D's Notebook

Tag: tennis (Page 2 of 3)

Weekend Sports Notes

September 7, 2021 /

It was the first weekend jam-packed with sports in a long time. Good thing we had a fourish-day weekend to squeeze it all in!1

Friday night I took C and three friends to the Cathedral football game (M was also there with her own friend group). The 2–0, class 5A #1 Irish played a perennial 6A power from up north that has fallen off a bit in the past couple seasons. CHS was up 37–0 at halftime, played subs the entire second half, and cruised to a running clock win by the same score. Next week they take on arch rivals Bishop Chatard, defending class 3A champs who are off to a rough 0–3 start.

KU was playing their season opener at the same time. I was able to follow most of the second half. Not the most confidence-building experience – a 17–14 win over South Dakota that required a last-minute touchdown to win – but I’m not sure how you properly assess anything this season since the new coaching staff came in after spring practice was complete. There was already a lot of work to be done and that just complicates matters more.

I had hoped the offensive line would be improved. Sounds like that’s not the case. Or at least not yet. Most of the big plays were made by young guys, though, so that has to be good. Then again, there aren’t a lot of old guys in front of them.

I heard from multiple people about KU students rushing the field. Yawn. 1) Those kids hadn’t seen a win in over two years. 2) They may not see another win for two more years. 3) Do you really think after everything KU fans have been through over the past decade I’m going to get fired up about kids rushing the field after barely beating an FCS team? That’s like the 150th worst thing that has gone on around this program since the 2008 Orange Bowl win.

I watched stretches of the US Open throughout the weekend. I’ve said this before but it’s tough to get invested in tennis when so many of the best players are A) from Eastern Europe (or their parents were from there) and B) I don’t pay much attention to tennis the rest of the year.

I’m sad I’ve missed all of the Leylah Fernandez experience so far. Carlos Alcaraz beating Stefanos Tsitsipas Friday was terrific fun. I also enjoyed watching Shelby Rogers beat Ashleigh Barty on Saturday. I missed Rogers’ loss on Monday but was disappointed that she was the second American player to speak out about the abuse she expected to take online after the loss. I just don’t get why you would berate any athlete for their performance. And harassing tennis players is especially baffling to me. Is there really a big pool of super-fired up tennis fans who go ballistic when people lose?

I don’t think so. I’m assuming it’s just frustrated, idiot gamblers or people who can only find pleasure in life by cutting other people down.

The Naomi Osaka situation was especially disheartening. This is clearly a woman who is not in a good mental place. And yet some people were almost gleeful that she lost and seemed on the verge of a breakdown, both emotionally and physically.

How do you root for someone to fall apart? And how do you not understand that even when someone is successful and famous and has money they can still face mental/emotional/physical challenges that overwhelm them?

The first full weekend of college football rolled through, too. I watched probably too much football on Saturday, even when we were hanging out with people in the evening. I spent the most time with eyes on Penn State – Wisconsin and Clemson – Georgia. Not well played, not very entertaining, but at least they were competitive.

There was a lot of hype going into the year for Indiana. Iowa took about 10 minutes to destroy most of it. But as an IU-fan relative told me Monday, 8–4 was what he expected and that’s still in play, no matter how ugly the Hoosiers looked Saturday.

I struggled a bit with seeing full stadiums and the constant chatter from the announcers about how great it was to be back to normal again. I had mixed feelings because we’re not back to normal. And the arguments about how to make things better just keep getting less-and-less constructive as the deniers dig in deeper and deeper. This fall should have been the time when we were truly reopening and getting back to normal. But Covid numbers are skyrocketing, schools are going back to masks, and it feels like this is just a momentary blip before large crowds start getting banned again because too many people think being asked to wear a piece of cloth across their face is some great impingement on their freedoms.

I had never heard of Duke’s Mayo before Saturday. And I had no idea it was a big enough deal to sponsor the premier prime time matchup of week one.

I watched a few minutes here-and-there of LSU-UCLA. I expected an easy LSU win. I was not expecting UCLA to pull away and win comfortably.

While watching I had the thought that when Chip Kelly left Oregon, it totally derailed both him and the Oregon program. When he left it seemed like just a matter of time before Oregon won a national title. The Ducks have had a couple good seasons since he departed, but several mediocre ones and even a 4–8 season. Kelly, meanwhile, was a disaster in the NFL and seemed close to being done at UCLA.

But maybe he has something going in Westwood, finally.

Lastly, the Solheim Cup in women’s golf was fantastic. In a mild upset, the European team beat the Americans 15–13. I was struck by how different the Solheim’s entire vibe was from how the Ryder Cup will be in a couple weeks. At the Ryder Cup there are always a couple guys on both teams who are way too fired up and take the slightest possible sign of disrespect as some great challenge to their manhood and team’s legitimacy. By Sunday the red asses have taken over and the entire event is weighed down by that intensity. While there are some moments of genuine respect as the singles matches finish, you are just as likely to see opponents get the post-match handshake over as quickly as they can.

There were a few moments of disagreement and conflict this weekend amongst the women. But none of them turned into big deals. Brief handshakes were the exception, with most competitors hugging after their matches regardless of the score. The crowds also seemed way less unruly than Ryder Cup crowds do.

All the bullshit that goes along with the Ryder Cup is kind of fun, to be honest. I’m always rooting for there to be extremely bad blood during and after, because it makes golfers look silly.

The Solheim Cup, though, was just about good, fun competition.

Kid Sports Notes

May 10, 2021 /

Track

The City track championship qualifying races were held Saturday.

L ran the 50, 100, and 200. C ran the 100 and 200.

L was a little annoyed with her assignments. Each athlete has a three event limit, and she was hoping to run a relay. Her coaches are smart, though. They know we will win the medley relay as long as we don’t drop the baton thanks to our 400 runner. So they are chasing the team points by having L run three individual sprints. When she complained I told her she had a shot to win three City championships plus the team title, so stop whining.

The Saturday heats were not organized at all. You just lined up wherever. A lot of the faster girls lined up in the first heat. But L kept hanging back. I don’t know if she wanted to see the fast girls run or if she was interested in keeping her heat winning streak alive. It worked out ok whatever her motivation was.

She won her heats in all three races. In the 50, she qualified second, 0.10 behind the top girl. In the 100 she did race a fast girl. They were neck-and-neck for the first 75 meters but L pulled away late. She was again second overall, this time 0.02 behind the fastest girl, the same girl who was first in the 50. She ran slower in the 200, but still qualified fifth, about 0.5 behind the fastest girl. In an upset the girl who is first in the 50 and 100 was only third in the 200. Apparently this girl, E, won all three sprints two years ago.

I think it was good L didn’t run against E Saturday. She knows how fast E is, but E has no idea how fast L is. From C’s experience two years ago, we know everyone runs faster in the finals. Hopefully L has enough speed Wednesday night to catch E in at least one race.

C ran poorly – for her – in the 200, and was fourth in her heat. The top eight go through to the finals and she was 20th.

She rocked her 100, though. She won her heat by two seconds and qualified sixth for the finals. She beat both a girl who had edged her in her 200 heat and one of her teammates who had beaten her three times this year. It was a great run and we were thrilled for her, although she seemed a little embarrassed by our enthusiasm.

That sets up a fun night of finals Wednesday. L has a legit shot at winning all three races. She thinks the 200 is her best chance, which made me laugh since she qualified worst for it. We had a talk Saturday night about race strategy. I told her how in the 50 and 100 she and E will have the two middle lanes, so she will always know exactly where she stands. She is excited and confident to go head-to-head with her.

C ran soooo much faster in her two City finals in sixth grade than she did in qualifying. She chopped over a second off her 200 time when she finished third. It’s unlikely she can win the 100, but I’d love to see her blow it out and improve on her qualifying place in her last individual race of middle school.

C will also run in at least one relay.

L and her classmates are set up great to win the girls 5th–6th team title. In Friday’s field events they nabbed two second and one third place finish. The mile final was run on Saturday and our distance girl won by 16 seconds. That was after throwing up three times at the start because she was so nervous. Those points put them in first by 7.5 points going into Wednesday.

Our distance girl should win the 800 and bring the medley relay team home. L’s buddy will run with her in both the 50 and 100, giving us five chances to grab points in the sprints. And we have enough sprinters left to likely place in the 4×100.

Tennis

M played across the street Wednesday for the second time in a five days. We’re not sure how that worked out, exactly, but did not complain about the easy commute. This time she and her partner got moved up to JV #1 singles, and had to play girls who normally play varsity #2 doubles. They got smoked 6–0, 6–0. But M actually played pretty well. Her serve looked decent, her opponents just returned it way faster than she sent it to them. It was a good learning experience.

She was set to play Thursday but it started pouring 20 minutes into the varsity matches and everything got cancelled.

Kickball

C played her final CYO kickball game Monday. It was on that stupid field L’s team had played on a week ago. This time they made the ground rule that kicking onto the sidewalk in left was a double instead of a triple. Which is just stupid for an 8th grade team. Our girls had their best kicking game of the year and sent ball after ball over the sidewalk. One girl hit the church on the fly. We were way ahead and when the umpire called the game after four innings instead of five, no one really cared.

We were supposed to play the first place team on Tuesday, but it rained all afternoon and we cancelled. Because of the softball tournament, track practice, and 8th grade Mother’s Day mass events, we chose not to reschedule the game and call it a season. That was our best coaching decision of the year. It meant we ended the season on a two-game winning streak and with a winning record at 3–2. First winning streak and first winning record since fifth grade, so it was a great way to wrap up this class’ kickball careers.

L’s team plays in the City semifinal tomorrow. We still don’t know who they play, as the division playoff game made it to the fifth inning Thursday and then it started raining. They are completing that game this afternoon.

L’s coaches are bringing boys in to practice against them to get ready for the the playoffs. We can kick with anybody. I worry our defense is a little too loose to keep us in a game against the beasts from the Southside, though.

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.

Weekend Kid Sports Roundup

April 19, 2021 /

We have a very busy sports week ahead – weather permitting – and my plan was to hold off on another kid sports update. But it turned out to be a fairly significant sports weekend, so I’ll go ahead and share our girls’ latest accomplishments on the fields of athletic battle.

Friday was M’s first-ever tennis match. I had not seen her hit a tennis ball since last September, when we went to a local court to hit together. That day she complained that my soft hits back to her weren’t how her instructor hit the ball, and thus she would just stand there and refuse to return them back to me. As you might imagine this did not go well and ended in yelling from dad and tears from daughter. I’ve refused to hit with her since then.

Despite that, with six months of lessons in between, I was cautiously optimistic.

She was slated to play doubles with another sophomore who was also in her first-ever match. When their time to play came, I set up shop with my mother-in-law behind their court. I talked to a friend while they were warming up so I didn’t obsess over how she was hitting the ball. But when I glanced over, she seemed to be doing well.

She had the first service game of the match. She got her first serve in and won the point. It took her two serves to get one in from the Ad side, but they won that point. Then they won the third point. She lost her second Ad-side serve, but she closed out the game from the Deuce side to go up 1–0.

Pretty good start!

Then they broke in the second game to go up 2–0. Her teammate lost her first service game but they broke again to go up 3–1.

This was outstanding!

Because there were so many matches, all the JV contests were a single set, winner being the side that won eight games first. I started doing the math. If they could just break even on service games they would win the match!

Stupid dad.

M lost her second service game without winning a point. By the time she served again they were down 3–5. She got up 40–15 but couldn’t close it out and they lost that game, and then the next two to lose the match 8–3.

A very promising start but disappointing ending. It seemed like she got tired, because she was hitting her later serves from shoulder-height and away from her body rather than above her head and straight up. Both she and her partner put a ton of balls into the net.

But the result wasn’t really about how they played. Once their opponents settled in, they started ripping winners all over the place. They were just better and deserved to win.

It was fun to see the four girls get along. M, her teammate, and their two opponents thanked each other when they threw balls across the net, got together to discuss close calls or scoring questions, and were laughing most of the time. They banged racquets with smiles on their faces after the match. Apparently some of the other matches weren’t nearly as friendly.

A few of M’s friends lost their matches 0–8, so she was pleased they at least won a few games.

All-in-all, it was a good start. Because of the size of the team we’re not sure how often she will get to play. While most schools are keeping extra girls this year, there’s no guarantee that every duo of sophomores will get a match each time CHS plays. She’s having a lot of fun both playing and being part of the team.

Plus, she thinks the uniforms are super cute, which is a bonus.[1]

Sunday was C’s and L’s first track meet of the year. Which meant it was L’s first-ever track meet.

They got a perfect day to run: sunny, in the low 60s, no wind. And they were running on a good high school track so it was an ideal setting.

L ran the 50, 200, 100, and the opening leg of the medley relay. She won all three of her individual heats and her foursome won their relay. She didn’t just win, she won all of her heats fairly easily.

Although the heats were unseeded, she always ran in heat #1, and was usually against girls that were much taller than her. In the 50 she got a great start and was never threatened. In the 200, she was in third place coming out of the turn and then blew everyone away in the second 100. And in the 100, she was tight with two other girls in the opening 40–50 meters and then pulled away at the end.

It was impressive. She had been telling me how good she ran at practice, and I knew she was fast. But I wanted to reserve judgement until I saw her race other girls. She confirmed that she has some wheels.

Since the heats were unseeded, not every school had their best runner in the first heat. Her teammate A – one of her best friends – always ran in the second heat, and she won each of them. L is usually faster than A but it would have been fun to see them run against each other. Although this way they both got wins.[2] And there was a girl who won her heats in the 100 and 200 very easily. It’s obvious she was fast, but since she was running against slower girls it was hard to know if she was faster than L. They will run against each other eventually and we’ll find out, I guess.

After she won the 200, as I was walking down to the tent to find her, St P’s parents were coming over and tapping fists and congratulating me. Safe to say homegirl made an impression on folks. Which will do wonders for her ego. Her between-race strut got more pronounced after each win. She’s one of those kids who doesn’t just enjoy competing but also the attention that comes with it.

Oh, and L’s relay has a chance to be special. L ran the opening 100, A ran the 200, and a girl who knocked 45 seconds off the school record in the mile ran the anchor 400. The fourth girl who ran the second 100 has good speed, too. We had a lead through the first 150 meters, but were down about five seconds going into the anchor. No worries, our girl rocked it out and we won by 10 seconds. With three weeks to practice handoffs and maybe tweak the order a little, those girls could be a menace by the time City rolls around.

C has missed a ton of track practice because of kickball and soccer, so she only ran one individual race and in one relay. She ran the 200, which she finished second in at City two years ago, but was in a slow heat since she didn’t have a preliminary time from practice. She won it easily. Then she ran the 200 leg of the medley relay. She looked good in the opening 150, passing two girls in the turn, but faded in the last 50 and handed off in second. Her anchor bailed her out with a dominant 400 so C was perfect on the day, too. She’s still fast, she just needs to get in better track shape so she can sustain her speed more than running first-to-home in kickball.

Pretty good weekend for the B girls! L has a kickball game tonight that will likely determine who wins their division, then two more later in the week. C has two kickball games this week. There is a chance of snow – that’s right, snow! – in Indy tomorrow so we’ll see if the two games scheduled for that night get postponed to warmer days.

  1. I would laugh at her but I’m the kind of idiot who complains all season when KU has bad uniforms (like the past two years) and texts friends when I see a team wearing sweet duds.  ↩
  2. Looks like there are no official results, but the St P’s coaches are manually putting together results that compare times across heats that they will share later this week.  ↩

Some Firsts

February 26, 2020 /

We’ve gone through a series of firsts in recent days.

Sunday M and I knocked out two firsts together.

She recently told us that she would like to try playing tennis. As in for her high school, not just for fun or as part of some open rec league. At first S and I were concerned: M took some lessons five or six years ago, but they were very basic, she did not show any particular aptitude for the sport, and other than wacking balls with her sisters in the driveway, she has never actually played tennis.

Looking back on her experience with cross country, we were also worried about the humiliation factor. Sure, you stand out when you are one of the last runners in a race. But you’re also in a huge field with hundreds of people milling about and not really a focus. Whereas on a tennis court, even if you are playing one of 12 concurrent matches, you are kind of out there on your own. We were also concerned because CHS won the girls state title last spring. They have some serious talent.

She did not seem concerned about any of that so we decided to support her taking chances and trying new things. Although we know she is motivated to play because two of her best friends are playing. Neither of them has played before, but they both play other club sports so may pick it up quicker.

We made M go talk to the coach and explain her background and make sure he was open to her playing. Apparently he was thrilled that she was interested. We asked around and he seems to be one of those coaches who loves it when girls who have never played want to give it a shot. And the more I thought about it, and remembered my reporting days when I would cover tennis matches, I imagine most high schools have a big group of freshmen who have never played. Some of them may be athletic and can grasp the game quickly. But most are going to struggle. In that sense, I’m hoping M fits right in.

Anyway, Sunday was a nice day so I took her across the street to the high school to hit some balls. She surprised me a bit. She obviously struggled, but she was able to mix some good hits in. Serving is going to be a challenge, but again I imagine that will be the case for most of the girls she plays. I had her hit against the wall for awhile, we moved to the junior court to get a feel for hitting over a net, then walked over to the main courts so she could get used to its size.

After we hit balls for about 45 minutes, I gave her the car keys and we drove around the school parking lot for about 15 minutes. S has driven with her several times, but this was my first time with her. M was very nervous and tentative. She overthinks things. Her turns and stops are a little rough/abrupt. But she did just fine. I let her drive the two blocks home and we made it safely.

L had gone with us and was, apparently, very hesitant about riding in a car M was driving. S told me that L threatened not to go when she heard M would be doing some driving practice after we finished with tennis.

Monday we got M’s signup notice for her in-car driving lessons. Remembering my driver’s ed experience, I think she will improve much quicker when it is a non-parent who has been trained on how to teach kids to drive helping her rather than a parent.

It’s all kind of scary. I am eager for her to gain the independence that comes with a driver’s license, especially since it will make my mornings and afternoons much easier. But, man, seeing kids drive crazy in the parking lot every day when I’m dropping her off and picking her up can’t help but make me fear what she’s getting into. The experience has also made me evaluate how I drive. I realize so much of what I do is based on instinct and 30 years of experience. You don’t really look at the car approaching you in the opposite lane, but just sense its presence and trust it will not veer into your path. When M drives you can see her minor panic as she shifts her focus from the approaching car to the curb on the opposite side and fights to keep the car centered between the two.

She is learning how to drive in S’s new car, a Mazda CX–3. S’ previous two cars were both Jeep Cherokees, which she loved. But before her last lease expired we looked at what affordable, small SUVs and crossovers were the safest and the Mazda came up. So she is leasing a new CX–3 with the idea that M will get comfortable driving it and once she gets her license we will buy her a used one.

The final first of the week was me getting my CPAP machine on Monday. I’ve slept with it two nights, which has been a chore. The biggest issue is that I’ve started with the full mask, which covers my nose and mouth and keeps me from sleeping on my stomach as I prefer. So far I’ve also struggled to sleep on my side, too, although this morning I’ve been watching videos with tips on how to do that. I’ve always struggled to sleep on my back at night. I can take a nap during the day face-up. But at night I really struggle to relax and stay asleep in that position.

Night one was tough. It took me a long time to fall asleep and then I woke often because of the strange, new sensation of having a mask on my face. Last night was a little better, although I think I had some of the straps on the mask too tight and the bridge of my nose is quite sore today.

From what I’ve read, it can take several weeks for CPAP to begin having positive effects. I’m hopeful it works for me and soon I won’t be walking around like a zombie in the afternoon.

Weekend Notes

September 9, 2019 /

Last week kind of sucked. I had the worst cold I’ve had in years, and it totally wiped me out. I think I slept most of the day Wednesday and spent the next four days coughing constantly. Friday and Saturday I had a headache that no amount of ibuprofen or sinus medication would knock back. My night time attempts at sleep were interrupted by coughing, a sore throat, or general discomfort that kept me from sleeping for more than an hour at a time. As a bonus, S was on a girls weekend with her sisters, so I was hustling the girls around to events while also watching one of my nephews.

It feels like I’m finally coming out of it today, though. I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers.

I’ll save the update on the girls’ events for another post. Let’s talk about some other things that went on this weekend.

KU Football

I know there is much handwringing about the meek Jayhawks falling to Coastal Carolina at home by the baseball score of 12-7. People are talking about one particular play call that seemed straight out of the David Beaty time management system and totally out of place for a Les Miles team. Or the absolutely pathetic play by the quarterback and wondering how the “stud” juco guy Miles brought in hasn’t seen the field yet.

I have none of those negative emotions. Just because KU has a new, high-priced coach with an impressive resumé does not mean the program is suddenly better. Especially when the offensive line is still not good enough to play at the Power 5 level. Miles can bring in studs at skill positions every recruiting class, but until he recruits some kids that can legitimately play the line, the results will not change.

I had pretty limited expectations for this year. Two wins most likely, maybe steal a third somewhere. But this year was all about Miles using his juice to start bringing in players, update the culture, and set the team up to start winning next year, or even two years from now.

We’ve been waiting ten years. What’s 2-3 more? For now the team isn’t worth getting upset over.

Colts

I watched parts of the Colts game Sunday. They didn’t look bad! Jacoby Brissett looks legit. The offense looks balanced. The defense hung in against a tough offense and gave the team a chance to get back in the game. And then Adam Vinatieri left seven points on the field that could have turned an overtime loss into a regulation win. Age may finally be catching up with Mr. Reliable.

I figure the Colts are an 8-8 team, unless Brissett is really good.1 He just might be, but games like this are the ones that good teams find a way to win and mediocre teams let slip away. The good news is the Colts started 1-5 last year and still made it to the playoffs. Of course, that was with Andrew…

US Open

We were busy Saturday afternoon and evening, so I only saw a few moments of Serena Williams’ loss in the women’s final. I don’t think people appreciate enough what she’s going through right now. Listen, there’s no tactful way to say this: she’s still not in great shape after her traumatic childbirth experience. And yet she’s still beating people up and making it to Grand Slam finals before it all catches up with her. Maybe she’ll never get it back and this is how the rest of her career, however long it lasts, will go. But, good grief, I think it’s incredible that she is still such a force despite basically becoming a totally different person physically.

As for the men’s final, I checked in early and saw Nadal was up and then forgot about it between the Colts game and doing some pool cleaning. Fortunately my brother-in-sports John N texted me in the midst of the fourth set to let me know some terrific drama was underway. So I got to see the last 90 minutes or so of that epic match. There were so many wonderful twists and turns to the final set-and-a-half that made it impossible to stop watching. L watched with me, and I believe this was the first tennis match she’s ever watched. Naturally she was just killing me with questions, which got a little annoying as the tension built. But she recognized that this was a big event and hung in until Nadal had secured the win. That was a fine way to end a busy weekend.

1. I have a one-beer bet with a friend who insists they will go 10-6.

Weekend Notes

July 15, 2013 /

Catching up on the weekend and some girls notes as we wrap up a sleep-over.

We swapped daughters with our neighbors last night. C. went next door to sleep with her 7-year-old buddy while M.’s 9-year-old pal came to our home for the night. Our evening was uneventful. We ate dinner, then the girls watched the newest American Girl Doll movie1. It took them awhile to get settled upstairs, and we had to make some fan and air conditioning adjustmenst so they could cool off, but by the time I went to bed at 11 they seemed to be out.

That didn’t last long, though. Whether it was the heat or excitement of sleeping over or nervousness, the girls woke sometime after 3:00 and were talking, opening and closing doors, and otherwise making noise until about 4:00 when they went downstairs, turned on the TV, and chatted away like it was normal morning time. I stumbled downstairs, told them we don’t watch TV at 4:00 AM, clicked the TV off, and told them they didn’t have to go back upstairs but they did have to go back to sleep. Apparently S. had to give them another reminder shortly after.

It is now 8:44 and both girls are passed out on couches in the living room. I’m sure there will be no grumpiness today at all. We have not heard how things went next door but both C. and her friend tend to struggle to fall to sleep at night then enjoy sleeping in the next morning. We’ll see.

Our big event of the weekend was going to see “Despicable Me 2”. The girls earned the trip to the theater, just our second as an entire family, through our personal summer reading program. M. and C. brought home a reading chart from school on which you get to color in a block for each 15 minutes of reading. To fill the chart requires 1500 minutes of reading. M. finished hers before June ended; she plows through 4-5 library books each week.

For C. and L., they had to read with me each day, with C. alternating between being read to and reading out loud. They both got halfway through their charts, which was the goal they had to meet before July 1 to see the movie.

So we went to a matinee Saturday afternoon that was about half-full. Lots of giggling, happy kids. Our girls give the movie a solid three thumbs up, and each said it was better than the first movie. They’ve been discussing which of Gru’s minions was their favorite ever since the movie ended. The best part was watching L. watch a movie. First, she’s barely big enough to keep a movie theater seat pushed down. So her seat kept folding up on her. Occasionally she’d intentionally let it fold all the way up and she’d sit there with her feet sticking out in front of her body, as happy as can be. She’s also a bit of a talker during movies. At this age it’s charming but we may have to work on that if it continues.

When the movie was over, the girls were starving. And there just happened to be a McDonald’s right across the street. “Despicable Me” Happy Meals for everyone! It was a successful afternoon and evening, as far as the girls were concerned.

The girls also wrapped up tennis lessons last week. As I believe I mentioned when they started, their classes were mostly working on basic skills and didn’t involve any actual play. Which was fine, as M. and C. can barely hit the ball. They seemed to enjoy it but we’ll have to continue to get them on the courts to make sure they learn to get the racquet on the ball on a regular basis so they can do more than just practice drills.

L. was in her own class, with simpler drills, and did great. It’s funny seeing the three of them on the court. M. has never been super graceful, but she’s getting long and skinny and a little more awkward. She was a blur of elbows and knees as she chased and attempted to hit the ball. C. is fast and light on her feet, but easily distracted and always a little clueless as to what’s going on. Her visor often drooping down over her eyes doesn’t help. And L. just marches around the court like she owns it.

8:55 and the girls are awake. L. is arguing with them about who slept better.

After barely going for two weeks because of cooler, rainy weather and our Fourth of July activities, we’re back at the pool just about every day. The girls continue to do fantastic in the water. C. learned how to dive last week. The neighbors had picked up some tips from their lessons and shared them with our girls. M. can’t get it at all, but after about three tries, C. was doing perfect dives off both the side of the pool and the board.

My favorite pool moment of the year, so far: there is a group of high school girls that are at pool most days. I’ll go ahead and acknowledge this makes me dirty old man-ish, but these girls are flawless. They’re also like 16, so I don’t do more than glance their way when they walk in or if the girls are in their general area2. Two of them roll into the parking lot in a BMW 5-series, which I really hope is their parents’ and doesn’t belong to one of the girls.

Anyway, last Thursday two of the girls took a spot near the seats the girls and I had claimed. During an adult swim session, I was getting the girls their snacks while the high school girls quietly laid out. A slightly doughy boy who I’ll guess is 10 strolled by and, looking at the high schoolers, said, “Hi pretty girls,” and kept marching on. They popped their heads up, looked to see who talked to them, and busted out laughing. I give the kid tremendous props. He showed no fear. He didn’t care that they were 6-7 years older than him, in perfect shape, and tanned. He walked his pasty, flabby body right over to them and said what he wanted to say. It may not pay off now, or for a long time, but the kid is thinking the right way.

9:13 and C. and her buddy have arrived fed, dressed, and full of energy. The four girls are all talking at once, arguing about who stayed up later, who had the best time, etc.

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  1. C. threw a fit that her current American Girl Doll doesn’t look like her and she wants a new one. We should have never gone down this cursed path. ↩
  2. Yet I can say they’re flawless. I know. Judge not lest ye be judged. Or whatever. ↩

Sports Notes

June 12, 2013 /

A few assorted sports notes.

Last weekend was a big weekend for people around me who suddenly become big fans of sports they don’t usually follow. For us Jayhawks, our women’s track team won the national championship, the first-ever national title for a women’s team from KU. A big part of their championship was Lindsay Vollmer’s solo national title in the heptathlon, another KU first.

Locally, IU advanced to their first-ever College World Series by going to Tallahassee and winning two straight games over host Florida State.

I was following the track action pretty closely all three days of the meet, including using a couple sites that projected points for future events so you could plot out how the team competition might shake out as events went final. Saturday I had ESPNU on to watch the action live.1 Which made this pretty much the first time I paid attention to track and field since last summer’s Olympics and likely until the next summer games.2 I’m sure there were plenty of Hoosier alums and fans around here that never pay attention to college baseball but were suddenly doing so with great zeal last weekend, too.

Go ahead, mock me for my sudden interest in college track and field. I’ve certainly made fun of friends who, for example, spent most of a visit to Indianapolis trying to follow the NCAA golf championships from afar.3 But, as David Puddy said, you gotta support your team.

Rock Chalk, bitches!

A girl I covered this season won the state singles tennis championship last weekend. I didn’t cover the finals, but still followed her match online as well. It’s pretty cool to see kids I’ve watched all season do great things when the state tournament rolls around.

I wish I could say I’ve paid close attention to the NBA Finals. I have not, though. Thus I’m a little surprised to see that San Antonio blew out the Heat last night and now own a 2-1 lead in the series. How the eff is that collection of old men containing the Fighting LeBrons? I suppose that means LeBron is getting no help at all and with the Spurs able to key on him, he can’t get loose either. Cue the columns about how he’s overrated, will never be as good as Kobe or Jordan, and how the Big Three experiment is a complete failure.

Another random event I followed last week was the epic semifinal in the French Open between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. I don’t watch nearly as much tennis as I once did, but it seems like when I do some combination of Nadal, Djokovic, and Roger Federer are offering up a match that you have to drop everything you’re doing to watch. I missed Serena Williams’ amazing run to her title, which I need to do better about. We signed the girls up for tennis lessons that begin in two weeks, so Wimbledon seems like a good excuse to sit around the TV for hours together each morning.

I don’t pay attention to the Royals for three weeks and when I turn on a game last night, their six-game winning streak ends. Seems about right. Someone wake me when Hosmer and Moustakas have a decent week.4

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  1. Which was an interesting exercise in creating drama that wasn’t there. If you had Twitter up, or were following one of several newspaper sites that had live scoring, you knew that KU clinched the team title around 5:50 EDT. But ESPNU had over an hour of action to still cover, so kept suggesting that Oregon, LSU, and Texas A&M still had a chance to win. Like I said, interesting. ↩
  2. Well, I did follow the NCAA Indoor meet a couple months ago, where KU finished second. But I didn’t do so nearly closely. ↩
  3. What up, Billy?!?! Worth noting it’s much easier to follow lower profile events now than it was five or six years ago thanks to Twitter. ↩
  4. Hosmer’s recent tick up doesn’t count. Still no power. ↩

Weekend Sports Update

October 19, 2009 /

Another weekend where I was super busy and I watched hardly any football. Perhaps I should just call these weekend wrap ups rather than football reviews. So we’ll knock the football out first and move on to what else I did this weekend after.

A very disappointing weekend for the Jayhawks. I was working Saturday night, so I was only home in time to see the last 20-25 minutes of the game. Because of that, I can sit here and type that the referees cost us the game. I missed the two turnovers deep in our own territory that lead to 14 CU points. I missed four of the five CU sacks. I missed the o-line sucking big time in the first half. I just saw, for the second time in four years, us lose a game because of a shitty offensive interference call. Argh. If it happened every year, I’d think we were cursed. But since there was a four-year gap between the calls, I think it’s just bad luck. Of course, both times the defender initiated contact with the KU receiver that was flagged. And you can call a pick on every pass play but save it to wipe off the potential game-winning touchdown. Whatever.

Initially I was quick to blame the defense again. After all, you give up that many points to a crappy CU team, the defense has struggled all year, it must be their fault. Turns out the defense didn’t play that poorly, and the coaching staff made some serious personnel changes, moving guys from offense – notably Bradley McDougald – inserting another true freshman to the line up, and even pulling a red shirt to get another kid on the field. So they get points for trying.

Regardless of where the blame lies, that was a shitty loss. Nebraska picks up an unexpected, bad loss earlier in the day. Missouri, playing at the same time as KU, picks up their second conference loss. The math was turning KU’s way; they just had to hold court in their north games and would likely win the division even with three losses. But they pissed that away in a way that doesn’t inspire confidence for the remainder of the season. A win at Tech is almost unimaginable now.* Seven wins seems like the ceiling now, and even that is going to take some work.

(Doesn’t it seem like Mike Leach just grabs some guy who was throwing the ball around the park, gives him a week of practice, and next thing he’s going 46-62, 500 yards, six TDs?)

But when was the last time a conference foe other than Missouri* rushed the field after beating KU in football? I guess we have that going for us. Which is nice.

* And those Mizzou fans were generally more concerned with matching the KU fans who had pulled down goalposts the year before, who were trying to match Mizzou fans from the year before, who…

My only other big football experience over the weekend was listening to the second half of the USC – Notre Dame game while driving to the soccer game I was covering Saturday evening. Don Criqui is the radio voice of the Irish, and his voice always brings back memories of Oklahoma or Nebraska playing a team from the south on New Year’s night at the Orange Bowl. I was ready to talk about his willingness to toe the party line and push Jimmy Clausen for the Heisman. It seemed like he called every pass that Clausen made “phenomenal.” It was kind of sickening. Then, when USC had the ball, every play they made was “phenomenal” as well. I guess he just likes that word.

I kind of like living in a world when Big 12 teams rush the field when they beat Kansas and Notre Dame is pleased to have hung close to a top ten team. Not as good as the last time I went to Notre Dame, when they lost to Air Force and KU won that night to go 9-0. But still pretty good.

Two quick NFL thoughts. Has there been a more popular 0-5 team in NFL history, at least to betters, than the Chiefs? I don’t bet, but even I thought about dropping some money on the Chiefs to get off the schnide over Washington. Everyone saw it coming, so is it really an upset?

Also, I did get to watch parts of the New England – Tennessee game. That was good, old fashioned football, and a fine day to break out the AFL throwbacks. Football in snow = awesome. Did I really pick Tennessee to win the division? Yikes.

OK, what did I do this weekend? Friday, I covered a state quarterfinal tennis match. It was the team I covered a couple weeks back, who happened to be the defending state champions. Because of weather conditions (cold, rainy), the matches were moved to an indoor facility. But, that meant rather than play the three singles and two doubles matches concurrently, they had to be staggered, as only three courts were available. Thus, a match that should have taken about 90 minutes lasted for nearly four hours. Even though we were inside, it wasn’t terribly warm. And the team I was covering won the first three individual matches, making the last two pointless. The next day in the state finals, one player forfeited his match when his team clinched the championship. I wish someone had done that Friday, as well.

Anyway, my team won and advanced to play the next day, where they lost to the eventual state champions. The coach can be rather prickly and it was fun to stand and wait for my turn to interview him while the reporter from a competing paper, who didn’t know the coach, asked questions. The reporter got on the coach’s nerves quickly and he began making fun of the reporter’s questions. Fortunately, I’ve interviewed the coach a few times and he must have approved of my stories, because while he was ripping the other guy, he would roll his eyes at me and give me knowing looks. The big bonus was the other reporter had no idea that there had been a lineup change due to illness, and left that out of his story. My story, on the other hand, focused on that change and what it meant for the team. I got over on the big media guys!

Saturday evening, as I said, I covered a soccer match, a regional final. Again, the same team I covered last weekend, and the same one I followed last year when they advanced to semi-state. They aren’t as strong this year, and were playing a team expected to compete for the state title. It ended up being a very exciting game, with my guys losing 2-1. After the game I interviewed one of the senior captains. He was great. He had tears in his eyes, having played his final high school soccer game, but gave me great, intelligent, useful answers. The best part was after I thanked him for his time, he thanked me and said, “Have a nice evening, Sir.” Good kid.

That’s one of my favorite parts about covering high school sports. Every now and then you’ll talk to a kid or coach that have an attitude,* but more often than not they’re very helpful and appreciative of you being there. Nearly every coach I’ve interviewed this year has thanked me for coming to the game and writing about his team. And most of the kids show that we live in a media-saturated age. They’re able to offer cogent thoughts after games, rather than just speak in cliches. Well, some of them are. I guess I do get a lot of “We’re taking it one game at a time, we’re just happy to be here, and the good Lord willing, we’ll come out on top” type answers. But it’s better than the “Ummms” and “You knows” you kind of expect from high school kids.

(I will admit one of my favorite kids to interview is a tennis player who has a serious attitude. He almost always disparages the other team in some way and comes across as very cocky and self-centered. Another reporter told me that last year, this kid pulled against his school’s football team in the state playoffs because he didn’t want them taking attention away from his team’s state title. A few weeks ago, at sectionals, I heard his teammates quietly pleased when he lost a match. At the same time, he’s a smart kid and once you get him talking, offers lots of excellent comments. If he was in college, I’d print some of his more cocky statements, but since it is high school tennis, I give him a break.)

So now we’ve come to the end, more or less, of the fall sports season. I don’t expect more than two of our schools to get through the first week of football playoffs. Most of the other sports have been eliminated. Thus, things should slow down until basketball starts in mind-November. This is the most I’ve worked during fall sports season, and I think it shows. My interviews are better. My stories are better. In football, I’ve got the stats side down. And, most importantly, the writing is coming easier. With the stat-side being easier, I can focus more on the plays within a game that I’ll need to write about, prepping my story as the game progresses. When I did a Friday football game a week ago, I had my story filed at 10:17, nearly 30 minutes before deadline and the earliest I’ve ever filed. It was probably my best football story, too. I’m hoping that confidence and comfort carry over to basketball season.

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