D's Notebook

Tag: youth sports (Page 10 of 24)

Weekend Hoops – October Madness

October 11, 2021 /

Although L’s basketball team is in week one of their three-week stoppage of play for fall breaks, there were still hoops to be played last weekend.

St P’s normally hosts a Cadet (7th/8th grade) A team tournament over fall break. We had some logistical issues and weren’t able to host this year, but a neighboring parish took it over so that four teams could still get together and play a few games.

Friday night L’s team played St L, the school that beat her team twice last year, including a tournament loss on a late basket. St L’s has a seventh grader who is already six feet tall. But the funny thing about CYO sports is how much teams change from year-to-year as girls progress through the age brackets. Apparently that girl’s sixth grade schoolmates she played with last year are way better than her eighth grade ones on this year’s team, because we destroyed them.

We won 46–17 and it was never close. Our girls played insane defense and got a series of breakaway layups early that helped us jump out to a quick 10-point lead. After that pretty much everything we threw up went in. We were hitting contested layups, short jumpers, and even got multiple offensive rebounds per possession despite the big girl. L was proud of yanking the ball away three times. “She’s not that strong, Dad,” was her comment after the game.

Well, one area was not working: we still could not hit free throws. We hit two. We missed 10, 12, 16. Somewhere in there.

L only scored two, but she played really well. She took care of the ball and got the offense running. She played solid D. She looked completely comfortable. That’s the difference between playing against really good 8th grade guards and 7th graders that she’s better than.

Her only bucket was pretty sweet, though. She had her girl on the right elbow and was working to set her up to drive. She faked right, then left, then right again. The third fake got the defender leaning and L went behind her back and got into the lane. The giant was waiting inside so L gave her a hard fake to the right, spun back to the left, then flipped the ball up to the backboard with her left hand where the giant couldn’t get a finger on it. L was pretty pleased with herself, grinning as she ran back up court.

Saturday we played the tournament hosts, St C. L played with a few of their girls last winter and did some summer training with them. We knew they had lost by 20 earlier in the day to the team, St S, that beat us by nine in our season opener.

I think that knowledge made our girls a little too confident. We played from behind all day. We were down three at half, but started the third quarter on a 6–0 run to go up three. But we gave it all back and were down four going into the fourth quarter. This time we dropped an 8–0 run to reverse the margin. Again, we got sloppy and gave it all back. We trailed by two with under a minute left and St C had the ball. They missed a shot, we got a run-out and our girl laid it in to tie. On the defensive end we forced a loose ball, grabbed it and raced up court. Our girl took it to the hoop, missed, but a teammate was there to toss it up and in with seven seconds left. We forced another turnover and won 31–29. Once again we were awful from the line. We win by 10+ if we could even shoot 50% from the line. Despite the 10% free throw shooting, the girls earned a trip to Dairy Queen for their win.

L had four points in this game. She again played pretty well.

Unfortunately we had to face St C again in the knockout round. This game was very different. They jumped all over us early. Their best player fouled out late on Saturday and she was doing all she could to hide on defense much of the day to avoid cheap fouls.

Our girls seemed like a mess the entire game. They were complaining about the referees, complaining about how the St C’s girls were grabbing them to our coaches, running the wrong plays on offense, and generally checking out mentally. Our head coach should have gotten a T. We heard there was arguing between parents from both schools across from us. Just a general good time.

St C’s was working us over pretty good. But, again, free throws were the real killer. We shot 4–20ish from the line for the game. We just kept missing and missing despite getting to the line often. Meanwhile St C shot probably 60% or so from the line.

Midway through the fourth we were down 13 and the game looked over. I’m not sure what the trigger was, but our girls started chipping away. A bucket here, a steal there, a big defensive rebound on a third possession. With about a minute left it was still a seven-point deficit. We were in the one-and-one and I suggested to the St C scorekeeper that they should just foul us because we wouldn’t make the freebies and they could keep us from getting any shots off.

There was a scramble, L grabbed a loose ball, and took off up court. She had a teammate in the middle with a defender between them and a defender back. L waited until the last possible moment and fired a pass over the middle defender’s shoulder. Her teammate caught it and laid it up and in in one motion.

Down five. I might have smacked the scorer’s table after the pass.

Next possession, L got a steal and went coast-to-coast to cut it to three with about 20 seconds left.

We forced a St C miss, got the rebound, and had the ball knocked away on an entry pass. We we inbounding under the basket with seven seconds left. Our tallest girl is a decent rebounder and can play some D, but she would much rather hoist shots from outside than battle inside on offense. Shots she never hits. But on the inbounds play she popped out behind the three-point arc in the corner, got the ball, and had a wide-open look. Her shot looked absolutely perfect. It was on line, spun around, then rimmed out. First time we’ve hit the rim all year on a three, and it damn-near went in.

St C hit a free throw to win by four.

Free throws and attitude killed us. I was happy after the game when one of our coaches came over to say that L told her teammates to stop complaining and start playing hard during one timeout. It’s a shame they didn’t get their heads into the game until the last 90 seconds or so.

Also a shame we can’t hit a freaking free throw.

L had six for this game. She was a perfect 0–0 from the line for the weekend.

It wasn’t terrible that they lost. They would have played St S in the championship game, and I’m not sure we could have hung within nine after already playing three games in three days.

Plus L was going to tryouts for a winter league team that night. Her knees were already giving her fits. I’m not sure she could have made it through the tryouts if she had played a second game in the afternoon. She said she didn’t play great at tryouts, but the coach making the teams watched her play Friday and Saturday so he has an idea of her game.

The big bummer is that he was hoping to have A and B teams at each age group with the A teams have extra skills training during the season. L said only seven or eight seventh graders showed up, so it’s doubtful they will split teams. Several of those girls aren’t strong players, so it’s doubtful they will turn them into an A team. L was hoping to get that extended skills training. Maybe the coach will combine 7th and 8th graders to get A and B teams. He is also trying to put together another tournament to play over the next two weeks, so L’s team may get back on the court again before league play resumes at the end of the month.

An Old Man on the Court

October 7, 2021 /

I’m a little shocked that I am upright and able to walk today.

You see, L’s coaches cancelled their practice last night and decided to have a loose shoot-around/scrimmage. I took L then hung around in case they wrapped up early. The coach, who I’ve coached with four different times, roped me into the fun.

We started with a game of knockout that included everyone in the gym: our team, a girl from the B team who was there, a younger brother, plus three parents and one grandparent. L made sure she was behind me in line and knocked me out our second time through. Afterward it felt like I had pulled something in my glute area. That’s a classic 50-year-old man injury right there: “Yeah, I pulled a glute playing knockout with my 13-year-old. Happens more than you would think…”

After knockout the coach said we were going to scrimmage. Three parents, the B team girl, and the sixth grade brother against the A team. Grandpa was going to watch from the sidelines. That was the smartest move of the night.

Over the next 45 minutes we went up-and-down and did our best to get our girls to stop giggling and actually run their offense.

I was soaked and thoroughly winded after about four trips up the court. L even told me I looked “gross” because my shirt was so sweaty. We scrimmaged with the girls a few times last fall and I’m on a better cardio workout regimen now than I was then. Yet I felt like I had never played before. That glute was tight. I dared not sprint for fear of blowing out an achilles, hamstring, or really anything below my hips. Each time I wiped the sweat from my eyes I was reminded that I had cut up an onion while I was making dinner.

In short, I was a mess.

I was having a good day with my vertigo – which still pops up a few times a week – but, man, it was hard running and rapidly change my point of focus. I never felt dizzy but my vision wasn’t the greatest. I also was trying my best not to kill any of the girls by barreling into them.

I kept getting inside for offensive rebounds then missing the put-backs. Grandpa, who has also coached with me a few times in the past, loved it. After we were done he came over, cackling, telling L, “Now I know where you get it, missing all those layups!”

I got sick of missing bunnies and jumpers so started posting up. When I hit my third-straight turnaround jumper the other dad playing started yelling, “THAT’S HOW THE KANSAS JAYHAWKS DO IT!!!” He’s a Purdue guy so I appreciated his appreciation.

I would tell you I also made some sweet passes, but since the team has no idea how to play help defense or watch the ball and their man, I can’t really take credit for them. The passes were there if you were willing to throw them.

When we were finished all us adults were complaining while we hobbled out of the gym. But the girls were all laughing and having a great time. I guess you call that a success. We agreed to invite the other team parents to join us for a parents vs. kid scrimmage while we are in our three-week lull.

I felt awful when I got home. After watching baseball for an hour or so it was really difficult to get up off of the couch. I dreaded how I would feel this morning.

Yet when I woke up I didn’t feel much worse than any other morning. I even made it to the gym and got my regular workout in. There is some tightness, but no soreness, which is amazing. I guess all that gym time is paying off.

Anyway, all of that, and sharing it with you, reminded me of back in the spring of 1998, when I had just started at C Corp. I had a lot of free time as my bosses were slowly figuring out what to do with me. All of the guys in Finance would often go play basketball at lunch on Fridays at the campus gym. On days when I played well, with nothing to do between 1:00 and 5:00, I would send braggy, slightly exaggerated email accounts of my efforts to my friends. The kind of shit I would post here if I was still out playing lunch hoops and having one good day a month.

One of those buddies, E$, made fun of me once by sending an account of his lunch in the style of my hoops breakdowns. I thought of it last night. Lucky for us all, I have saved that email for over 23 years. I don’t know if this will resonate with you at all, but it made me laugh my ass off. It’s a real shame I don’t have one of my hoops emails so you can see what inspired E$ to mock me.

Here is that email, sent to me on June 19, 1998.

I thought I would share some details from my lunch today. I was a little worried that I would be dining alone, but then Doug, an old buddy from law school, e-mailed and said he could make it. I was stoked. Unfortunately I got wrapped up in my work and almost was late. Doug wouldn’t have liked that. On my way there, I felt pretty good. I had a spring in my step. Both ankles and knees felt great. I was a little hungry, but not starving.

As I approached, I pondered what I might get. Due to stomach trouble, I haven’t been able to eat up to my potential lately. I was torn between four choices: the southern style, a large turkey sandwich, quarter chicken, or rib sandwich. I was feeling more carnivorous that usual, so I went with the rib sandwich. As Doug and I discussed the events of the day, I began sweating with anticipation. Would I be able to complete the mission? Would I be my old self? Would I finish the rib sandwich? When the order was brought to our table, I noticed that the ribs were even bigger than usual. I had my work cut out for me. I dug in with a vengeance. I drove hard into the pickles, posted up the wonder bread and put a sweat move on the sauce. I felt good and I was kicking ass. Within five minutes I new I was back to my old form. I finished the rib sandwich in less than fifteen minutes and had time to really enjoy my side of Cole slaw. I kicked everyone’s ass. No one ate as fast, or as much, as me today.

It was great. I now understand why I am continually drawn to the table. It’s where I belong. It’s my true love. It’s my destiny. As my uncle Leon used to say – eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.

Peace

Peace, indeed.

Weather and Sports

October 6, 2021 /

Mother Nature can’t figure out what she wants to do. For the past few days, if you’ve looked through a window to see what’s going on outside, you would assume fall has taken over. It’s been cloudy most of the times, flat out dreary a few times, so you would think you would need to bundle up a bit when you set outside. Yet it’s still been close to 80 most days, and it looks like it’s going to be warmer than that for the next several days.

Not that I’m complaining. I’d be pleased as punch if I could wear shorts and t-shirts until Thanksgiving. However, I would also like to bust out the fall clothing. The jeans, the chinos, the flannels, the quarter-zips. You know what I’m talking about.

Game two of the CYO basketball season was last night. L’s team was playing St. I, a school that is always good and has beaten us pretty easily every time we’ve played them going back to third grade. We heard before the game that one of St. I’s best 7th graders would not be available, but knowing they have three really good 8th graders, we figured it wouldn’t matter much.

It might have helped us a little. At least at the beginning. We held them scoreless for the first four minutes and change of the game! Granted, we were without a basket, too. But being tied is better than getting crushed.

Sadly that changed quickly. St I scored, put on their press, and next thing you knew, we were down 12–0.

It never got much better – although we did win the third quarter 6–5 – and the final was 37–10. St. I not only had better players, but they all know how to play together. They would set up our defense and then get exactly what they wanted.

Meanwhile our girls were throwing lazy passes, never setting screens for each other, not running the right plays, dribbling into triple teams, and taking bad shots. The gap between the teams with players and the teams with athletes sure gets more obvious as the girls get older.

We were playing in a very small gym where the stands are directly behind the benches, so we were able to listen in on timeout huddles. To break the St. I press, our coaches drew up a very simple play that involved three quick passes and one cut. Our girls went out and ran it every single play for the next five possessions. It didn’t matter that St. I’s figured it out after the first play and adjusted their defense accordingly. Our girls blindly threw the passes that the coaches had told them to throw, without looking to see if that pass was covered and someone else was open.

It was super frustrating to watch and made me very glad I’m not coaching this year. The girls are all good girls. But none of them play enough basketball to not totally panic when faced with a better team that is messing up what they try to do.

L went scoreless, going something like 0–4 or 0–5 from the field. She had a couple decent looks in close that she missed. The rest were panic shots she threw up because she was trapped in the lane. She had one assist but approximately 37 turnovers. Ugly all around.

CYO now takes three weeks off for the various fall breaks around the Archdiocese. Stupid. L’s team does play in a mini-tournament this weekend but otherwise will have a few weeks to try to regroup and figure things out before they play their most winnable game of the year on October 26.

Hey, the Colts finally got their first win on Sunday! Since it was L’s birthday and we had some other things going on, I did not give the game my full attention. I believe I said it a few weeks ago and I have to restate it: I don’t like Carson Wentz, but that dude plays hard. You see why coaches and GM’s love his potential. He can make plays happen that only a handful of QB’s can pull off. But there’s always the downside with him that guys like Patrick Mahomes don’t also have, where he will account for an ugly turnover or three in his efforts to make a big play. Plus the inevitability of a major injury as a result of his scampering around.

The Colts still have tough games three of the next four weeks before the schedule lightens up a bit. That 0–3 hole is going to be tough to dig out of, even in the soft AFC South.

For those of you interested, CHS went down to Cincinnati and hammered a really good Ohio team last Friday. It was their best performance of the year. Their young quarterback had the best game of his career, throwing for 340+ yards, and he did it without his #1 receiver. Two more games in the regular season, both against fellow #1 teams from Indiana.

Finally, I was not super excited about last night’s AL Wild Card game between the Yankees and Red Sox. I even watched a short movie earlier in the evening. I did catch the last three and a half innings, though, and it warmed my heart to see the Yankees get bounced. A lot of things change over time, but my Yankee hatred remains strong after over 40 years.

I don’t think I watched a Royals game after mid-June. That terrible stretch that began about five weeks into the season killed any enthusiasm I had about devoting time to watching their young guys develop.

I’m bummed I missed most of Salvador Perez’s monster season. It has been shocking how he keeps getting better despite getting older. I hope he has another couple great years left in him so he can attach them to a season in which the Royals are contending.

Also a shame that Nicky Lopez’s out-of-nowhere great year was wasted on a season that the Royals were never in the race. You could have talked me into a great Salvy season last spring. But Nicky Lopez? No freaking way. Fingers crossed it was repeatable and not a fluke.

Now to get Bobby Witt Jr. to the bigs and hope the young arms progress. That’s enough to get me watching again next April.

Some Sports From the Weekend

September 27, 2021 /

My sports weekend was a little more compressed than normal. We hosted several of M’s friends and their families Sunday evening, so we spent a lot of time prepping for them and then enjoying their company.

Friday night was CHS’ homecoming. We went to dinner with a couple other families and by the time we walked in, the Irish were already up 16–0 midway through the first quarter. It didn’t get any better. The coaches had agreed ahead of time to go to a running clock in the first half if needed. When CHS went up 37–0 with 8:30 left before the half the clock mercifully ran without pause. The final was 51–0, the final touchdown coming when CHS went for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter. The dads I was sitting with all gave each other confused looks. We decided it must be ok to go for it up 44 when you are playing freshmen.

Saturday was the most boring day of the young college season. Only two interesting games, and I didn’t have much time to devote to either Notre Dame – Wisconsin or Texas A&M – Arkansas.

KU played well on offense for about 40 minutes but then fell apart to get waxed by Duke. Fortunately, once again, the game was not on a station I have so I didn’t have to devote any energy to it.

Sunday was opening day for CYO basketball.[1] L’s team was playing St S, who is always really good. Their A team had a bunch of tall, athletic girls that play basketball year-round. We have a bunch of athletic but equally goofy girls, none of whom are very tall.

Our girls hung in for awhile. They made a nice run to start the second quarter and were only down 11–9. But they gave up a 10–0 run never recovered. They fought hard in the second half but could not overcome that first-half spurt, and lost 35–26.

St S was a much better team. They played like they knew what they were doing, where our girls were all scrambling around like lunatics and sometimes got a lucky shot that went in. We went 4–19 from the free throw line. We had roughly 75% of our shots in the paint partially or fully blocked. We let St S get at least 10 run outs for uncontested layups. Fortunately, even good teams in 7th–8th grade CYO ball miss open layups.

I told L after the game that was all something they could build on. Hit some free throws, don’t let girls get behind you on D, and be smarter on offense and they could have kept it competitive until the very end.

She only scored two. She missed one open layup and then a series of short jumpers or running shots near the rim. She went 0–2 from the line. She did make a couple nice passes, but there really wasn’t much chance for anyone to do anything on offense.

Her team has a super tough schedule. I think St S will be one of the three best teams they play, but don’t know if they are one, two, or three and what the gap between those teams are.

I watched almost no NFL Sunday. When I could get an eye on the Colts game they played well. But I obviously didn’t watch enough.

What I did watch a ton of, especially Friday and Saturday, was the Ryder Cup. The US team running away from Europe to win back the Cup was great to watch.

In my mind, there are two good outcomes at a Ryder Cup: the US winning in dominating fashion, and Europe winning a close one.

The first is cool because it means the US team is firing on all cylinders, which was the case this weekend.

The second is cool because US players always start throwing each other or their coaches under the bus and acting like petty teenagers. Since I have complicated fan relationships with so many golfers, I kind of enjoy having the reason to hate/mock them that comes with them losing.

This weekend, though, the US played their asses off. There was never a doubt about the result from the time the first four matches ended on Friday. They just kept cranking out wins, with almost every US player having a signature moment at some point.

The golf media gets all worked up when the US loses by suggesting that the US team members don’t have the same love for the competition, or ability to set aside their personal interests for the team’s, that teams of yore had. I always think that’s kind of bullshit. But even if it is true, I appreciate how much pressure the US plays under. Every Ryder Cup we hear about how much more talented the US team is. It has to kind of suck, no matter how much self confidence you have, to know that if your team loses you will be labeled as massive underachievers and have your motivation questioned.

All of that ignores golf is flukey as fuck, and any pro can beat any other pro in any given round. It also demeans the European team, acting like a squad with a lower average ranking is filled with chumps that were selected from a municipal driving range.

  1. For the hundredth time, CYO sports schedules are idiotic.  ↩

Fall Kickball Wrap Up

September 16, 2021 /

Another kickball season is complete.

L’s team was supposed to make up three games that had been rained out. One school never responded to multiple messages from our coach about a reschedule date. It’s the team L kicked six homers in one game against a year ago, and we’ve generally beaten them like rented mules since third grade. So I don’t blame them for avoiding the game.

Monday we played on a crazy field that has a fence in short left field. C’s team played there three times and that stupid fence always got in their heads. Her team had at least four girls who should have been able to kick it over the fence. While we had multiple balls bounce over for ground-rule doubles, no one on her team ever flew the fence for a home run.

In the top of the first Monday, our second kicker put one over the fence. She did it again in the third inning. And another girl kicked two over. L was super excited to get her shot, but kept kicking line drives that bounced off the fence for Green Monster-style singles. We were up by 40-some runs in the fifth and L knew it was her last shot before the mercy rule kicked in. A new pitcher gave her a fast pitch that she neatly deposited over the fence.[1] She raced around the bases with a satisfied look on her face.

L made sure to let C know that her team kicked five over the fence in one game while C’s team couldn’t put one over the fence in 21 innings. Sisterly love!

L also made a crazy play in the outfield where she cut off a screaming line drive and threw a perfect strike to second to hold the kicker to a single. After the play she stood in center and flexed. I laughed out loud.

Wednesday night was supposed to be our final makeup game, against a team we knew we would hammer. As we left home L said she was going to try to break her record of six homers in a single game. This is another weird field – the church is awfully close in left field but if you kick to center or right the ball can roll for days – plus she hasn’t kicked as well this year. But I told her to go for it.

When we arrived the opposing coach came over and asked, since it was their last game and they had five 8th graders playing their final game ever, if we would mind if they forfeited the official contest and the teams just played for fun so she could move girls around to different positions.

Our coach said sure, although there was some grumbling from our girls. It ended up being a good time. Both teams played girls in new spots. It was fun to see some of our girls who are often in the outfield get to pitch or play first base. There was zero stress because no one was keeping score. Both teams were laughing and having fun. You know, how youth sports should be.

Since I wasn’t keeping score I lost track of L kicking a few times. She did not kick seven home runs. I think she went something like 4–6 with one homer. Since this was officially a forfeit I’ll not add those numbers into her season totals.

She ended up going 26–31 with seven home runs in five games. She slightly raised her kicking average to .839 from last spring’s .825. But the seven homers were way down from 22, although she did play two more games last spring.

We are already putting together a strength program so she can get those power numbers back up next spring.

The team went 3–2 plus the forfeit, crushing the bad teams but not getting closer than 14 runs to the two top teams. Kind of a bummer year after playing for the City championship last spring.

Now we will be all about basketball for sixthish months.

  1. CYO kickball pitching philosophy is that you pitch slow to good kickers, fast to poor kickers. The idea is to make the good kickers provide their own power and try to overwhelm the weak kickers with speed.  ↩

Kid Sports Update

September 8, 2021 /

This has to be the latest in the school year I’ve ever gone before sharing a kid sports update. Good reason for that: we only have one kid playing any sports at the moment!

I should be writing a wrap-up of L’s kickball regular season. Her final game was supposed to be yesterday.

“So,” attentive readers may be wondering, “does that mean her team is going back to the City playoffs?!?!”

Sadly it does not mean that.

Part of that is because they’ve had four games rained out – one game has been rained out twice – and still have three games to make up.

But it also means they are sitting at 2–2 through four games and any chance to return to the City championship game is out the window.

It’s been a weird season even accounting for the rain. After being rained out twice they finally played their first game and run-ruled a poor team that seemed to have a lot of girls that had never played before.

Then they played the team, St. H, we thought would be our biggest competition. We’ve gone back-and-forth with St. H since fourth grade. Usually the team that wins goes on to win the division. There was some added drama this year because St H has a girl that spent her first seven years at St P’s but never played kickball despite being a crazy athlete.

We were up 11–5 after one-and-a-half innings…then proceeded to give up 32 unanswered runs to get run ruled in four-and-a-half innings. Naturally our former student just destroyed us, along with a few of her teammates.

After that came a sloppy, 14-run win. I say sloppy because we scored 14 in the first inning then our girls kind of played like ass.

Tuesday night we played St S, a school we’ve had had battles with back to third grade. Based on their scores we expected a very close game. We got drilled early, barely kept it under the 25-run limit, and managed to get it down to 14 runs before losing. A couple HUGE breaks went against us. The biggest was our girls forgetting how many outs there were and not doubling a runner off second to end an inning. St S added ten more runs before we could finally get that third out.

That game took 95 minutes to play, which was awful. Neither team played very good defense and the innings just went on and on and on. Thank goodness it wasn’t 95° like a week ago.

You may recall me saying last spring the City semifinal game L’s team played in was the best they’ve ever played defensively. They must have forgotten how to field over the summer because they have been brutal in the field. Some of it is being in the 7th/8th grade league where girls are bigger and can kick it farther, and there are more girls who can place the ball better to avoid the defense. But where last year it seemed like our girls made an amazing catch every inning, this year they aren’t getting to balls or are dropping them or throw to the wrong base or any of half-a-dozen other things that can keep an inning alive. I don’t think that would have made a difference in our first loss, but it definitely played a major factor in the Tuesday loss.

L is playing well, but not at the level she did last year. Through four games she’s 21 for 25 with just six home runs.[1] She was 4–7 Tuesday which is probably the most outs she’s ever made in one game. Some of her (relative) struggles are due to better defense limiting her to doubles and triples (she has four doubles and eight triples). Those outfielders get the ball back into the pitcher a lot faster than they did in the 5th/6th grade league. Some of it is because she hasn’t kicked as well as she did last year.

The biggest factor, though, is her knees are constantly bothering her. They flared up a couple times in the winter and spring, but the pain always passed in a day or two. However, since late July she has been in almost constant pain. Some days she struggles to get up-and-down the stairs in our house. She certainly can’t run as fast as she did in the spring. It has to affect her kicking, too, although she claims it doesn’t.

S insists it’s all because L has grown so fast and so much over the past six months or so. S is also confident it is just Osgood-Schlatter disease. Other than ice and ibuprofen the only real way to combat O-S is to stop being active until you stop growing. And L isn’t about to do that.

It hasn’t helped that because CYO sports scheduling is stupid she’s already started practice for her St P’s basketball team. She made the A team again, so she’s playing with the four 8th graders she played with two years ago along with two classmates. Again, because CYO is ridiculously dumb in how they schedule sports, the CYO basketball season begins in a little under three weeks.

L is also trying out for a club basketball program she wants to play for over the winter. There are a series of five tryout sessions, the first was a week ago. She and one of her St P’s classmates are trying out together. They both said the girls they scrimmaged with and against at the first session were good, but they hung right with them. L worked very hard on her game over the summer. I hope her knees calm down a little so she can show off her improvement for both teams.

  1. Which still leads the team. But she kicked six home runs in a single game last spring.  ↩

Middle School Spring Sports Wrap Up

May 14, 2021 /

After six weeks of action, we are done with spring sports. At least at the middle school level.

We had a little scare before the week’s events began. L had knee issues last fall and winter, a combination of growing pains and Osgood-Schlatter disease. They largely went away after the winter basketball season ended and never popped up again this spring.

Until Monday, when she could barely walk.

We got her a crash physical therapy course (thanks to a pediatrician she knows well and some Googling), a heavy regimen of Ibuprofen, and a lot of Icy-Hot before activity. Tuesday she was better and it didn’t seem to affect her performance, which was a huge relief. It did make me want to puke for awhile, though.

Tuesday

L’s team played their City kickball semifinal. They faced a team from a school, St N’s, that is known for being kick ass at kickball, but we thought it was the weaker of their two teams. That got confirmed pretty quickly. St N’s kicked first, and their lead-off kicker got on base and scored. I knew their team was mostly fifth graders but this was not a good start.

Thankfully they didn’t score again for three innings as we run-ruled them 27–2 in five innings. L went 5–5 with two home runs and four runs scored. She and her teammates played their best defensive game of the year.

Wednesday

City track finals. L ran the 50, 100, and 200, and C the 100 plus a medley relay.

The good news for L was that she ran her fastest times of the year in all three races. The bad news was the defending champion in all three races ran faster. L finished second in both the 50 and 100 and fourth in the 200. We were hoping L could push the champ, but the margins were fairly comfortable.

L beat a girl from St S for second in both the 50 and 100. In the 100 they were just 0.04 apart and it took a long, long time for the judges to look at the video and post the times. After both races the girls ran to each other with big grins on their faces and slapped hands. I loved that they were pushing each other hard but their first thought after the finish was to congratulate each other

I wanted to hate the girl who won each race. She’s from Terre Haute so I made a few quiet, sarcastic comments about how L was the real City champ in the 50 and 100. But afterwards L said the girl is super nice and goofed around with them before and after races. You can’t hate a nice kid, even when they beat yours.

L racked up 16 very important points for St P’s in the team competition. A pretty solid season for a kid who had never ran track before. She’s already making plans for what she will run in high school.

C qualified sixth for the 100. In the final she started slow and struggled to keep up. Where every other finalist ran faster than Saturday’s prelims, she was a hair slower and finished 8th. She was not happy afterward. I reminded her A) she was a finalist and B) there were something like 30 other girls who would have loved to finish last in the championship heat, but instead were in the stands watching her. I don’t know if that helped in the moment but it will sink in eventually.

Fortunately she shook it off and ran a really nice second 100 in the medley relay. She got the baton with a narrow lead and passed it off with a bigger lead. I didn’t clock it but it looked like the best she ran all year.

Sadly our 400 runner was going against the girl who finished second in both the 800 and 1600. She caught and passed us quickly. There were two heats and our girls’ time was only good enough for fourth overall.

I think C was disappointed in her year. She was a 2x City finalist two years ago and blew away her competitors in the 200 leg of the medley relay. She’s aware enough to see other girls her age have gone through physical changes and run slower and/or differently than they did two years ago. But it was still frustrating for her to not be as successful as she was as a sixth grader.

I’m not sure exactly how all the team titles shake out. Team scores are posted for each age group, but not for an overall champion. I’ve seen other schools wear shirts that say City Track Champions and have all grades on them, though.

We for sure know that L and her 5th–6th grade teammates won the girls title. It was close for a good portion of the night but all their field points from Friday and two great relays allowed them to win by 20 points over the second-place squad. Along with three race ribbons, L will get a City Champs t-shirt.

The coaches said all the St P’s girls – fourth through eighth grades – combined to score more points than any other collective girls team. We don’t know if that’s an official championship or not. I think we should just claim it so that C can end her CYO career with a City Champs shirt of her own.

Thursday

Back to the diamond for the last kickball game of the year. This time we were playing the better team from St N. Ironically, this was exactly two years to the day since we lost to them for the fourth grade City championship. Our girls have all gotten bigger, but they look like sixth graders. St N had three girls that were bigger than anyone on C’s team. Seriously, one girl could have posted me up and scored at will. And probably tell me how soft I am the whole time.

We somehow got out of the first inning only down 8–3 but never got closer. They were an incredible team, catching everything, always making the right throw, and had a perfect blend of strong kickers, bunters, and aggressive base running on offense. Our girls held on as long as they could but eventually got run-ruled 36–9 in six innings. We did not help our cause by playing one of our worst defensive games of the year. That just meant we missed out on losing by slightly fewer runs in seven innings.

None of our girls were super upset. I think they realized pretty quickly that as good as they were, St N’s was at a different level.

L went 2–3. She crushed two balls. One was right at a girl who somehow held onto it for a very loud out. Another was to deep right, but St N’s made a great throw and got the ball back in just before L hit the hash mark between third and home and was sent back. She was piiiiiiiiised, which made me laugh. It was a good call although she insisted the umps missed it.[1]

The ending aside, a terrific season for our girls, finishing 8–1. Because I kept score at every game this year I was able to run some stats for L. She kicked 47–57 with 22 home runs. Pretty sure she would make first team All City if there was such a thing.

The loss made our family 0–4 in kickball City championship games. Throw in semifinals and we are 1–5. L’s team needs to arrange for a series of rainouts if they make it again and claim a split title like M’s team did in seventh grade.

Now the girls can rest a little and we can get back to not eating out 3–4 times a week because we’re constantly running around. I probably just jinxed us and M will make the travel list for three tennis meets next week.

  1. For you kickball neophytes, there are hash marks halfway between each base. If a runner is past that line when the pitcher gets control of the ball in the middle circle, they are awarded the next base. If they are short, they are sent back. Tons of umps miss this call which causes a lot of complaining, but the call was correct last night: she was one step short of getting to the line.  ↩

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.

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