we beat in dramatic fashion last fall<\/a> in what we thought would be the 8th graders\u2019 final game. So of course we had to play them to start this unexpected spring season! We scored 11 in the top of the first and were never really threatened, winning by five. It was the least drama we\u2019ve had in five or six games against this school since fifth grade. C went 3\u20134 with two triples and a double. The bummer about the 8th grade league is even if you kick the crap out of the ball, like she did, the defense can get it back in and hold you short of a home run. Even with her speed she got stuck on third.<\/p>\nTuesday they played St L, a school that we\u2019ve taken turns winning and losing close games against for the past four years. It was another close one, but we had a bad defensive inning in the top of the 7th and lost by seven. The head coach and I had our first run-in with an umpire this season, arguing about a rule she was interpreting incorrectly that cost us an important out. We would have lost anyway but we both get super bothered with the damn umpires don\u2019t know the rules.<\/p>\n
C went 3\u20134 again with two home runs.<\/p>\n
So the B girls are kicking the shit out of the ball so far!<\/p>\n
\nC is also playing CYO soccer. It\u2019s become a St P\u2019s tradition for 8th graders who either have never played soccer or haven\u2019t played for years to join the team and play just for fun. C hasn\u2019t played since fourth or fifth grade, but wanted to jump in and give it a shot. Before her first game S told her if she scored a goal this year, we would let her get her ear cartilage pierced. Some other parents heard this and had mixed reactions. A few thought this was a terrible idea because then their kids would want the same thing. A few others started telling their kids to pass to C so she could score. I think it was more to see if S would follow through than to help C get what she wants.<\/p>\n
In her first game, a 6\u20130 win, she didn\u2019t have any chances. She\u2019s missed a couple games because of kickball, but got a chance to play last Thursday. I was with L at kickball but apparently C had a great chance to score and just swung too early, putting what should have been a sure goal over the crossbar. Her team is really good – they are 3\u20130 – and I have a feeling the boys that score most of the goals will start looking for her when the game in no longer in doubt.<\/p>\n
Most importantly she\u2019s having a really good time. She quit playing soccer because she had gotten kicked hard a few times and wasn\u2019t enjoying it as much. She actually looks forward to the practices and games. It helps that she\u2019s on a solid team.<\/p>\n
\nBoth girls are also running track. Their first meet will be this Sunday. C will run the 200, the 800 (which she\u2019s not happy about), and one relay. L is running for the first time ever and has, apparently, dominated the sprints at practice. Each night she gets in the car and tells me how good she is. She\u2019s going through a not-very-humble phase. There are a couple pretty quick girls in her class, and she\u2019s always been fast on the kickball bases. But we won\u2019t know how fast she really is until we see her in a meet. She\u2019s running the 50, 100, and 200 this week.<\/p>\n
We are busy! It\u2019s kind of nice that kickball will wrap up in the middle of track so the girls will have a couple weeks to concentrate on running and get ready for City.<\/p>\n
\nThose are the middle schoolers. M is playing tennis at CHS, and her first match is tomorrow. She\u2019s been taking lessons, either privately or with a group, for seven months. I hope they pay off enough that she can at least get her serves in and win a few points. Luckily since last spring was wiped out, most schools are keeping all their sophomores and there will be a lot of chances to play other girls who have limited experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are about 10 days into the spring CYO sports schedules, which means we are at roughly the halfway point of those compact seasons. Here\u2019s a quick look at how the family has done so far. Both C and L are two games into their kickball seasons, with a third game rained out for each team. L\u2019s team is 2\u20130. They won their first game by 10 runs against a team that is usually pretty good. She had a magnificent day: 4\u20135 with three home runs and 10 RBIs. The gold star moment of that game came in the fifth inning. She came up with the bases loaded twice. Both times she kicked monster grand slams. Call her Fernando Tatis (senior), I guess! They played again last night and romped to a 37-run win in five innings. It could have been much worse. In the top of the first our first two kickers both made outs before we scored 11-straight runs. In the third inning we went scoreless. Because of Covid the inning run rule has been bumped down from 20 to 14. They scored 13 in three innings. Seriously, they could have won by 60 under the old run rules and without that one bad inning. L went 4\u20136 with two more home runs. They play their biggest game of the year next Monday. The winner will likely be division champs and move onto the City championship in May. C\u2019s team is 1\u20131. In our first game – I am again helping to coach – we played the team that has been our nemesis for three years. The same team we beat in dramatic fashion last fall in what we thought would be the 8th graders\u2019 final game. So of course we had to play them to start this unexpected spring season! We scored 11 in the top of the first and were never really threatened, winning by five. It was the least drama we\u2019ve had in five or six games against this school since fifth grade. C went 3\u20134 with two triples and a double. The bummer about the 8th grade league is even if you kick the crap out of the ball, like she did, the defense can get it back in and hold you short of a home run. Even with her speed she got stuck on third. Tuesday they played St L, a school that we\u2019ve taken turns winning and losing close games against for the past four years. It was another close one, but we had a bad defensive inning in the top of the 7th and lost by seven. The head coach and I had our first run-in with an umpire this season, arguing about a rule she was interpreting incorrectly that cost us an important out. We would have lost anyway but we both get super bothered with the damn umpires don\u2019t know the rules. C went 3\u20134 again with two home runs. So the B girls are kicking the shit out of the ball so far! C is also playing CYO soccer. It\u2019s become a St P\u2019s tradition for 8th graders who either have never played soccer or haven\u2019t played for years to join the team and play just for fun. C hasn\u2019t played since fourth or fifth grade, but wanted to jump in and give it a shot. Before her first game S told her if she scored a goal this year, we would let her get her ear cartilage pierced. Some other parents heard this and had mixed reactions. A few thought this was a terrible idea because then their kids would want the same thing. A few others started telling their kids to pass to C so she could score. I think it was more to see if S would follow through than to help C get what she wants. In her first game, a 6\u20130 win, she didn\u2019t have any chances. She\u2019s missed a couple games because of kickball, but got a chance to play last Thursday. I was with L at kickball but apparently C had a great chance to score and just swung too early, putting what should have been a sure goal over the crossbar. Her team is really good – they are 3\u20130 – and I have a feeling the boys that score most of the goals will start looking for her when the game in no longer in doubt. Most importantly she\u2019s having a really good time. She quit playing soccer because she had gotten kicked hard a few times and wasn\u2019t enjoying it as much. She actually looks forward to the practices and games. It helps that she\u2019s on a solid team. Both girls are also running track. Their first meet will be this Sunday. C will run the 200, the 800 (which she\u2019s not happy about), and one relay. L is running for the first time ever and has, apparently, dominated the sprints at practice. Each night she gets in the car and tells me how good she is. She\u2019s going through a not-very-humble phase. There are a couple pretty quick girls in her class, and she\u2019s always been fast on the kickball bases. But we won\u2019t know how fast she really is until we see her in a meet. She\u2019s running the 50, 100, and 200 this week. We are busy! It\u2019s kind of nice that kickball will wrap up in the middle of track so the girls will have a couple weeks to concentrate on running and get ready for City. Those are the middle schoolers. M is playing tennis at CHS, and her first match is tomorrow. She\u2019s been taking lessons, either privately or with a group, for seven months. I hope they pay off enough that she can at least get her serves in and win a few points. Luckily since last spring was wiped out, most schools are keeping all their sophomores and there will be a lot of chances to play other girls who have limited experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[123,98,37,110,30],"class_list":["post-10407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coaching","tag-kickball","tag-soccer","tag-track","tag-youth-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10407"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10410,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407\/revisions\/10410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}