team lost their second game, this time by just two runs. I was at this game and I have to say, I have no idea what has happened to L’s team. Last season they had four girls who could be relied on the blast the ball every time they kicked, then 2-3 others who might give you a big kick. They all, including L, kicked like crap Thursday. Worse, they kept kicking it directly to the pitcher who made play-after-play. This girl was the best player on the basketball team that gave L’s team their only two losses last fall, which made it worse. She’s a really good kid, but come on, girls, show some pride and beat her in something! Or at least make her work for it! L made an egregious mistake on the base paths that really cost us, too. That was more frustrating to me than the loss.

Cross country began on Saturday, which was an absolutely perfect day here in Indy. Sunny, cool in the morning, only in the 70s by late morning. Just a delightful day.

I went with M to her first ever race. The varsity boys and girls ran a Hokum Karem relay to start the day, then the JV kids ran a two-mile race. My goal for M was to 1) finish and 2) not be last. Success! She finished, even kicking in fairly strong at the end to pass a few girls. She was not last! She was very close to last, though. More importantly, she cut three minutes off her time trial time, which she was very pleased with. Overall it was a good experience. Next week is tougher as she has to run a full 5K. And, if nothing else, cross country has served its purpose for her by giving her a way to meet people, which opens the door to meet other people. She’s already hung out with several girls she’s either met directly through XC, or through a teammate.

C’s race was also a relay, and she was paired with St. P’s best 8th grade runner. This is the traditional first meet of the season and C has always run the flatter, faster leg or the relay. This time they gave her the hilly half. I don’t know if it was the tougher side of the trail, or other issues, but S texted me that C really struggled. She was fighting a bit of a cold and that may have affected her a bit. Or it could have just been whatever was in her head last week. But it took her a long time after the race to recover and she was very upset by her performance.

She had already told us she wasn’t enjoying cross country as much as in the past, but hasn’t really explained why. We think some of it is how much she enjoyed track, and how she’d rather run for 20 or 30 seconds than 13 or 14 minutes. I’ve been trying to motivate her by telling her that her times from last year are better than a lot of the high school runners’ times. But I also realize that as girls bodies begin to change, often their athletic abilities change. I was in a conversation a week ago with a few parents, discussing what sports we thought our kids might stick with in high school. One mom said, “Once girls get boobs and an ass, everything changes.” C’s body hasn’t changed that much from where it was a year ago, but it is changing, and maybe this is all just part of that process. I hope she can find a way to make the rest of the season fun again regardless of her times.

As I may have mentioned, CYO girls basketball has been moved earlier in the calendar because of dumbness. Teams were announced last weekend and L made the 5th-6h grade A team. We had a long talk before tryouts about the pros and cons of A team vs B team. She was excited to have a chance to play on the A team, but understood there’s a sixth grade point guard who made the A team last year that she would back up. And there would be fewer of her friends on the A team. While on the B team she would start, likely be the best player, play a ton of minutes, and be with more friends. She told me she was good either way.

And then she went out and rocked her tryout. I heard from the mom of a sixth grader that her daughter told her after, “L was the best player there today.” I don’t know if that’s true, but apparently she played really well and earned her spot. Two of her classmates also made the A team. I was a little surprised because one of those is also a point guard and I thought they might pick either L or her to keep on a B team. But that girl can also be turned into more of a wing so it may not be an issue.

They’ve had two practices so far and L is enjoying it. I think the coach, a mom I’ve coached with before, is really enjoying having to plan around two kickball schedules, a swimmer, several cross country runners, and a couple soccer players when she tries to get practices on the calendar. Glad it’s not me!

Oh, and L starts soccer practice tomorrow. This will be her final year in a rec league. We’ve heard that registrations were way down this year, so we don’t know if she’s going to play the same two teams over-and-over, or if her league will partner with another to find games. Once again she’s on a team that is a random mix of girls, which can be trouble at this age because they end up playing teams that stick together from season-to-season.

Dog-ish Days

July 24, 2019 /

We are in weird times. I’m talking about our family and the point in the calendar we’re at, not more globally. Summer’s end is coming up quick and we’re beginning to squeeze in as much as we can. But we also just came out of the hottest stretch of weather in nearly seven years here in Indy, which made it tough to want to get out of the house. Or use the pool, which was a rather disgusting 98 degrees much of the weekend.

Fortunately, it has turned cooler, even if for only briefly, and life is a little better.

In the midst of all that heat, L had her soccer camp at Cathedral last week. This was her second year there and I could tell she thought she was pretty cool as high school players acknowledged her by name on the first day. They won the state title last year, and I think L feels like she was a part of that somehow. Unfortunately, she’s been fighting a minor injury to her dominant foot and struggled through camp. We’re hoping a couple weeks of rest will have her ready for the fall kickball and soccer seasons. Still, she had fun at camp.

M spent last week in Michigan with her best friend’s family. Man, was it a quiet, enjoyable, low-drama week in our house! I kid a little. She also had a fantastic time and is lobbying for us to head north next summer when her friend returns. I’m pretty mellow about sending my kids off with others. I will admit, though, I had some weird feelings about sending my almost 15-year-old off on a vacation without us. I hope she didn’t talk to any boys.

Friday night S and I went out on a local lake with one of her coworkers and her husband. It was a balmy 95 with a heat index well over 100, so the cheese tray they brought had to be consumed quickly. We were on their boat about five minutes before they asked if we missed our boat. I immediately said, “Nope,” and they laughed at how quick I responded. A little later, after we had cruised for awhile, S said, “Well, maybe we miss the boat a little.” Again I said, “Nope. Having friends who own a boat is way better than owning one yourself.”

Yesterday L went to the driving range at our local pitch-and-putt course with me. We planned on just hitting a few balls together. But midway through the bucket she asked if her swing was good enough to play. I watched her a bit and while there were plenty swings-and-misses, when she hit the ball it generally went the right direction. When we were done I asked if she wanted to play, she said yes, so we did a quick nine.

She didn’t do bad for her first time, a rather loose 47.1 She did manage to go six holes longer than me before she lost her first, and only, ball of the day. As I love to do on this course, my first tee shot was hot and scooted right through the green into the water behind it. She waited until the sixth hole to shoot a ball deep into a grove of pine trees. She seemed to both have fun and work up a healthy bit of frustration over poor swings. Which is what golf is all about, right?

Me? A pretty meh 35 after starting 5-5. Keep in mind, the longest hole is 84 yards and most are in the 60s. I generally only hit PW and maybe GW around the green. The last time I played this course in May my short game was much better and I was actually hitting putts. I guess the highlight of the day was some of those changes my coach made starting to feel a little more normal and me absolutely lacing my final tee shot over on the range. I figured it was time to stop hitting after that one and kicked the last few balls over to L.

I mentioned squeezing stuff in before the end of summer. M has a series of high school orientation events that begin next Wednesday. The following weekend she has a nine-hour – NINE HOURS! – thing that S and I have to join her for part of. I’m honestly not sure what the hell they’re going to do for that long. Especially when they have another orientation session the day before school starts. And we have a big parent meeting for all kids playing sports two nights before school begins. Her first day is August 8. C and L get an extra week before they go back.

Anyway, we’re taking the girls and friends to the festival hosted at the church they went to preschool at tomorrow night. This weekend we have friends coming in from KC.2 And I asked the girls today to make a list of what else we need to do before we start worrying about classes and fall sports practices. I think these next two weeks are going to fly.

  1. I say loose as we did not count misses, when she ran into trouble in some thick rough I only counted the swing that got her out of trouble, and she got a couple free re-hits. ↩
  2. More about that Monday. ↩
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