Spring Soccer – Game 3

Had game 2.5 Saturday morning…we were asked to fill in at a tournament going on in Lansing…just play one game against a team from Grand Rapids.  Went in looking at is a scrimmage and knew that we were missing two players.  Missing them didn’t matter at all; they destroyed us 8 or 9 to zero.  Again, we held our own for the first half, but, when the wheels come off, our team does not react well.

The downside of taking this extra game was that we would be a little winded for our real game that afternoon (first game was 11..second game starts at 2).  Lost that game 2-0 to St. John’s; again, scoreless at the half and thought we had the better of the play for those 25 minutes.  All of the boys were very tired during the second half; we were subbing as much and as frequently as we could but it probably wasn’t enough. 

The three straight games without a goal is troublesome….boys are in position but choke up near the goal and get some pansy shots straight at the goalie….we’re going to be working on finishing this week.  Don’t have another game until next Tuesday, but, then, we have five in five days (including a tournament Mother’s Day weekend). 

High School

I don’t think I put in as much time and thought into my freshman classes in college as we are having to put into what Kevin is going to take this fall!

The scary part is that there aren’t many options in what he is actually going to take this fall; it’s the implications of each class when he’s a junior and a senior that are making us pause now.  Kevin wants to be able to access the AP courses in most subjects as a junior and senior….but if you don’t do it right now, you can’t do certain things later. 

English:  Here, the choices are pretty simple.  He has to take freshman English (Lit Comp 9 is the title).  He will be able to pass over Lit Comp 10 next year based on ACT scores, and the choices are pretty simple from then on with American Lit, British Lit, and AP English on the docket.

Math:  He’s on track here to take 2 years of AP Calculus (or, on year of AP Calc and then AP Stats) and there are no schedule manipulations needed to make this happen.  He could accelerate to make sure that he can take all 3 AP classes (and Kevin actually suggested this!) but given that he doesn’t like math like his Mom and Dad did/do….this doesn’t seem really prudent.

Social Studies:  US History this year, then probably AP World History, AP US History, and then AP Government.  No hoops needed to make this happen.

Foreign Language:  Here’s where things get complicated.  Kevin would like to take four years of a language (he wants to go with German….we aren’t pushing hard to dissuade him).  Mom and Dad think this is a good idea as well.  To do this, Kevin would have to take zero hour, basically, start school an hour earlier next year, to get the 1st year of language.  He has phys ed/health requirements to take as a freshman as well, and that, combined with orchestra, fill out his regular schedule, not leaving time during the normal school day for German.  Kevin seems ok with going in early; we’re not having to force him into this and that’s a great thing.

Science:  The most confusing subject of all, or, perhaps, the one with the most opportunities that Kevin may or may not be able to access.  The high school offers AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics.  Most kids, who are really interested in science, take 2 of the 3 in their senior year when they’ve completed all of their electives. 

Since Kevin wants to take a language and orchestra all four years, and wants to take social studies AP classes most of all, he’s limited.  If he stays on the normal track he can only take one of the AP sciences…and he would like to take two.

What do we do?:  The current plan, after having a talk with the counselor, is as follows:

1)  File a personal curriculum plan with the high school and the state.  This allows Kevin to modify the state’s requirements for graduation; specifically, he is going to dump the PE/Health in his freshman year and take a foreign language (and not have to go to zero hour). 

2)  Test out of Physical Science this summer (the freshman science course) and go straight to Biology.  This would allow Kevin to access two of those AP courses, one his junior year and one his senior year.  Testing out comes with its challenges…he has to do that this summer and he’s going to be gone for four weeks.  But, he’s going to have some serious alone time during those four weeks and it isn’t unreasonable to think he can get some serious studying done.  Plus (and I’ll blog about this later) there are some amazing online materials available for the course that the teachers at the high school have put together (including some video podcasts(!) that Kevin could conceivably watch on long bus rides in Europe).

Is this sane?:  We have more than a few concerns that this might be too much for Kevin; his freshman and sophomore years don’t seem all that demanding, or, anything more than normal for him, but, junior year he’s looking at AP classes in 3 subjects (math, science, social studies) and senior year it ramps up to 5 (everything but Orchestra).  Plus he wants to run cross-country and do ski team in high school.  And be in the musical in the spring.  Our experiences in the challenging Algebra II Honors this year haven’t been all positive (just had another yo-yo event…3 A+’s in a row and then completely bombed a quiz.  Not knowing the material on a quiz isn’t all that troubling; at least we/he knows what to study more…but not knowing that you didn’t know it and realizing you needed to study more….sigh)

Kevin can always bail out of this approach, so, there is that…the problem is we have to set up now to give him the option to follow through. He meets with the counselor today, so, we’ll see what comes out of that as well.

What I’m reading

Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Christopher, Matthew, and myself are through the first two books and will be starting Book 3 soon.  We went to the movie and I thought it was really well done….captured the embarrassment of middle school perfectly.

The Weird School series:  There are 18 books in this series; we’re in the middle of our 2nd one right now (we are reading the book shown above).  When we read we typically read a page each…Christopher has been interested enough in the book that he’s asked to read more than his page.  The continuing adventures of three boys at Ella Mentry school.  They consistently refer to the cafeteria as the vomitorium….Christopher, when he is reading, never says vomitorium, and always says cafeteria.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen:  This is just a Scott thing; would love to get Kevin reading some of these fantasy series but he’s been pretty clear that he’s not too interested in the orcs and elfs and dwarf books.  Simply put, the best fantasy series I’ve ever read.  Currently rereading it; this is book 4….Book Nine came out a few months back and I won’t read it until I get through rereading up to that point.  I like the series so much because I can reread it and understand things in the books that I never understood (or didn’t understand the proper context of) the first time. 

 

Harry Potter:  Suzanne and I have been reading this to Christopher; he’s completely swept up in it.  We are about 5 chapters from the end, so, should finish by the end of this week.  Suzanne has never read the series or really watched the movies, so, it’s been a good time for her as well (even though she’s behind right now and needs to do some serious reading in Book 2 to catch up to me and Christopher).  I was using my evil-He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named voice at the of Sorcerer’s Stone and Christopher asked me to read normally because I was scaring him   :)

Spring Soccer – Game 2

As promised, a rematch against Holt, at their field.  Thought I’d do this post a little differently…I’m going to start writing now, leave for the game, and finish when I’m back at home watching the draft and the Penguins.

Pre-Game: I didn’t mention some of the extra-curriculars from the last game…but, I’ll mention them now.  I thought the referee at the last game did a fantastic job, but, the Holt coach obviously disagreed…every time (and this is no exaggeration, every time) that the ref made a call that didn’t go their way he was yelling at the ref.  I applaud the ref, a high school student, who, at times turned and yelled back at the coach why he made the calls.  But, the yelling at the ref never stopped.

I do my level best to ignore all of this….the only way it would get me riled up is if the ref wasn’t making calls on the physical plays, and, he was making them, so, that’s fine.  I don’t care if he misses a call every once in a while (and he did), there’s only one of him and that happens, and, it’s good for the kids to learn that, well, that happens and they have to get used to it.

My partner in coaching can be a little more hot-tempered than me, and, at the end of the game, took out his frustrations on the ball as the game ended, punting it about 100 yards away.  The Holt coach said “well, that’s real sportsman-like” and of course that lead to yelling at the coach about how sportsman-like yelling at the ref the whole game is and I’m left trying to get everyone lined up to just shake hands, end the game, and move on.

So, there’s that backdrop as we head out tonight.  We’re going to be short one of out better players, but, Ii hope that’s a big deal…we’ll see.  We’ll see how many players they bring to the dance…I’d say 7 or 8 players and they are going to be one tired bunch at the end of the game. 

Halftime:  I’m going to pretend like I was at a computer at halftime…

My co-coach and I are often accused of being negative towards the boys….they sometimes mutter “oh, we’re going to get yelled at again”

At halftime of today’s game, the only comment I had was “that might have been the best half of soccer you’ve played all year”.  No score, but we had plenty of chances and they didn’t have many at all..

The tension in the game ramped up quite a bit at the beginning; Holt’s field has non-standard goals and we complained about it, but, the ref was fine with it so that was that.  Holt also had two more kids than last time….funny how that works out as well. 

But we played well….offense carried the ball outside and brought it back in to the center, just like we were working on in practice, and the defense stayed at home, just like we worked on in practice.

Post-game: 

Holt 4, Dragons 0.  Followed our best half by the absolute worst half we’ve played this year.  Tried to do something different with the boys at the end…asked each of them to think of one good thing and one bad thing that happened to our team in the 2nd half.  Universally, the bad thing was the defense…didn’t pick up on what the other team was doing and gave up some easy chances in front.

I really got on Christopher after their first goal; he forgot the basic rule of throw in’s…..throw it forward along the line, not out at the middle, and he did, and gave up a breakaway because of it.  Ugh.  Ugh.  Ugh.  He played ok the rest of the half but is still not very happy with me.  Oh well. 

I can smile thinking of Matthew’s second half.  He will always always play midfield for us because he’s the only one that will consistently, no matter what, give one hundred percent.  We’re down 4-0, everyone’s given up, and our goalie clears the ball deep to Holt’s end.  They have three players back to get it and Matthew rushes in…the one Holt player is taking his time and doesn’t see Matthew and he just comes in, steals it, drives in on goal and gets off a great shot that just misses the corner of the goal.  Rushes a throw-in later and takes a ball to the stomach and has to come off, but, the only Dragon who was still motivated at the end.  Wish I had 10 more of him.

The ref?  Didn’t call as much of the physical stuff as I though he could, and, not surprisingly, the Holt coach didn’t complain as much as he could have.

We play two games on Saturday...should be interesting times.

Kevin – an update

Sigh.  Could write a book here.  No spring pictures at the middle school (yet…I think there are some coming though)

Appearance:  As mentioned many times here, he’s really taken off recently.   Used to wear my shoes, now I can wear his.  Wants contacts; maybe for high school…we’ve delayed on this request for a while. 

9 to 5:  The boy can sleep, there’s no doubt of that….seeing Kevin before 10 am on a weekend morning is a surprise.  The most astonishing thing is that he can get up when he want too…he’s often up at 5:30 or 6 am to take a shower and watch some TV and study. 

Academics:  The year’s been dominated by math; it’s been getting better as the year has gone on…I think Kevin understands what he needs to do now.  We hope that Kevin does, because, the ramp up to high school has begun.  Suzanne attended an info meeting last week, and Kevin has begun to think about his schedule and the impacts of what courses he takes now on what courses he can take as a junior or senior.  One problem is that, because he is in orchestra, that takes up one elective, and, to take four years of a foreign language, he will have to take zero hour (6:55 start) as a freshmen.  Still trying to completely understand this; there’s the possibility of testing out of health (or a myriad of other subjects as well) and we need to understand this better.

Sports:  Has pretty much settled into a cross-country, skiing, track rotation which will probably turn into cc and skiing in high school (dropping track to participate in the musical would be my guess).  Plays basketball in the neighborhood and seems to do ok in it.  Hasn’t been running as much or as intensely as last year and it will be neat to see how he does this year, being taller and more developed but without the training on board.  He’s trying hurdles and high jump this year, so, that’s something to look forward to as well.

Teen Attitude:  Oh, he has it.  Mom ‘badgers’ him; Dad went on a ‘harangue’.  Glad he’s using big words I guess….

BLISO:  Today is the day; the first rehearsal of the Blue Lake group in 2010.  Kevin and Mom headed out to West Michigan knowing that they would come back knowing Kevin’s chair placement and his itinerary.

Suzanne texted back the big news this morning; Kevin is the 2nd chair. 

So, wait all day to talk with Kevin; call him as they are driving back.  He has two pieces of news, 1) that he is the soloist on the one piece and 2) since he is the soloist, he is also the 1st chair….the conductor waited to make that decision until she heard Kevin perform the solo during rehearsal.  He was the 2nd chair and there was no 1st chair…she just moved everyone up after hearing Kevin and confirming what she heard on tape.

I’d have to guess that Kevin’s feet weren’t touching the ground for most of the walk from the rehearsal out to the car……

Where’s Kevin going?  The destinations are here; flies from Detroit to Paris to Berlin, flies back from Paris.

The order of the towns on the map is correct as shown; Kevin has noted that there are “some long-ass bus trips” in there.

Books:  Heavily into historical fiction right now; mostly World War 2, so, he’s been reading a lot of books that Dad has read.  Right now he’s reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin; he asked to read this…not a suggestion.  Mom and Dad are stunned and flummoxed.

Spring Soccer – Game 1

A 2-2 tie versus Holt starts the spring season.

Holt:  They were 8-0 in the fall; 8-0 in the most recent winter session.  We’ll take the tie.  We could have scored a few more goals; they could have too.  Game 2 is a rematch (next Thursday)…so, we’ll see how that goes.  They only field 7 players (one sub) so we told the boys to try and spread the field out and tire them out in the second half…will be more of a theme in practice next week.

Cpher:  Only played defense, because, again, it’s been a challenge for our team and he’s the best we have back there.  The kid is a rock…had multiple shots bounce off of him because he’s in the right place.

Matthew:  Asked, at the end of the game, “Did I play good, Dad?”.  Turned him to face the other coach and said “Matthew, we love when you come off the field and your cheeks are all pink, because, it’s very obvious you’re doing the only thing we want you to do…hustle all of the time!”.  Had two chances in on goal and didn’t convert (didn’t even get the shot on goal…trying too much for the corners maybe…need to ask him about that) but made some good passes and was key for us at the end in preserving the tie.

First draft

Kevin has an opportunity to earn a scholarship for part of the Blue Lake funds because of his participation in the Mason Youth Symphony.  So, his spring break task has been to get the essay in shape.  He’ll also have to interview and perform for the committee. 

The first draft of the essay wasn’t all that great…he had the ideas there, but, the execution was lacking.  Glad we’re doing it though, I like helping Kevin with his writing (don’t use the word ‘awesome’….dude!) and I’m sure this is the first of what will be many essays needed in the future.

Hidden in his first draft (it was the third paragraph) was this….I’ve told him that it should be his first paragraph, and also told him that I thought it was really well done.  There’s some editing left to do (don’t think that the word ‘melodious’ will make the final cut, for example) but it’s a really good start.

“Music is important to me because it expresses feelings. It can express sadness, joy, anger, and more. I like how music can add a whole new dimension to something like a movie scene. Music, to me, is another way to see the world, and that’s why I like it so much. Nothing else is capable of provoking as much emotion and feeling as music can. That’s why I play the viola. I like being able to play music and express different feelings through different songs. I like playing harmonies in orchestras and intertwining different notes with other musicians to create one grand piece. Playing viola brings me the pleasure of creating melodious sounds that can express true feeling. “

The beaches of the Gulf Coast

The trip down here for Spring Break had us visit each of the three beaches we’ve grown into the habit of going to.

Destin:  Cross the Bay Bridge, turn left on 98, make the first right, go until you can’t, turn left, and about 1/2 mile down is a small parking lot with beach access (Pampano Street Public Beach Access).  Of the beaches we visit, this one is the most convenient, and, the most crowded.  The neighboring condos have their umbrellas and cabanas out and you are constrained (or, better said, feel to be constrained) by that (technically, i guess, you could set up in the middle of their stuff).  We went here on Sunday in the late morning and there were still a lot of people around.  Not so many in the water, though…it was cold.  Boys (and Dad) trudged out, and today, at least, there was a big sand bar about 20 feet from shore that extended about 100 feet further out from shore.  Yellow (moderate surf) and Purple (wildlife present) flags were up, but, didn’t see any ‘stuff’ in the water and we didn’t think the surf was all that bad.

The view from the beach….one of the dots out there is Christopher.

GINS:  The Gulf Island National Seashore is about 45 minutes to an hour from the home base in Niceville.  Only recently reopened after repairs from hurricane damage, it’s also the prettiest of the beaches we visit, and the least crowded of them as well.  We went here on Tuesday after visiting the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.  Again, the boys and Dad were the only ones in the water (but we all thought it was warmer Tuesday then it was on Sunday) and the surf was again labeled as ‘moderate’.  We spent a lot of time in the water wave-jumping (or diving) as the case may be, and also had fun on the beach throwing frisbee (Kevin, finally, has gotten pretty good at this so we had a good time diving after the disc in the waves) and flying a cheap kite I picked up at Walmart (for $3 it worked just fine).

Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern at Matthew’s command 

There is also video (about 3 minutes) of the boys playing in the waves.  It’s nice because it’s one of the few moments on this trip where all three of them are playing nicely and getting along.

Navarre Beach: On the way to the GINS you pass by Navarre Beach; it’s more like Destin in that it’s pretty crowded most of the time.  The main attraction of the beach is that there are tons of seashells.  The boys, equipped with goggles, like to dive down and look around; in previous years we’ve brought home buckets and buckets of seashells as the boys have just picked up everything and anything that they’ve run across.

This year, the rule was it had to be pretty or big to make the cut to go in the bucket; no shells with holes, no fragments, etc.  Still yellow flags, and the surf here is pretty rough (found out later that almost everywhere else in the area it was red flags).  Surf was really tough getting in, but, if you made it out 20-40 feet it was more than manageable…it helps that, as always, the boys are bigger now and quite capable in the water. 

Anyway, we’re playing some frisbee (really windy, so it was tough, and if the disc went too far near the shore you lost if for a while in the surf and got hammered by waves as you tried to recover it) and the boys are diving for shells…and they are pulling up some real beauties!  Christopher found 2 of the biggest shells we’ve ever pulled out of the Gulf, and, after some wave-jumping towards the end of the trip, the boys grabbed a few shells for this girl and her Mom who were looking for shells along the shore (there were nothing but fragments there…the real ‘swag’ was out in water). 

 Showing off some serious shells in the sun

The Track

Any trip to Niceville always includes a trip to The Track, the miniature golf – go-cart destination in Destin.  This trip was no exception, so, on Monday, after I had completed my work for the day, we headed on down.

Mini Golf: This visit to the track was, for me, mostly an exercise in realizing how much the boys have grown.  Past visits have included miniature golf and had Fric and Frac just racing ahead and lots of frustration with them about their youthful lack of patience.  The most recent visit had Kevin just whipping Dad in head-to-head competition….a low point, to be sure.

This visit was good.  Fric and Frac played well, but, for them, it’s still more of an exercise in finishing as opposed to doing well.  Dad and Kevin continued their match-play wars….and I absolutely throttled him!  Kevin had a few holes in the beginning where he just couldn’t get it done (to be fair, the course is pretty beat up and you get some goofy inclines away from the holes sometimes).  Any day that I’m ‘taller’ than Kevin right now is a good day though!

Go-Carts: Here’s where I felt old.  Matthew is now tall enough to drive the cart by himself.  He was super-excited to get out there, and, in the end, was pretty happy about the whole gig (even though some kid spun him out).  Matthew was more upset that he took an extra lap because he didn’t understand that it was time to ‘pit’…..you probably don’t get to do that more than once so just told him to enjoy that he got an extra lap in.

Video of Kevin and Matthew on the go-carts is here.

We also rode the big wooden track; you have to be 16 to drive a double-cart so Kevin dutifully remembered he was born in 1993 and a sophomore in high school.  I let Kevin and Matthew pass me and Christopher at one point, Christopher was pretty unhappy about that.  The 2nd time we went over the asked for ID for Kevin…so, just Christopher and I went.  The double karts always go faster than the singles, so, we started off at the back and had a good time passing the people in front of us…..

Bungee:  Last time we went to the track it was too windy for Kevin to bungee jump; this time it wasn’t.  Kevin ponies up his money and climbs to the top of the stairs…I’m ready to tape him.  There’s a girl in front of Kevin; unbeknownst to me she says “go ahead, you go first” and he’s quickly hooked up, jumps, and I completely miss it on tape.

Kevin says it’s a blast, have a little talk about waving to the crowd first and not just rushing off so that we can tape him(!) and he resolves to do it again (the 2nd jump is cheaper than the 1st) but this time, go head first.

That jump is here.

The sharp-eyed will notice he didn’t go head first….apparently they wanted him to wrap his legs around the ‘cushion’ and he didn’t feel comfortable doing that (we watched the next person do it…they want you to do that so you don’t do a bunch of flips, just go straight down and back). 

Race for the House Photos

Matthew and Christopher in the Kids Sprint; we thought they were going to do the half-mile but, they did this instead.  Probably the first time I’ve ever seen Christopher beat Matthew, and Matthew is quick to point out that he was blocked at the start.  But I don’t recall Matthew gaining any ground on Christopher during the sprint though. 

 

The first photo ‘checkpoint’ was as the race headed into the woods, maybe about 1/2 mile in.  Contestants presented in their order of arrival; although shown separately here, Christopher and Matthew had instructions to stay together and they were.

The next checkpoint was coming out of the woods; this is about the speed that
Christopher and Matthew took the course.  We thought it would be mostly running with a little walking, they decided to flip the ratios around.

Kevin heading to the finish; arrived in 22:15 which isn’t the best he’s ever done but pretty good for not having run in over  months (he had just started track practice on Friday so at least had that going for him).  Still was good for 3rd in his age group.

Fric and Frac powering towards the finish; you can see them walking, and then starting to run for the finish line.  By the timer, Matthew ended up finishing a second ahead of Christopher.  We think, for the next 5K they do, that we’ll let them run on their own and see how they actually choose to do.

  

Someone with red hair wanted to sprint to the end….like Matthew, I had an easy time finishing ahead of my partner.   :)