Let’s go sport by sport…..
Tennis: Discussed previously. But, there are some photos…..
Videotaping, or taking pictures, at tennis is an incredibly difficult proposition. You can stand in the doorways to the fence, but, you are often too close, and sometimes in the way, and it’s just awkward as hell.
There are 3 rows of four courts each here at home…and the furthest row from the school, the row that Kevin did not play on UNTIL SATURDAY has the best view for taping or pictures….there are bleachers for the baseball field on the other side of the fence and you can stand there and shoot down over the fence at the courts. Wish I had brought the video camera….
When I started taking these pictures Holt was in the process of double-faulting the next three points…so I have a ton of pictures of Kevin and Ross getting ready to return the ball.
All of these pictures come from late in the first set…
A long post on Kevin’s serve is coming….Mom hadn’t seen Kevin play in a long time and had some comments that are worthy of discussion here….
Bright side: he gets his serve in, and the other team has problems returning it…
I am surprised that these types of shots have turned into a Kevin strength…..
…but they seem to be; he hits them well and places them deep.
Conversely, I had thought that Kevin would be better at the net….
….and while I think he did win this point….
I don’t think it was particularly pretty…..
Regionals on Thursday….hope the good times continue to roll.
Soccer: No pictures or video here. Matthew missed the first game due to a conflict with football; we won 2-1 against the league leaders. Our destiny is in our hands now, win out and we win the division for the Fall season.
So, we tie 3-3 when Matthew gets there in another play-down-to-the-other-team’s-level performance. Frustrating. Don’t know what to say about it, so, I’ll move on.
Football: Happily, Cpher’s team, 0-3 this season, finally gets a win with a 28-0 beatdown of Holt….
It is hard clipping out Cpher highlights….if he’s just doing his job there’s not much to see. I resolved to myself that I would make a clip of them no matter what this week. Will have to make it up to him in basketball…..Anyway, click below for the video…
Photos courtesy of Matthew; he did a good job!
I’m not sure how well the football year has gone for Cpher; I think that playing to the whistle has been an issue…he’ll make an initial block or attack and then stop…which oftentimes has the effect of the play going on around Cpher and him just standing there.
But I like this and the next two photos a lot. He is blocking #30 here….
and he has moved on to engage #96….and he’s still trying to block #30! He’s not holding, you can clearly see no grip, but, I think that’s awesome that he’s trying to engage two kids….
Football, Part 2: Matthew’s team lost, 25-22, to East Lansing. At Cpher’s basketball tryout last night, I had multiple people tell me how that was the most exciting 4th/5th grade football game they had seen in a long while.
Click the picture below for the long-form Matthew highlight reel (he was busy)
Click the picture below if you just want the touchdown
This tight end reverse is getting a lot of use now; I would bet Matthew ran this play five or six times on Sunday….
This attempt was probably the least successful of the bunch; only a few yards; the cornerback got Matthew and damn near ripped his jersey off….
….but it was effective, Matthew couldn’t get much further.
It’s been a very pretty Fall around here…..I think the drought has improved the colors but also made the colors come and go real fast…you can see that the trees behind the field are at or past peak already….
This is tight end reverse number two….this play ends with Matthew in the endzone.
The running backs, again, make nice blocks AND hold on to them…..
but a lot of it is looking at what’s in front and deciding where to make the cut.
Here, he made it to the end of the line and cut upfield……I don’t think I’ve ever seen him take it all the way outside. Matthew and I have talked that he is almost always better cutting in then trying to bounce outside…..he’s just not fast enough to make it to the edge. And if he bounces inside, he’s damned hard to tackle.
On a play in the second half (…you can see it in the video) he gets out to the edge and cuts back and gets another 10 yards….and gets chided by one of the coaches for cutting back. I’ve told Matthew to ignore this coach……
Made two out of three extra points…..
…this is about as good as it gets on the form front….plant foot down, leg swiveling through….
and he really hit this one….never a doubt it was going to go in. When he misses, it’s because he thinks he needs to kick-to-lift….if he just kicks the height will come as part of that.
this picture is from the video…..we scored two touchdowns off of this same play. The concept is pretty simple, tailback goes right, but, he’s going right behind our three best blockers, 78, 57, and Matthew, who you can see to the far right. Unlike his brother, Matthew blocks…and blocks…and blocks until that whistle blows. On this play, I think Matthew drives the linebacker almost back to the goal line while his buddy Greg scampers by.
