Stompings

It wasn't such a great night for basketball last night. Two games, two locations. I'll start with the one I didn't see.

Nathan's team lost 52-29. He didn't score. The other team had a nearly six-foot sixth grader, son of a former NBA player. That's all I know!

Elizabeth's team scrapped their way to a 34-9 loss. Elizabeth had 4 of the 9 points. She was 2 for 2 on free throws. It's a hard thing to be 6-8" shorter than the girls coming at you. It's hard to shoot over them or to block their shots. But the girls all worked hard and afterward, Elizabeth could laugh. That's good. That's progress. 

A NIght of Basketball

We had our first home basketball games tonight. 

Nathan's team played first. They won 20-7. Not a great shooting team, but I love how they work the ball around and how they play together. Nathan was 1 for 4 shooting but had some good defense and some great ball handling as point guard.

Elizabeth's team played next. The varsity girls may be small, young, and inexperienced, but no one can say they aren't scrappy! They lost 33-19 (I think). Elizabeth had 8 points and several rebounds. She played well but her shot isn't falling very well yet. It will get better as the season goes on. She is the tallest on the team and plays post and center this year instead of guard as she has all the years in the past, so she is learning new things. Besides Elizabeth, there is only one other senior--the point guard. All the rest, the 5 other players, are juniors and sophomores. All except one, who played in middle school, have 1 or 0 years experience at basketball. Ever. In their lives. So the fact that they even stayed close in the game was a victory. But I think they all had fun.

Bi-District Champs

I guess the title says it all. We won on Saturday, 76-30. Aaron played well, making 8 of 10 extra points. He even got to kick off once and was in on the tackle. (Okay, so he said he got pushed into the pile, but he was still there!) 

One funny story from Saturday: as Aaron was ready to take the field for the final extra point try, Coach calls him over, looks at the scoreboard and says, "If you make this, we get to go home." (There were about 

4 minutes left in the game. If he missed, the spread would be 44 points and we'd have to keep playing. Did I mention the wind chill was around 40 that day?) Anyway, poor Aaron. No pressure or anything. Just a freezing team and freezing fans who wanted the game to end with the 45 point mercy rule!

Thankfully, he made it.

The boys all played well and we're looking for them to do the same at the Regional game this Saturday. 

Go Eagles!

Bouncing Into Basketball

The Middle School began their basketball season tonight with a win, 15-11. That's right, 15-11. Not a typo. It was a hard-fought game--literally! One ref, calling very little. But I still liked what I saw from our team. Especially considering they just started practice on Monday!

Nathan is point guard on a starting team of four 8th graders and one 7th grader. They moved the ball well, were aggressive on defense, and worked as a team. Now if they can just make some shots! Nathan scored once, a nice shot from the top of the key. He missed two other times. He turned the ball over twice, both at the end of the game when he was tired, and had a steal or two as well.

I'm excited by what I see. It should be a fun season, at least with this team. 

A Heart-Wrenching Loss

Our biggest rival. Two teams undefeated in district play. At our home field. And we couldn't pull it out. We lost 70-40. (But we looked GREAT in our new jerseys!)

We haven't had to watch many of these types of games over the past four years (this group of seniors has only lost 6 games, I believe, in their four years, counting runs to the state game or semi-finals the last three), but we did have to watch a similar loss last year in the semi-finals against this same school. Our team, very equally matched with our rival opponent, just couldn't find the win. But hope is not gone. We still make the playoffs, just with a harder row to hoe. Two of our 6 seniors (who all play both ways) got a bit banged up in this one. Hopefully they won't miss next week's game.

Aaron had his worst game. He was only 2 for 6. Of the four he missed, two were blocked. I don't know if it was nerves or the cold or what, but it will be crucial for him to get back in the groove for next week's game. 

Mission Trip Fundraiser

Last night we had our 2nd annual Mission HCA Chili Cook-off to raise money for the kids who want to go on the summer mission trip to Ghana. Elizabeth made chili, which, frankly, isn't her forte, but she also made one of her cheesecakes for the dessert auction.

Things were going well overall, and then her award-winning cheesecake came up for bidding. The numbers went higher and higher until it was sold for $500! Wow! Most exciting for her was the ability to contribute so significantly to the total raised for the night--$3300--which will be split among the 13 high school kids signed up for the trip. That's nearly $300 each! 

So her fundraising has begun and she is excited to return to her friends in Ghana this summer. If you want to help her go to Ghana, she is selling her cheesecakes ($30) if you are local, but she is also selling t-shirts ($15) and African coffee ($10) to raise the funds she needs. Of course you can always just give money. :) 

Contact me or her if you want more information on any of these opportunities to make a difference in the lives of the Ghanaian people through helping her make the trip.

Last Middle School Football Game Ever

They did it. An undefeated season. 10-0. And the final game of Nathan's middle school football career was a doozy!

The game didn't begin until about 4:40 at a park field with no lights, so we knew it would be a short game, given that the sun is all the way down by 6:00 at the latest. The boys went out there with little stretch or prep time, received the kickoff and went 4 and out. Very disappointing. So they charged in there on defense--and Nathan intercepted the first pass! Very exciting. He caught it near the ground, but it was definitely a catch.

After that, it was back and forth scoring as the shadows crept closer, covering the field. Nathan snagged another interception on defense. Offensively, he threw a couple of touchdown passes and some other nice passes as well. He also had a great block that allowed our running back to score at a crucial point in the game. Finally, with all the fans at the sidelines so we could see in the dark, we held them on their 5 yard line, took the ball down and scored to put us up by 2 touchdowns. Game over. 38-25. 

It was our last middle school football game as parents of a player. Nathan did us proud, but we are so ready to move on up.

Middle school basketball starts Monday. We'll see how that goes.

A Well-Fought Fight

We actually had some competition last night. Remember when we go beat by the #1 public school 6-man team? The team we played last night got beat by them by almost the same score as we did, so it looked like it would be a good matchup. And it was.

The first half went back and forth. We scored, then they scored. Back and forth until the half ended with our team scoring in the final 15 seconds to go up 40-32. After the half, we scored again, but Aaron missed the kick. (He was 5 for 5 in the first half.) That was bad, because the other team had a great kicker. They scored twice--and made their kicks, inching ahead of us 48-46. But our boys fought back hard from there to the end of the game. We won 66-48. Aaron struggled in the second half, only 1 of his 4 kicks going through the uprights. Not sure what happened, but at least it didn't cost the team the game!

It was a well-fought contest and a good warm-up for the district championship game next week.

Another Win

The Varsity scored another district win today, 58-20. There were blocking and snapping issues during the 1st half on extra point attempts, so after getting knocked down on his first kick (they called a roughing the kicker penalty), Aaron still only went 2 for 5. But in the second half they got things together. He had good blocking and managed to hit all three he attempted. 

It was a hot game, which was not what we were expecting, especially after freezing through the JV game on Thursday night. It was one of those autumn days in Texas where it warms to around 80 and the sun blazes down unabated and it suddenly feels like June, but you are dressed for October! 

Next week, a tough non-district game then back home for the district showdown with our rival school. Should be a fun one!

Middle School has a week off before their last contest. Elizabeth will start basketball soon since the volleyball team lost their playoff match. No rest for the weary!

Great Aunt March

We were right! Elizabeth will bring all her talents to the roll of Aunt March in Little Women, The Musical. It goes on stage the end of January, so they will work hard and fast but I'm very impressed with the cast list and looking forward to their production. 

Elizabeth is happy. It really is her kind of role--one that can have a comedic element and one that gives her lots of room for characterization. And I don't think they are going to do Aunt March's song, so she won't have the extra stress of that, which is good since the whole thing coincides with her last basketball season. 

She's gearing up for a busy, busy winter, but then she is like me in a lot of ways and sometimes keeps up with her life better when she has more she has to do!

JV Rolls to Victory

We drove 3 hours, round trip, to find a JV team to play. We finished them off near the end of the third quarter, 48-0. 

I love watching JV games because Aaron and all his friends play. (Of course varsity is fun because all of Elizabeth's friends play!) He had a good game, even though his PATs were only 2 for 5. In his defense, his regular holder wasn't there and the snaps weren't the best. On the 6th attempt, the snap sailed over the holder's head. Aaron picked it up and threw it in the end zone where his friend Asa caught it! So, in essence, he made that PAT happen, too!

He didn't have any passes thrown his way, but he did have a three yard run on offense and a great shoe-string tackle on a kickoff that prevented a touchdown. Mostly, though, our strength (and speed) came from a new freshman (just transferred in therefore ineligible for varsity this year) who was almost unstoppable when he touched the ball. It bodes well for next year's varsity!

I was glad they got to play one last JV game, but it was a hurried and harried trip for the parents given that the game started at 7:30 and the boys all have a 9 weeks test in their math classes today! Hopefully winning on the field won't hurt them in the classroom!

Audition Time

It's that time of year again--time for musical auditions. With a girl-heavy drama class, the new drama teacher chose Little Women, The Musical for this year's production. Jeff and I saw it a year or two ago and I was pleasantly surprised. The biggest problem? Elizabeth has wanted to play Jo in some kind of production of Little Women since her freshman year. But this Jo sings throughout the whole show. And while Elizabeth's singing is better, I really don't see her as up for this part. 

Anyway, she had her audition yesterday. Here was her report: My monologue was good. My song was better. But my improv ROCKED! She said the music teacher was in tears she was laughing so hard!

The cast list goes up tonight. I think she'll still be a bit disappointed when she doesn't get Jo (you know how you know something won't happen but a part of you still fantasizes that it will), but she knows there are stronger singers and she will be okay with it. I'm thinking she'll get Aunt March, which could be a very fun role if she makes it that way. 

Tune in tomorrow for the big announcement!

Last Middle School Home Game

Well, Nathan did himself proud today. Of course, it was against a very young, very weak team, so the glory had a bit of taint to it. 

In the 36-14 win, Nathan threw four touchdown passes and ran for one touchdown. He also had a interception hit him in the hands, but he couldn't hold on. They managed to play the whole game (not 45 them) because they played the 7th graders a lot. It was quite amusing, really. They'd put them in on offense and it would be 4 and out. The first team defense would come in and actually push the other team so far back it was as good as an offensive drive! But at least the little guys got some experience that will help them next year.

Middle school has a bye next week.

Next up: JV!!!

Homecoming:Part 2

Elizabeth's hair was truly a work of art. This picture doesn't do it justice!

Lana and Aaron

Dad crashes the picture. I wish the shadows weren't on their faces because I loved this picture!

Aaron and Elizabeth

Brandon and Elizabeth

Everyone looked great and had a good time at the dance. Next year won't be quite so hectic without a girl to get ready. Aaron dressed 10 minutes before time to leave. Starting with the hair appointment, Elizabeth's was more like a four hour ordeal!

Homecoming: Part I

It was a busy but fun day yesterday. Everything really began with the all-school pep rally at 2:30 and pretty much didn't end until nearly midnight last night! The games both went well. Both middle school and varsity actually played full games! Nathan had two touchdown passes and a couple of long runs. He made one solo tackle that I remember. They won, but I can't remember the score!

The varsity won 68-24. Aaron was 7 for 9 in kicking. The JV offense went in for a drive. Aaron switches out at wide receiver and actually had a good pass thrown to him, even had the ball in his hands, in spite of a defender right on him, but before he could grip it good he got bumped by a second defender, bobbled it and dropped it. There is actually a JV game on Thursday, so he'll get some real playing time then.

Of course the pinnacle was halftime and homecoming court. In our small school all the seniors are on the court, so that's why in some of the following pictures Elizabeth is in her formal gown.

Elizabeth and Jeff. It's hard on her daddy that she is growing up!

Elizabeth with her friends Leah and Roxanne. All the girls looked so beautiful last night!

     This is Aaron and his good friend Lana, who is his homecoming date. 

                         Aaron and Elizabeth before school Friday morning.  

The dance is tonight, so look for more pictures and updates tomorrow.

Early Exit

Nathan's team played well again, winning over another very good team by the score of 51-32, even with one of our two-way starters out hurt. Nathan caught a touchdown pass and threw some good passes as well. His tackling on defense was the best he's done all year. But in spite of all the good, Nathan made an early exit from the game. In the 4th quarter he got sacked hard. Hit his head on the ground and got up woozy. Now he truly knows the meaning of "getting your bell rung."

He sat on the bench for the remainder of the game with a monster headache, but all in all, he's fine. The homecoming hoopla will kick in and he'll be more than ready to play the game on Friday.

Piano Competition

Nathan had the first of his several piano competitions scattered throughout this school year. He came away with a Superior +. Can't do much better than that! It's been awhile since he received marks that high. He was very pleased. And, of course, it helps that he has worked very hard on this piece. It's amazing what that child can do when he puts a little effort into it.

And Our Team Keeps Rolling On

Another big win for the varsity last night, 62-12. The game ended at halftime. Aaron didn't have such a great game, though. He only made 4 of 8 point after attempts. One hit the crossbar--again. How do you do that TWICE in one season? But his dismal performance wasn't completely his fault. The six in on those PATS are all non-starters, mostly sophomores. Last night, their blocking wasn't all that hot. In fact, Aaron actually got knocked down--twice. One of those times we got a roughing the kicker call. Anyway, as you can see it really didn't affect the outcome of the game, so that's good.

Next week we have two middle school games, the varsity game--our first district opponent, and all the homecoming activities. We'd better get rested up this weekend!

Hard-hitting marathon

The middle school played again today. It was a hard-hitting game against a big team, but we still won. I can't remember the exact score but it was in the neighborhood of 60-36. Nathan's stats didn't look so good today. Lots of dropped passes. A couple of fumbled snaps. Several missed tackles. And an interception. But he did catch an extra point pass and threw one touchdown pass. He had a couple of good blocks, too. And the game lasted 2 1/2 hours, which is long for us. Since he plays both ways, he came home exhausted. 

Next up: varsity game on Friday night. And next week--homecoming week--middle school plays on Tuesday and then again on Friday, before the varsity. It will be a busy, busy week!

Homecoming on the Horizon

Homecoming is a week and a half away and we have dates! Woo-hoo! Actually, this isn't/wasn't/hasn't been a problem for Aaron. There are any number of girls at school willing to go with him. His problem is the asking! But we finally browbeat him into it. At least, Elizabeth did. He asked a girl in his class who he is good friends with.

Elizabeth is always harder. Usually she balks at asking someone from outside of school, yet no one at school asks her. But this summer, when she and Aaron worked at a camp for refugee children, they met a guy (also a senior) who goes to our rival school. In fact, he's their quarterback! He is good friends with some of the guys at our school and his best friend is going to the dance with one of Elizabeth's friends. She asked him and he said yes. 

Come Monday, the week of festivities will begin, culminating in the dinner/dance on Saturday night. You can be sure I'll post pictures!