D's Notebook

Tag: soccer (Page 3 of 9)

Sports Takes

July 8, 2019 /

Some sports takes from the long, holiday weekend.

USWNT

Oh hell yes, the ladies got it done! In a tournament that proved that the women’s game is as strong as it has ever been, and getting stronger each year, the US had the toughest possible path to the title and still managed to win with a fair amount of comfort. Sure, they were a bit fortunate against England, but they were the better team in that game. Yes, it took them far too long to score in the final against the Dutch, but, again, they absolutely dominated play and were unlucky not to score at least four more goals.

It wasn’t always beautiful soccer. People who know more about the game and the US roster than I do have been taking shots at coach Jill Ellis for weeks about her lineup and strategic choices. When the team went undefeated and were never in danger of losing a knock-out game, I’m not sure it really matters.

Bottom line is the US won.

In the process Megan Rapinoe ascended as athlete of the moment. I saw a great line in a wrap-up I read this morning: I wish I could do anything with the confidence that Rapinoe places the ball on the penalty spot. Was there ever any doubt that her penalty attempts would not find the back of the net? She took on a lot this tournament, and many would have cracked under the pressure of the moment. But she embraced it, made the moment hers, and performed at well as anyone could have asked. Along the way she made sharp, eloquent comments about her views and the platform she had. Her name is now with Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Carli Lloyd, and Morgan’s as the best every to play for the US. She’s also placed her name with some of the giants who took strong social and political stands without fear of reprisal. All respect to ‘Pinoe.

L watched the entire final with me, although much of the game she was playing a game on her iPad and had headphones on. She was disappointed her hero Alex Morgan didn’t have a better tournament. I kept pointing out that it was hard to do much when each team’s strategy seemed to be to knocking Alex down as much as possible. Although no official word ever came, I thought that she was playing hurt during all the elimination games. She just never looked to be herself. Then again, all the attention opponents put on her opened things up for her teammates.

Rose Lavelle was my breakout star of the tournament. I watched a lot of the tune up games over the spring and she never really stuck out to me. She was just this tall, skinny, pale, very Irish looking woman who deserved less attention that the US’ vaunted stable of forwards. In the tournament she proved what a badass she is, and her goal in the final was a piece of individual brilliance. She and Mallory Pugh – another immense talent that could barely find minutes in France – are the young stars poised to step in as Rapinoe, Lloyd, and Tobin Heath begin to cycle out.

It was a good World Cup overall. Some fantastic games. Plenty of contrived controversy. A rapidly improving pool of teams. And the best team winning a deserved fourth World Cup.

NBA

OH MAH GAWD, KAWHI BROKE THE NBA!!!!

That was my first thought Saturday morning when I got up and saw Kawhi Leonard had signed with the LA Clippers and somehow managed to get Paul George traded to join him as well. Actually, my first thought was which George the headline I read was referring to, because it was way out of my level of comprehension that the Clippers might somehow work that trade out. Tate George? Jeff George? Boy George? Surely not Paul George.

But, man, what a cap to a pretty crazy week of free agency. While everyone seems to think the Lakers and Clippers are the two teams most likely to win the title, I think the league is actually full of really good teams. Throw in a handful of “too young to win but stupid entertaining to watch” teams and there is a really good argument for getting the NBA League Pass.

I mean, the Western conference could be an absolute bloodbath. The Nuggets and Jazz both made very smart moves that made them stronger. Houston seems bent on doing something big to try to stay in the mix as long as James Harden is in his prime. Portland isn’t really a title contender, but can hang with any of the elites on any night. The Warriors will still have Steph and Draymond along with D’Angelo Russell and some other nice parts that will keep them from being pushovers, and Klay Thompson could be back for the playoffs. New Orleans will be super young and likely pretty bad most nights, but also have a crazy talented roster that should be a lot of fun to watch.

The Eastern conference won’t be as stacked, and should come down to the Bucks and Sixers, with whichever team stays healthy being the favorite. Brooklyn made the biggest waves, although they will have to wait until Kevin Durant is healthy to reap the rewards. The Nets seem like the most interesting team to watch since Kyrie and KD together gives them the league lead in bitterness. Atlanta is a little like New Orleans: absolutely packed with young talent that will play amazing ball some nights and look terrible others.

The Pacers made some low-key great moves, although Victor Oladipo being out for at least the first third of the season probably means that they won’t be a factor this year. I really like just about every move they made. Malcolm Brogdon is a great compliment to Oladipo. Jeremy Lamb is a great addition for depth. Drafting a highly skilled big man from overseas was a head scratcher at first, but it gives them the freedom to move either Myles Turner or Domantas Sabonis to add another part or draft picks.

Maybe the Finals are destined to be Lakers vs Bucks for the next few years. I see the league as being super deep all of a sudden, though, with no one filling the role the Warriors filled the past five years as clearly the best team. And LeBron isn’t the LeBron of four years ago, so you can’t just pencil his team in. I think it is going to be a faaaaaantastic season.

“It’s Not Fair”

A quick word about NBA player movement in general. There was some general butthurtedness1 here in Indy about how the players have taken control and rigged the league so franchises like Indiana don’t have a chance.

Although I understand the argument, I think it’s crap.

See, Indianapolis, Sacramento, Oklahoma City, etc have never been, and will never be destinations for the highest level free agents. It has nothing to do with the players having too much control. And it doesn’t mean those, and other cities, are bad cities. It just means athletes, who are young, physically gifted, and rich want to live where the night life never stops, where there are hundreds of thousands of beautiful women, and where other entertainers tend to congregate.

San Antonio built a dynasty in a second-tier NBA city. Denver is a great city, but it’s not a destination for elite talent. Hasn’t stopped them from building a monster roster. Salt Lake City might be the least NBA city in the league. They had one of the best off-seasons in the league and are poised to battle the LA squads.

Yes, the margin of error is razor-thin. Yes, you have to get extraordinarily lucky in the draft. You have to make astute trades. You might need a generational talent as the coach. And there are heaps of other good fortune that must bless your franchise.

Don’t blame the players, though, when you look at the odds. Those odds were about the same back when Reggie Miller was playing for the Pacers and the players had far less power than they do today.

  1. Spell check tells me this isn’t a word. I disagree. ↩

Weekend Notes

May 6, 2019 /

We had a big sports and family weekend. So some quick notes are in order.

Friday L had a big kickball game. This was against the only team to beat them this season, a game we lost by three runs after giving up 12 runs in the first inning. Things were a little different this time. We held them to six in the first and then scored 11 in our first kicks. It was close for a couple innings but our girls played the best they’ve ever played and run-ruled them in five innings.

L went all George Brett in Game 3 of the 1985 ALCS on them. Three home runs – two grand slams and a three-run shot – a three-run double, and she missed a fourth grand slam by about a foot when an outfielder made a running grab that she bobbled twice before pulling it in. It was a seriously great catch. I even cheered for her. But, holy shit did L play well! For that matter her whole team did. They are fortunate to have about five really good kickers, and the coach has them sprinkled through the lineup so that every 3–4 kickers here comes another big leg. Every one of those girls was kicking the crap out of the ball Friday.

Now we get to play that team again this Thursday in a tie-breaker game to see who goes to City. That didn’t work out well for this group a year ago. Hopefully they saved some kicks for that game.

Saturday we went to a wedding for S’s cousin. It was a cool, dreary day, which kind of sucked. Fortunately it stopped raining just before we headed out to the ceremony. It was a very nice ceremony. We all commented it was one of the best, and funniest, homilies we’ve ever heard at a wedding. The reception was also nice, although we were lame and cut out pretty early.

A good friend of mine just informed me of her wedding date next March. When I told her how sad it was that I can’t drink very much these days and was fine leaving the reception early, she responded that I had a year to get that shit figured out. She’s right.

Sunday was a beautiful day here. Right at 70, bright sun, light breeze, no humidity. Just perfect.

C had a track meet. She got placed in the A heat of the 400 and finished third again. But she cut four seconds off her time and was five seconds behind the first and second place runners, who are two of the fastest girls in the state, girls who fought for every cross country win last fall. She was a little bummed and I told her that her time would have won the 7th/8th grade race and she perked up a little.

She struggled in the 800 – she said she used up most of her energy in the 400 – and took fifth, but did track down two girls on the final stretch. The same two girls who were at the front of the 400 took 1st and 2nd again.

For her relay, she and another 6th grade got bumped up to the 7th/8th grade race because our best 8th grader was at the meet. C ran the opening leg and had us in first, our second leg dropped us to third, then our 8th grader put us in first. But our 7th grader, who won her 800 with a blistering finish, ran out of gas and got caught in the last 50 and we took second. C thought it was cool to run with two older girls.

Next weekend is the qualifying meet for the City championships. As long as she runs well, C should probably qualify for the 400. I believe 18 qualify – 16 finalists plus two alternates – and since she’s been in the top three with great times at her two meets she should be good. You just never know how many kids from schools we’ve not run against are in her same range and could nudge her out.

The 800 is in her head. I think she is capable of running a good enough time to reach that final. But she told me last night she hates it and doesn’t want to run it next year, so it may be too much for her.

As long as we have our kick-ass fifth grader, who is juggling like 13 sports right now, and they pass the baton safely, they should get through in the relays.

L also had her final soccer game of the year Sunday. I missed it while still at track but it was another tough loss and they finished the year 3–3–1. I had been against her playing CYO soccer. I’ve heard stories from other parents of better players that it can be tough. I think that was her experience, too. Last night she said she didn’t like it. I believe some of that attitude comes from having three bad losses in their last four games. I think she was also bothered by how her team was all either really solid players or really weak players. There were literally not kids in the middle talent level, and the weaker kids really pulled them down. She is ready to return to age-group soccer next fall.

Kid Sports

April 29, 2019 /

We put M on a bus to Washington, DC at 6:15 this morning. So seems like the perfect moment for a kid sports update time!

Kickball

C’s team, which I am helping to coach, is 0–2 with one game rained out so far, another removed from the schedule because the team we were supposed to play could not play on the date originally planned and were jerks about finding a makeup date, and tonight we play a team that is just crushing everybody, including one of the teams we lost to. Sooooo not a great start.

Worse, both losses have come by the run rule. There’s really not much to get into about either game. We played poorly, the other teams played well. The first game the opposing head coach was a loud woman who literally drowned out both myself and our head coach with her yelling. She would scream at her kickers from the first base coaching box, “I NEED YOU RIGHT HERE! PUT IT DOWN THE LINE AND GET HERE!” non-stop for the 45 or so minutes it took them to kick our asses. More fun was when she yelled “SAFE!” on every close play at first when her team was kicking. I think that’s kind of bullshit but she out-weighed me and would have likely kicked my ass had I said anything. She was very nice after the game. C and I were parked near her and she came over to compliment C on her play. But, man, during the game she wore us out more than her team did.

The second game just got away from us slowly as our girls struggled in the field. Which is a recurring theme this year. I know how this is going to sound, but trust me when I say I’m being honest: if C doesn’t make the play on defense we have about a 5% chance of getting an out. Our other players jump out of the way when the ball is kicked to them, bobble it, throw to the wrong base, chase the wrong runner, or just forget what to do and freeze. Meanwhile C is running all over the place getting outs by chasing people down. We’ve had her pitch more this year, which is problematic because each play doesn’t end until the pitcher controls the ball in the pitching circle. She’s used to running around and chasing people, making sure they’re on a base, and then throwing to the pitcher. This year she chases them, get everyone to freeze, then calls a teammate over, hands them the ball to so they can hold the runner, and scampers back to the circle. It’s exhausting to watch. I’ll straight up say this: there’s only one other girl at St. P’s who plays defense as well as C, and that girl is a classmate of M’s who is likely the best overall athlete in the school. I’m proud of C but, damn, I wish some of her prowess rubbed off on her teammates.

L’s team is 3–1. The only loss came last Tuesday, 20–17 after they started the game down 12–0. I was at C’s game that night so missed it but all the coaches were angry after because they knew the one inning killed them. Luckily we play that team again this Friday so can hopefully get a W to force a playoff. Unluckily L hurt her leg in that game. She came home in pain and could hardly walk the next three days. A coach told me that a ball got through the infield and L tried to run it down and she looked like she was “running angry.” Maybe in that running angry she pulled something. It also could have been because she overused it last Monday when we went on a bike ride, played baseball, practiced soccer, and threw the football for a few hours in total. Regardless she missed Friday’s game and would have missed her soccer game Thursday had it not been rained out.

Her team is really good and we all hope they can get a win Friday because we know this is the last time we might have all the best players in this class together. L will likely go to soccer, another player will go to softball, and another player will go to lacrosse and cross country. Maybe not all next fall but soon those three will all be playing sports that don’t allow time for kickball.

Soccer

L is also playing CYO soccer, on a team with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Which is funny to watch. There are some rather big boys on her team and she plays up front with a couple of them. The contrast in size is amusing. The season started off well. They won their first game and tied their second, and L scored a goal in each, tying her for the team lead. In the third game, which they won 2–1, she scored again. Unfortunately it was an own goal when a ball deflected off of her and into the St. P’s goal. I immediately joked that “That’s what they get for trying to play her on defense.” She just does not like defense and isn’t the same player when she’s forced to play there. I keep telling her she needs to get over that and play with the same kind of aggressiveness but she remains passive. This, though, was a total accident, a bad ball that she couldn’t do much about.

She seemed fine after the play. However, when she subbed out a few minutes later she came running over to me. She had a big smile on her face but when she got to me she burst into tears. At first I thought she was hurt, “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I messed up!” she said as she buried her face in my shirt. I tried to calm her down and told her it wasn’t her fault, it’s happened to other players, and it was wasn’t that big of a deal, but it took her several minutes to get control. Once she did she subbed back in and played fine. After the game she said she was the MVP for the other team since she had scored their only goal. I guess she came to grips with it.

Sunday she was back on the pitch for the first time after her injury and seemed to be moving ok. However, her team was missing a couple of their best players and they were playing an awesome team. We were down 4–0 at halftime and lost 10–0. You read that right, ten-zip. We hit the post once, had maybe two other scoring chances the whole game, and then got blitzed on the other end. Bummer.

I’m hopeful this year is helping her to get better by playing against older boys. I guess we’ll see in the fall when she goes back to playing against age-group girls. This season has highlighted some areas she needs to get stronger in, most notably her dribbling and possession skills. And not scoring for the other team!

Track

C’s first track meet on Masters Sunday was cancelled because of rain. So four schools got together last Wednesday and had a mock meet to get the kids some experience. C was scheduled to run the 400, 800, and the medley relay. She finished third in her 400 heat, but in a time that would have won the boys race. However after she crossed the finished she caught a spike and turned her ankle. She was in some pain and decided to sit out the 800 so she’d be ready for the relay. She ran the 200 leg of the relay and did great, afterward saying she wished she had run her 800. Oh well…

Sunday was her first real meet. She was placed in the easier of the two 400 heats and won it in 1:14. That time was good for third overall. They put the girls from all age groups into one 800 race and she finished 10th, good for third in her age group again.

I had to take L to soccer so missed C’s relay. She ran the anchor leg this time, which is a full 400 meters. As the story was told to me, St. P’s was in fourth – last – place going into the her leg. C chased everyone down, including the leader in the last 20 meters to pull out the win. I was bummed I missed it because that’s like the coolest thing in track: coming from behind to win a relay race.

Anyway, she’s really enjoying it. She has some Michael Johnson in her running style, very upright with kind of short, choppy, powerful steps. But she moves.

As a parent standing outside for four-plus hours when the windchill is in the 30s and 40s the day wasn’t great. We’re totally expecting it to be brutally hot next weekend when she runs again.

Kid Sports

March 4, 2019 /

One staple of the blog that I’ve ignored of late is the Kid Sports update. So, here is a long-ass post with too many details about what our girls have been up to.

M and C have been playing volleyball for the last couple of months. C returned after taking a year off and really enjoyed it. She’s still pretty spazzy on the court – there’s no other way to put it – and often that cancels out her natural athleticism. She also developed a bad habit of hitting the ball the wrong way. Her intent was clear: she was often trying to pass the ball to one of the few girls on her team that could hit. But sometimes she did it by passing the ball from the net to the back row. If you’ve not a volleyball aficionado, that is a less-than-ideal pass.

Her team – the sixth grade B team – struggled early, I believe they lost their first four matches. But they came on late, winning two of their last three, including a nervy, three-set win against the team that we bet will win the season-ending tournament. That was fun!

However, there’s something about this class… I’ve shared this during kickball seasons but the observation remains: these girls just struggle to show enthusiasm, they don’t have a leader, and if one girl gets down the entire team falls part. They had a really good coach this year – C said he was her favorite coach she’s had in any sport – but since he wasn’t a parent of anyone on the team, teaches at another school, and is super nice and positive, I think he had a hard time pushing these girls to improve their mental game. We know there were a couple personality conflicts within the team, too, that did not help.

I’m not sure what the coach, or any coach for that matter, could have done differently. I don’t think you can yell and scream at sixth grade girls. That would just make this group shut down even more. It’s frustrating because they have a bunch of good athletes and they are capable of playing better. But the hive mind takes over and sabotages them.

Yesterday was their first game of the City tournament. They lost the first set fairly handily but then had a six-point lead in the second set and seemed poised to push it to a deciding set. Until they fell apart again. They ended up losing the second set 25–21 to close their season.

C had fun, which was the important thing. I haven’t asked her yet if she’ll play again next year. We were just glad she had something to help her burn off some energy in the winter.

M’s team was about the complete opposite of C’s. They were the 8th grade B team, and had a couple girls that just missed making the A team that really pulled up the talent level. They went 5–2 in the regular season with their tournament starting next weekend.

M became a setter this year, and primarily played front row. Which was fine, except for the fact that one of her teammates who could have been on the A team is also a setter and has played club for four years. So a lot of time M just stood around and tried not to get in the way. She was generally subbed out when her spot came up to serve; I think she only got 3–4 chances to serve all season. Which was fine because she’s never wanted to practice outside of the season and was about the only girl on her team who still served underhanded.

I think all that bothers her a little. But she’s also always been more interested in being a member of a team than in how she performs. And over the past year she’s become pretty tight with a small group of classmates, a couple of which were on her team, which makes her enjoy the team even more.

As I said, they are 5–2 and generally play really well and are fun to watch. Their two losses were both very close. In their final home game they got pushed to a third set after blowing through the first set easily. They had serve, our best server started the set off, and she proceeded to serve 15-straight points to get the win. It’s not like she was serving ace after ace, either. The other team was doing a solid job returning but our girls just kept making plays. I think it got to 7–0 or 8–0 and then the other team just kind of gave up and we finally started getting some aces. It was crazy to watch, and we’re hoping that girl still has some of that serving in her when the tournament starts.

Also the volleyball program did a cool thing last Wednesday at the A team’s final home game. They invited M’s team to come and get introduced before the game with them. The seventh graders made signs for all the eighth graders and they were announced as one team. It was a nice way to end M’s CYO sports career.

As for L, she had zero interest in playing volleyball. Well, if she could have played on the boys team she might have been talked into it. She went home with one of her buddies after school and then went to his team’s practice. They let her serve and apparently she was ripping overhand serves. She still says volleyball is dumb because you can’t run.

Instead she’s been going to a weekly soccer shooting camp that’s run by a local high school coach. It is a small group – I think they’ve never had more than nine kids – that ranges from ages 8 to 14 with more boys than girls, so it’s been a good experience for her. She’s always been a natural and I never wanted to fix things that might not be technically correct but still worked for her. Her coach played national level soccer for his home country beginning when he was in his teens and then played professionally in the US. His son plays in the MLS currently. The guy knows what he’s doing. And he is great with the kids. She has learned a lot and I’m hopeful one day it will warm up so we can get outside and work on what she’s picked up. I think she will likely continue to take classes from him going forward as we figure out what the next step for her in soccer is.

As far as spring sports go, M is out. Some of her classmates decided to play CYO soccer but she had no interest. Eighth graders generally do not play spring kickball because they take their DC trip in the middle of the season. Her coaches and I decided last fall between that and the inevitable spring weather issues it wasn’t worth trying to make it work.

C is going to play kickball and we’ve finally talked her into running track. As good as she is at cross country, I think she can be even better at track. She has middle distance sprinter written all over her. I’m going to help coach her kickball team this year. A few weeks ago she asked me, “When I’m in eighth grade, can you help coach my team?” I told her I was going to help this year and she got very excited. That made me quite happy.

I am “forcing” L to play kickball again after taking the fall off. If she moves into a club soccer program next year she won’t have time for kickball anymore so I figured I should use my powers as coordinator to get her on the team one more time. She also decided to play CYO soccer so she can play with her classmates, although a couple of the classmates she wanted to play with the most ended up not playing. I was kind of against her playing CYO soccer. I’ve heard from other parents it’s kind of a mess because of the mix of grades – her team runs fourth through sixth grades – and talent. Fortunately she went to some clinics her coach ran last summer so he has an idea of her skill level and I don’t think the older boys will be able to push her aside.

Last Saturday they played in a 4-on–4 futsal tournament. It was a little strange because they made the team from the entire St. P’s program, so L was the only fourth grader on a team that had mostly seventh and eighth graders. She was about the smallest kid on the court and some of the rules restrictions slowed her, too. She didn’t score but came close twice and made a couple really good passes.

(Futsal is basically indoor soccer on a hard surface – in this case a basketball court – with out-of-bounds lines instead of walls. They played a variation this week that was without goalies, but also prevented the offense from shooting inside the basketball lane. That’s where she makes her money so she had a hard time getting good scoring opportunities.)

She had her first official CYO soccer practice yesterday, again in the gym because of the weather. C’s first track practice is next week. And I’m going to try to start kickball practice in two weeks, weather permitting. Then, as soon as we get back from spring break, the games/meets will begin.

Weekend Notes

October 29, 2018 /

A strangely busy yet boring fall break weekend.

L had a soccer tournament to wrap up her season. This came after not playing for two weeks and, unfortunately, it really showed. The girls, and L especially, were just not on their game.

Friday we played our opening game at 7:45 under the lights. The windchill was in the upper 30s, there was a stiff northerly breeze, and it was raining steadily. All-in-all a miserable night to do anything outside. We were playing a team we beat 2–1 in the regular season. Surprise, surprise, we got another, nervy, 2–1 win. We played our second round robin game Saturday against a team that beat us 8–1 to begin the season. We hung in for the first half and went into the break down just 1–0 on a freaky goal that went off our defender, off our goalie’s hands, and then off her foot into the goal. We melted down in the second half and lost 5–0.

Still, we made it through to the semis and took on a team we tied 3–3 during the regular season. We played really well for the first 25 minutes, mostly controlling the game. L had our only decent scoring chance and put it off the post. But right before half time we fell apart again, the last five minutes being played deep in our defensive end. The second half was the same: we could not get possession and were constantly scrambling in the back to clean things up. Our defense finally paid for being out of position and we let one through midway through the half. We never got a decent scoring chance after that and our season ended with a 1–0 loss.

L just had nothing all weekend. I don’t know if it was the weather – Saturday was cool and the field was still sloppy; Sunday it was warmer but very windy – if she wasn’t feeling well, if the two weeks off ruined her soccer stamina, or if she had just checked out mentally. Whatever it was, these were probably the three worst games she’s ever played. She just showed no energy, shied away from going after the ball, wouldn’t make runs when we had the ball, and basically played extremely out of character for her.

As a coaching parent, it was very frustrating. I let her have it a few times Sunday when she would just stand and watch where she used to get in the middle of the action and make things happen. Afterward I had to remind myself that we played three good defensive teams this weekend – she had scored just one goal against them in three regular season games – and all three were older teams. For playing most of the season against girls two years older than her, she still had a really good season. I think it was her lowest goal-scoring season ever, but she still had 9 or 10 in 10 games. Most importantly, I think she understands the areas she needs to get better in if she wants to keep playing. She needs to learn how control the ball better. How to do more than just do a series of fakes and step-backs when a defender cuts her off. How to pass the ball to others when the defense keys on her. Rather than play a winter sport, she’s most likely going to do some individual training with a local high school coach. I expect between that, and maybe a growth spurt that helps her compete against bigger girls, she’ll be just fine the next time she plays in a league.[1]

I was secretly relieved we lost in the semis. If we had advanced we would have played the team that smoked us Saturday again, and their coach is an annoying tool. Plus right around the time of the championship game we had wind gusts over 50 MPH, so that would not have been fun.

Oh, and we had a basketball game yesterday, too, which would have made playing soccer again rough.

L looked just fine at basketball, at least in the first half. She scored four, ran the floor well, played decent D. In the second half she looked pretty gassed, though, and kept losing the ball when she brought it up against pressure. They won – almost blowing a big lead but hanging on late – and are now 5–1 with one game to play before the tournament begins.

Whew. No surprise that she was pretty tired and sore last night.

M cheered for the final time yesterday. Our 7th/8th grade football team lost 7–6 in the City semis. She was bummed she’s done with cheer. She really enjoyed it, although I think it was mostly the hanging out with her friends that she liked more than the cheering part. She’s made some comments about wanting to cheer in high school. We’ve pointed out that in HS you need to have tumbling/gymnastics experience, which she has zero of. So we’ll see where that goes. I think the majority of her St. P’s friends that go to high school with her will likely not cheer either.

Speaking of high school, we got the final pieces of paperwork in for her application last week. Now we wait about three weeks before we hear. Her shadow day is tomorrow.

OK, onto other stuff from the weekend.

Hey, KU won a Big 12 football game! We’re tied for last place with the tie breaker over TCU! If the season ended today, we would be 9th! I was not able to watch the game between soccer, a visitor stopping by, and then a family party that took us away from home. I was following along online and via text updates from friends.[2] I think I’m glad I wasn’t able to see the final moments of the game. It would have been sooooooo KU football to leave a second on the clock then mess up the squib kick and give TCU a chance to kick a winning field goal. In fact, I’m shocked that didn’t actually happen. But, hey, KU has three wins this year. They really should have four if not for the mysterious absence of Pooka Williams week one. That won’t be enough to save David Beaty’s job, but at least you can argue there’s been progress. The big question is what is he leaving behind. If he is fired, how many non-seniors will decide to leave? He kind of messed up recruiting so he/the next coach will have very few scholarships to give out for next year, so it’s imperative that the program hang onto as many of the young guys as possible. Do that and you can start to squint hard enough to believe a good coaching hire this winter and a good recruiting class next year means mediocrity isn’t too far in the future. Ah, mediocrity! How I’ve missed you!

Five game World Series are strange beasts. A team winning 4–1 makes it seems like it was a boring series. The Royals-Mets series in 2015 proved that wrong, with two extra-inning games and a third that had a lead change in the 8th inning. I think this year’s will go down as fairly boring, although games three and four were the exceptions to that.

No, I did not stay up for all 18 innings of game three. Hell, I went to bed at the end of the 9th. Although, strangely, I could not sleep and kept waking up. After I saw the score Saturday morning, I was convinced my body knew there was an epic game going on in LA and wanted me to go downstairs and turn the TV back on. Game four was thoroughly enjoyable to a non-partisan fan. Dodger Stadium was coming unglued after Yasiel Puig’s home run in the 6th that put LA up by four. But, man, these Red Sox are relentless, and once they got that first run back, you knew the game, and the series, was over. The 9–5 final made it look like another blow out. But those last four innings were fun to watch.

I was really hoping for a seven game series, and not just to stretch the end of the season. I wanted to see how Alex Cora managed his pitching staff over seven games. I loved the way he mixed and matched all series to get his best arms on the mound in any situation. But I wondered if they could keep that up if the series had returned to Boston. David Price was simply amazing last night, and all series for that matter. I’m not a huge fan of his; he often seems like a joyless, bitter human being. But that performance last night was fantastic.

  1. She’s making noises about taking the spring season off from competitive soccer and playing CYO soccer. I’ve tried to tell her CYO soccer is kind of a disaster, but she really wants to play with a couple friends who aren’t skilled enough to play in her league anymore. We’ll see…  ↩
  2. The ESPN app feed glitched in the fourth quarter for about five minutes. It would update down and distance but not the clock. People were texting me that there were 30 seconds left but the app still said 6:00+. I have a friend who was following the game from Spain and she said it did the same thing to her. I think the app couldn’t believe KU was about to pull off the W.  ↩

Weekend Kid Sports

October 8, 2018 /

This was a weekend of sports endings and beginnings. And waitings, too, I guess.

C wrapped up her cross country season with the annual City championship meet. Once again it was hot and humid for the biggest meet of the year, which is always an afternoon meet to avoid high school sectionals. I will give her this: she might fuss and worry about the conditions on hot days, but she almost always powers through where other kids wilt.

Again, for the fourth-straight year, she ran her fastest time of the year at this meet. For the third-straight year, it was good enough to get on the awards podium. For the second-straight year, she claimed 16th place, this time out of 114 runners. That’s a lot of streaks!

I was actually worried about her before the race. She ran decent times all year, and placed in every event for the second-straight season, but it also felt like she plateaued a little this year. As nice as that consistency was, she never busted out that really fast run like she had done in the past. On several race days, she showed signs of nerves and discomfort before her run. So, Saturday, I really had no expectations for her to do well. I figured it was hot, she seemed off in the morning again, and there was a huge field to run against. I was just hoping she broke 14 minutes for the first time all year.

She ran a really solid race. She was in the medal group the entire, and improved her position steadily. She passed a girl in the closing stretch to bump up to 16th, which was a nice way to finish the year. Her time of 13:47 was her third fastest ever. Ironically, or strangely, she still hasn’t come close to the ridiculous 13:13 she ran as a fourth grader when she finished 6th at the City meet. Last year’s City time was 13:24. That course brings out the best in her, although she seems to be getting slower on it.

Anyway, it was a good ending to a strange year. We had two meets washed out by storms. Two other meets were in brutal heat. Kickball kept her from practicing more than once a week most of the season. But her five runs earned her 9th, 19th, 5th, 10th, and 16th place finishes.

CYO does not mess around. The day after cross country ended, girls basketball began.[1] Yes, CYO girls basketball is a fall sport for some reason. I have really never understood why. Volleyball is their winter sport, but the boys’ volleyball and basketball seasons run in parallel in the winter.[2] Weird.

Yesterday was L’s first ever CYO basketball game. She has a huge team – 11 players – so their coach decided to run them out in waves, subbing every three minutes. That worked out pretty well yesterday. They got off to a 24–0 start, which I think is pretty good. It was 26–1 at halftime. Apparently he told them to stop stealing and pass five times before shooting in the second half, so the final was only 30–4. Soft…

L had a decent game. She had a bunch of steals. She had a couple assists. But she missed at least 853 layups. She was back into her old habit of going too damn fast and chucking the ball off the backboard so hard it has no chance to go in.

Her highlights, though, were destroying people off the dribble. She was blowing by people on the perimeter. She had a crazy crossover that damn near made the girl guarding her fall over. And she, somehow, went between her legs and left a defender in the dust. The best part of that was they were playing a school that is from a little more urban part of the city: their roster was about three-quarters black girls. When L was juking people, there were several “WHOOOO!!!”s and “DANG!”s from our opponents cheering section. L noticed. After the game she said, “I heard people saying ‘WOW!’ when I went between my legs!”

As I was congratulating her coach following the game – he and I coached this group together last year – he said something, jokingly, about was she ever going to hit a layup. She quickly had an answer, “See, dad, you need to get me a basketball goal!” Our new driveway isn’t ideal for a hoop so we’ve done our best to put that purchase off. Later she asked me if it was ok for her to dribble between her legs during games. I told her as long as it helps her make a basketball move that is necessary, sure. I have a feeling it was kind of an accident yesterday and now she’s going to try it again and start turning the ball over.

Oh, and the game was the general chaos you would expect. You could tell our girls have all been playing together for three years. The other team…well, I’m not sure any of those girls had played an organized game before. There was a lot of grabbing the ball and walking, uncertainty about how to inbound the ball, and so on. I told L after the game not to expect other teams to struggle as much as Sunday’s opponents did.

As for the waiting, Sunday worked out better for us than we had expected. L was also supposed to have a soccer game, which was to begin one hour after basketball. Our plan was to play basketball as long as we could, then run over to the soccer field. Fortunately, the soccer team was going to be missing three girls because of fall breaks, so we decided to forfeit that game.[3] We figured playing at least one girl down – and perhaps more if someone else didn’t show up – and then with two girls coming from basketball was going to make soccer ugly. Especially in the heat. Sadly we may have to forfeit next weekend, too, as we know three girls will be on fall break.[4] That’s kind of a bummer. There’s supposed to be a tournament at the end of the season, but we don’t know any details about that. I’m hoping we get to play at least one more game with this group of girls.

  1. Although some of the older girls had preseason tournaments last week.  ↩
  2. Along with wrestling.  ↩
  3. Seriously, fall breaks suck.  ↩
  4. Fucking fall breaks…  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 1, 2018 /

To get the week rolling, I’ll knock out a variety of subjects in one post.

First, apologies for the lack of a playlist or video last Friday. We added one, final task to phase one of our home improvement process and that was getting wrapped up on Friday. I have to say, our house looks pretty fantastic now. A week ago Friday our living room furniture arrived. It was nice to have that but after our designer “fluffed” everything Thursday and Saturday, it has transformed from nice to spectacular. She did an amazing job and our house feels like it came out of a design show. Now to keep the kids from ruining it…

C ran last Thursday night. It was a small meet, so we were all hoping for higher placements by our kids. C was fourth much of the race but faded and finished 10th, running right about the same time she’s run all year. This coming Saturday is the City championship meet where she’s run the two fastest times of her life. I hope she has another big run in her and can place for the third-straight year.

L had two soccer games over the weekend. She scored two goals in a 3–2 loss Saturday. She ripped an absolutely vicious shot that the goalie got her hands on and pushed just over the bar that could have tied it. Sunday she was held scoreless in a nervy, 2–1 win. We were playing a team filled with 5th graders, some of whom go to St. P’s, and we gave up their goal in the first two minutes of the game. But our defense rallied, our other top player scored two before halftime, and we hung on for dear life in the second half.

L went scoreless largely because she had her first nasty soccer injury in the first half. She took a clear to the inside of her knee that knocked her out of the game for about 10 minutes. She was able to go back on when another girl got hurt – we had only one sub to the other team’s five – but struggled to get move.[1] We started her on defense in the second half and once she was able to loosen the knee up a little, she begged to go forward again. That kind of made me laugh because she clearly wanted nothing to do with playing on the back line. She was never really right the rest of the game, but this morning she was fine other than a really nasty bruise and cleat marks on her leg.

M had the big, milestone family event of the weekend: we submitted her application for high school Saturday night. She decided to go through the early admissions process so that she will find out whether she gets into Cathedral the week of Thanksgiving instead of early February. We’re pretty sure this is all a formality. She has good grades and test scores, and has a parent, aunts and uncles, and a grandfather that all went to school there. Still, we wanted her to take the process seriously. There were three essay questions that we worked with her on. She kept giving us sarcastic answers when we gave her prompts on how to improve her initial efforts. I threatened at least once to send her to a public high school. Or to submit her dumb-ass answers and see what the admissions committee thought of them. She got her act together and we were able to push Submit Saturday evening.

She cheered on Sunday and I was talking to a couple other dads about the process. One has had two go through it already. He said with their oldest, they were also anal about getting everything just right. Then, when they saw some of the other kids who got in, they eased way off for the #2. “I think as long as you can pay tuition, they’ll let you in. There’s one kid I know had straight F’s at St. P’s who got in.” He may have been exaggerating a little.

There’s still more to do. We have to submit grades and state test scores once her first quarter grades are in. She has to get two letters of recommendation from teachers, which she is dragging her feet on. And she has to go through an interview with the admissions folks in two weeks. But the ball is rolling and the first tuition check for high school is not too far in our future.

Finally, having nothing to do with kids, a few words about the Colts. M was cheering during most of the game but I was able to listen to a big chunk of their comeback on the way home, and then watch all of overtime. When the Colts lost because they went for it on fourth down with 27 seconds left inside their own 45, I texted a couple friends and said they had just set a record for the dumbest loss in NFL history. Just take the damn tie and move on.

But, you know what? I’m reconsidering that today. What the hell are the Colts playing for this year? Nothing. They will not make the playoffs, even given the surprising effectiveness of their defense so far this season. Andrew Luck had a monster game yesterday; if they had converted that fourth down and then he moved them up into field goal range, he would have been within shouting distance of 500 yards passing for the day. But he’s still not 100%, and if he ever can be again, it won’t happen this year. The offensive line still sucks. The running game and receiving corps remain suspect. This is a team that is at least one more good draft and free agency class away from being a playoff contender.

So why not go for it? The game is, basically, meaningless. If you convert, get another 20 yards, and Adam Vinatieri drills a game-winner at the horn to cap off an 18-point comeback, this becomes a mythical game. It becomes the moment everyone points to in a year – or two or three – when the Colts are playing for an AFC title again, as the turning point for the organization.

As it stands, the loss means nothing. It doesn’t set the Colts back in their rebuild. It may even help them earn a better draft position next spring. And, apparently, the players loved it, so it helps to bring a team together that had been struggling for several years.

Not saying I would have made the same call in the same situation. But I don’t think it’s as terrible a call as I did in the moments after it happened.

  1. Worth noting that Dr. Mom did take a look at her and pronounced her fit to play before we sent her back in.  ↩

Mo’ Kid Sports

September 18, 2018 /

Our kickball seasons came to an official end last night. A season that began with back-to-back rainouts at the same school ended with back-to-back make-up games at that school in 90-degree heat. Not the best bookends.

C’s season wrapped up Friday in pretty glorious fashion. Every girl was locked in and they cruised to a 44–5, run-ruled win. If we had played like that the previous Monday, we just might have had a chance against the team that won our division. C closed the year with a big home run. The head coach’s husband was taking pictures and got a great one of C just after contact, her right foot up in the air, her left several inches off the ground, the ball just about out of the frame as it rocketed to the outfield.

M’s season ended on the same field last night with a doubleheader make up of two rained out games. We began the first game up 9–1, as the season-opener was stopped just as we were ending the first inning. For three weeks our girls had that inning to think about. I’m pretty sure they all expected the day to be two easy wins. And, unfortunately, they played two rather disinterested games. Oh, and it turned out their opponents were pretty good. Despite that 9–1 lead, we dropped the first game 27–20. In the second game, we trailed by three in the last inning but scraped across four runs with two outs to take a lead. Our defense, normally the bright spot on this team, had been suspect all day. And we kicked the ball around the infield long enough to let the tying and winning runs in.

Yep, a team that had lost six regular season games in nine seasons coming in got swept in a doubleheader and finished the year with three losses. Not exactly the way we wanted these girls to end their kickball careers.

After the game M was a little teary. Likely more because she jammed a finger in the last inning than because she was emotional about her kickball days being done. I reminded her how when she was in third grade, she said she absolutely did not want to play in the spring.[1] We told her that she had to at least give it a try. She not only played that spring, but was super excited to play in the fall of her fourth grade year. And never stopped after. I also reminded her that in ten seasons, she had a ton of great memories she would hang on to for years. I don’t know if that helped her, but it made me feel better.

Our weekend was full of sports, too.

L finally got on the soccer field, errrr, pitch with games both Saturday and Sunday. They were two very different experiences.

The league L is in partners with a couple neighboring leagues to make sure we have enough teams at the U12-U16 levels. And our first opponent was a true club team. These girls had been playing together for several years and were, the head coach and I were guessing, the product of a tryout process rather than a blind, random generation of kids like our roster was. We hung in for the first 10 minutes or so, but it got real ugly after that. We lost something like 10–1. We gave up two penalty kicks because of handballs in the box. We probably should have given up two more but our ref didn’t seem super interested in calling anything that wasn’t blatantly obvious.

It didn’t help that our opponents were huge compared to ours. They all had to be early 2007 birthdays, and were tall and thick, where our team was full of late 2008 girls who are either short or have cross country bodies. It really looked like we were in the wrong league, both in terms of talent and size. Oh, and we were missing four girls, so we had zero subs. And one of our players took a shot in the nose and had to sit out for several minutes until it stopped bleeding.

For the first time since she started playing, L looked totally outclassed. It took her a long time to figure out how to get and keep possession. And then she would dribble into the teeth of the defense and get surrounded by three girls who were all 5’4” and thick. She did set up our only goal by taking a ball deep down the side and crossing it. But for the most part she was humbled.

Sunday we played a team that looked only slightly smaller than Saturday’s opponents. Again it was a very even first 10–15 minutes until they broke through with a couple goals. We pulled one back when L made a good run, got completely wiped out inside the box, everyone stopped waiting for a whistle that never came, and one of our other girls pounced on the loose ball and put it in.

The second half was another story. I don’t know what happened, because we mostly let the girls sit and hydrate to recover from the heat at halftime, but we absolutely dominated the first 15 minutes of the second half. The head coach and I got all over L for giving up on a ball right in front of us because a bigger defender was chasing it down, too. She got pissed, charged down the field and stole the ball back. Moments later, she pulled a Roberto Baggio, collecting a ball deep in the defensive end and dribbling straight up the field before ripping one by the goalie. Really, these goals should not happen at this level. I think the defense was just tired. Their goalie then scored on herself and we were tied.[2]

L got another goal to put us ahead, and missed two dead easy chances that literally made me fall over in disbelief. She looked like she belonged Sunday. We got a fifth goal late when their goalie gifted us another and we got out with a 5–3 win. The mood of the girls was like 1000% better than Saturday, shockingly. One girl, Saturday, kept saying, “What’s the point? Why are we even trying?” I was going to start calling her Lucy from the Peanuts because of her attitude. After Sunday’s game she had a big grin on her face and I asked her, “Isn’t it better when you don’t give up hope and keep playing?”

Because of other sports, I hadn’t been able to be around the entire team until this weekend. I’m not sure how good we’ll be, since we’re so young and small, but I really like a bunch of the girls. We have a few who are super athletic and a little stubborn, and refuse to give up if a bigger girl takes the ball away. We have three girls who work really well with L, and they could become difficult to stop once they learn how to play together. One of those girls can slide all over the field and cover any position while making fantastic passes to her teammates. And a bunch of them have fun personalities. We have one girl who complains a lot. At halftime she was complaining about how hot it was and how she hated running. Our smallest girl, who is this tiny thing with glasses and braces but is also really good, said in her little voice, “Don’t you run track, though?” Not everyone heard it but I busted out laughing, “Dang, O! You just roasted her!” and the whole team lost it. O sat there with a proud, sheepish grin on her face.

C also ran Saturday afternoon. We kind of hate this race because A) it’s huge; I think every school in the area is invited and B) it is always in the afternoon so the runners at the high school that hosts can run in their meet in the morning. So we’re always out in the open and it is usually hot. Saturday was just nasty hot and humid.

Except for the elite runners, who cruised to wins, everyone was having a really hard time. In C’s race, all St. P’s runners were on the verge of tears and barely able to stand at the end. She finished 18th with about the same time she ran last year. S and I had to walk with her, helping her along, until we could get her to shade after she finished. She was the fourth St. P’s runner and the third in her grade. Now that kickball is done I’m hoping a little extra training will push her up a few spots in the next few meets.

  1. Back then third graders could not play until the spring season, and then only on mixed teams with fourth graders.  ↩
  2. Speaking of things that shouldn’t happen at this level, goalies should not kick the ball backwards over their heads into their own goals.  ↩

Kid Sports

September 11, 2018 /

Once again, that bitch Mother Nature has been playing havoc with our family sports schedule. I’ve lost track of how many practices, games, and other events have been wiped out over the past month. Seriously, it didn’t rain here for like six weeks, then, as soon as fall practices started, we began getting multiple downpours each week right around the time a kid was supposed to be doing something.

Here’s where we stand now.

M’s kickball team will not defend their City championship. They won their first two games – another game was stopped after one inning because of rain with them up 9–1 – before they ran into a buzzsaw. We had heard St L had been practicing four nights a week to come after our girls. We weren’t super concerned at first, because we had never had trouble with them. But we also heard they had a bunch of soccer players that had not played since fifth grade that were coming back for one final run at City.

And, damn, those chicks were good.

We were up by five or six runs after two innings but then got blasted. We narrowly avoided getting run-ruled after six innings and scored enough in the 7th to only lost by 16. It really wasn’t that close, though. We’ve never played a team that could kick like St L’s. Every girl through their entire lineup could absolutely blast the ball. Even their tiny girls who looked more like 6th graders could boot it. Our lineup is good, but also has several holes in it and we just couldn’t keep up.

That was a bit of a bummer, but I thought it was a good sign that all our girls recognized they got beat by a better team and came to terms with the loss pretty quickly. My memory might be a little off, but I believe this was only the sixth regular season loss these girls have had in nine seasons of kickball. And only their fourth regular season loss when playing against same-aged girls. Pretty impressive.

A night later we had an exciting one-run win over another one of our big rivals. I missed this game running the other two sisters around.

M’s team has a double header on the schedule for next Monday. Those will, likely, be the last two games this group ever plays together.

C’s team won their first three games and had their biggest game of the year Monday night against St. S, a long-time nemesis for her class. They were undefeated too, but where we were scoring between 20–30 runs a game, St. S had scored over 50 runs in all five of their games. Before we started, I joked with our coach that if we could just hold them to 30 and kick well ourselves, we had a chance.

Things got off to a bad start when three of our girls went to St. S instead of our field. Two of them caught their error quick and arrived before the game started, but the third girl rolled in in the second inning.

We somehow held them scoreless in the first, scored three in our half, and were up 5–2 after two. Then came the proverbial “bad inning”: we gave up 12 runs, eight after getting two outs. We dropped two balls in the outfield, bobbled a bunch of balls in the infield, and were on the wrong side of a close call at first.

We never got back in it and lost by 15. So no City for C’s team. She’s had a steady, if unspectacular season. Girls don’t kick it to the suicide spot as much as they did when they were younger, so she’s made a lot fewer plays than she did a year ago. But she still generally makes them when the ball is kicked her way. And I always laugh when another team tries to run on her and she races some girl down from 50 feet away. Her kicking has been hot-and-cold, like always. She has a few home runs. She’s also booted some deep balls that have been caught. Such is life in sixth grade. She has scored from first on kicks to shallow center a couple times. Once she almost ran down a teammate who was a base ahead of her when they were both coming home. She was giggling the whole time.

St. P’s will send at least one team to City this season. Our 7th graders are undefeated and two games ahead of everyone with one to play. And L’s classmates are still undefeated, although they have two tough games this week against teams that each have one loss. I’ve been giving L grief all season about “What if they go to City without you?” She always looks like she’s filled with mixed emotions when I ask.

Cross country has suffered from the weather, too. The first meet of the year was cancelled Labor Day weekend because of heavy thunderstorms. While S and I were in New York, C ran and finished in 10th place. It was her fourth fastest time ever, which was pretty good considering she’s barely practiced because of kickball and the weather. A friend sent a picture of her just after she finished and she looked like she was going to throw up. Then last week’s meet was wiped out because of heavy rains. I’m kind of anxious for kickball to get wrapped up so she can have a couple weeks of good training before the City meet in early October.

And L’s soccer season has yet to begin. She was supposed to play two games the weekend before Labor Day, but as all teams had just started practicing that week, both were postponed until October. Then last week the fields were flooded. So this Saturday will be her first game of the year. I’m counting on tornadoes or a blizzard or some other crazy weather to keep them from playing.

Fall Sports Kick Off

August 20, 2018 /

Opening day of fall sports, which is always both exciting and stress inducing. I have to admit, it is nice only having to worry about two kickball schedules this season. And somehow we lucked out and have no nights with two games. We do have three different stretches with three games in three nights, so we’ll still be busy. Only having two kickballers does not mean we’re not busy, though.

M’s team begins defense of their spring city title tonight. We’ve heard two of the teams on our schedule have been practicing four nights a week to get prepped for us. Our girls first and only practice will be the 30 minute warm-up before tonight’s game. Cocky? No, just too many schedules to manage. Plus the head coach said, “We won our title, I’m going to give them a break.” Oh, and they only practiced once last season, and that was before their playoff game. In fact, I think they’ve had a combined four practices over the past three seasons. This is standard for these girls.

C’s team has games Tuesday and Wednesday. This is a big year for them, playing in the top division of the 5th/6th grade group. It’s also the first time this class has played together as a true A team. This team drives me a little crazy as they have the potential to be really, really good but there’s something about C’s class that doesn’t quite work. There are good players who cry if something small goes wrong. Another good player who, once her meds wear off, will literally stand in the field and stare at people on the sidelines until you yell at her to pay attention. C doesn’t have either of these problems; she’s tough as nails and always locked in. She will cry after she’s been hit by a rocket in the face for the third time, but also refuse to come out of the game. However, she’s not the alpha like the girl who has lead M’s team since fourth grade. She’ll lead by example but not crack the whip and get everyone in line. I think this team needs that alpha to maximize their potential.

C is still running, too. Officially she has three cross country practices per week, but with kickball she’s generally running just once. Her first meet is this weekend, the annual relay that kicks off the CYO season. That will be a good start as between weather and kickball, she hasn’t run in almost two weeks.

L’s soccer team begins practice tomorrow. Some weeks they will practice twice, but for the next few weeks I think it will just be one night. With the crazy CYO sports calendar – short seasons, girls basketball in the fall – she actually had her tryouts for basketball yesterday.

We do have another addition to the family activity schedule: M has decided to cheer. Well, I should say the alpha in M’s class decided to cheer and drug along about half of the class. M told us this last spring and we kind of laughed, rolled our eyes, and thought, “Yeah, we’ll see.” Then when sign ups rolled around, sure as shit, that group still wanted to cheer.

There was much eye rolling amongst the parents of the group about this. None of these girls have cheered before, and we believe most of them have no interest in doing it in high school. It’s just another activity to do together in their final year at St. P’s. Several parents expressed disgust at the idea of hanging out at cold football games in October to watch their girls cheer. Another, who coaches other sports, said it was a complete waste of time. And these were moms complaining, which cracked me up.

I’ve come around to the idea. M was excited about it, she’s with her best friends, and it gives her something that is hers. We know it’s tough for her to be the older sister to two siblings that are known through the school for their athletic achievements. I’m glad she is having fun and just hope she doesn’t get dropped on her head or something.

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