Travelling at 32.2 feet per second squared

Wiley Update #3:  If it’s a ruptured disk then it seems like it will be weeks before he is back to his normal self.  If it is something other that he may never be back to normal.

So now we are trying to dial-in how much of the steroid he should have.  The good news is that the steroid has helped.  The bad news is that too much of the steroid (and he’s been taking a lot) will cause ulcer and other issues.  So the vet asked us to stop the steroid on Sunday to see how he looked (he’s been taking four pills twice a day).  And all day Sunday he looked fine; came out to the door to see us when Suzanne and I got back from taking the boys to camp.  But this morning he was not so good; could not stand while he ate breakfast.  So he got four pills this morning and was a lot better in the afternoon and at dinner.  Only two pills for dinner.  We’ll try 4 and 2 tomorrow as well and then shift to 2 and 2 to see how that goes.

Gravity:  One of Kevin’s Christmas presents was presented to him the same weekend as soccer in the sand; Suzanne and Kevin travelled north to Charlevoix so that he could skydive for the first time.

Fric and Frac seem to not be as interested in this idea as Kevin is…..Matthew, while attempting enough daredevil stuff to make Mom and Dad cringe, flatly won’t even consider doing the two biggest coasters at Cedar Point right now.  

Kevin says a) it was a lot of fun!  and b) it was really strange to be pulling your legs over the railing out into nothing and c) the best part was the freefall.

Video from the jump if you click below

After the ‘fall’; Suzanne and Kevin went over to some friend’s and went out on a boat and tooled around Lake Charlevoix.

(heading out to the lake)

An Update on the AP Update

You may want to reread this post before you read further. 

Wiley Update #2:  Continues to improve; walked from the front yard to the back yard for the first time in two weeks late last night.  Got up(!) and walked out to the kitchen as I was making lunch for the boys’ trip kayaking on the Grand River today.  Got up(!) and walked outside to say hello when the wet grumpy tired boys arrived home after the kayak trip.  There were a few times today I watched him walking and couldn’t really tell he was limping.  Steroids finally having an effect?  Don’t know.  At this point we will take what we can get! 

Must tip my hat to our vet; she has asked that we call her every morning even though she was off Friday and obviously today.  Sent the refill for the steroid to rite-aid instead of the vet practice; the medicine was basically 1/4 of the initial cost (he is on a human steroid)!  Tomorrow he won’t be getting the steroid…she doesn’t want to overload his system with it.  So will continue to hope for more improvement.  Still a long way from a car ride……

Advanced Placement:  So, how did he do?

Lit:  He thought he would get at least a 4; got a 4.  Placed out of freshmen English.

Government:  Thought he would get a 5.  Was willing to bet large amounts of money on it.  Got the 5.  

Human Geography:  The most important of the tests because it gets him out of a science at NEU.  Pretty confident he did well here too after the test.  Got the 5.

European History:  Not as confident here after the test; think his aptitude for history and the social sciences helped him here.  Got the 4.

Macroeconomics:  Was always the subject he self studied for last and certainly the one he studied the least.  And it showed.  Got a 2 (a two!….#shameful!)

So, Kevin enters college as basically a sophomore, 28 credits earned towards his major.  And with his….oh wait, I didn’t talk about this did I?  How did I not talk about this!

Kevin, shortly after school ended, went out and took the online German placement test.  We, as a family, had some long talks about what to do here.  Better to not do well on the test and take the GRMN over and get good grades?  Better to do your best, study a lot beforehand, and show what you can do?

We decided on just take the dang test, don’t study, and you get what you get.

What you get is placing out of the complete foreign language requirement….Kevin placed into junior-year German and doesn’t even have to take that if he doesn’t want to.  Which led to another family discussion; better to keep taking German and become very proficient?  better to start another language?

As of now, he’s enrolled in GRMN 3101….we decided better to expert in one than so-so in two.  The online reviews of the German class and professor make it sound very daunting….again, does Kevin want to get caught up in something super hard when it doesn’t count towards graduation?  He can always drop I guess….and we’d like to think the rest of the freshman courses are relatively easy so might as well go for the harder one.

Speaking of freshman classes; Kevin has, strangely enough, placed out of the Math 2 requirement due to AP Stats but not Math 1…he has to take what will be a very easy math class at some point.  Hindsight says we should have had him take the AP Calc test even though he was only signed up for Calc, not AP Calc, at school.  He probably could have done more than well enough to place out of that.

 

Anyway, Kevin ends high school as an AP Scholar with Distinction.  If that Econ was a 4 instead of a 2 he would have been a National AP Scholar.  There is nothing to these names other than the name itself.

Soccer In the Sand 2014

Just haven’t been very current about updating the blog…..really need to be better about this.

Wiley Update #1:  Better Friday and Saturday Morning than he was Thursday…..still had to help him get to his feet on Friday morning but was able to walk to food, water, and outside and get up on his own as the day went on.  Not much more than that.  Ruptured disk maybe?  Was out in Grand Rapids on Thursday picking up Matthew from soccer camp…reports from home were very bad but maybe the steroids are finally kicking in and maybe the pain medication was dialed up too much.  At least he is doing the basics……

Soccer in the Sand:  Headed west a few weeks back for the second try at soccer on the beach in Grand Haven.  Last year was an unqualified success; 4-0 and a championship.  This year?  Not so much, 0-3 and a whole lot of disappointment.

Game 1:  Gave up a goal on a goalie miscue….gave up a goal on an own goal.  Down 2-0 after the first period.  We score twice in the second; Matthew has an assist on one goal but we are still down 3-2 after 2.  The third goal against is one of the first of the infuriating ones……we stand around and can’t mark kids on a corner kick so of course they just put it in on the header if no one is going to bother them. 

We give up two more in the third to lose 5-3.  Again, the goal against are infuriating; one time the team can’t do what every team does….build a wall as the other team kicks off and of course they score.  The last goal is the same deal as goal #3, can’t mark kids and they score unimpeded.

So where was Matthew during all of this?  On the first corner kick I talked about he is on the field and he comes back from up front to mark the kid in front of the goal; the guy on the far post is left alone and he puts it in.  He is not on the field for the other two disasters.

I think sand soccer suits Matthew very well…..it slows every player down and accents his strengths.  So he (because there is only other person on the team that they trust to play defense, and he is in the other group of four) is almost always back there and is a rock….always stopping the other team and usually starting us back down field.

Game 2:  Completely manhandled in this team by a bunch of kids who were much bigger than us.

The team we are on is the same as last year for the most part….a whole bunch of kids Matthew used to play with.  And I came away singularly unimpressed by many of them.  Could not create their own shot.  Could not keep possession.  Couldn’t be troubled to play defense. 

But, it is soccer in the sand and the sun is out and it is cool and the water is great so, uh, ok, it’s disappointing and we can live with that.

Game 3:  This game is what I can not live with.  We go up 1-0 on a nice goal.  They have a goal disallowed (it was very clear to the parents I was sitting near that the ball went over but the ref didn’t call it that way) and we are still up 1-0.  And the thing I dislike the most in almost any game happens here; parents thinking this is the world cup.   Yes the ref was bad.  But just because the other team’s coach is acting like a total fool doesn’t mean you need to respond or make sure everyone knows you are a total fool.   Sadly, some of the kids on the other team acted like their coach and played cheap, and even more sadly, our team responded.  More than a few kids were just going in trying to take out the other kid….not play the ball.

I ended up walking away from the field with about 3 minutes to go….just couldn’t stand it.  Which is too bad….I taped the whole game on my Ipad and of course Matthew scores his only goal of the weekend in those 3 minutes.   His goal is really similar to the goal that was disallowed for the other team…off the crossbar and down and in (their goal went almost straight down and barely crossed the line…Matthew’s goal hit the back of the net after the deflection).  And so the other coach again gets loud and snide and starts yelling “How is that a goal when ours wasn’t!?!”.  They are up 5-2 at this point.  Sigh.

But I could care less if the other team’s coach and parents are ogres…..I’m more pissed off that our parents acted that way and some of our kids decided that they could act on their parents’ frustrations. 

Went for a swim afterwards.  Sand, sun, water.  What I really should remember the weekend for I guess.

This boy didn’t listen to his Dad to apply a lot of sunscreen to his shoulders and arms because he doesn’t wear a tank top often.  He had a major sunburn to deal with through the week, with the inevitable peeling by the end of the week.

It’s there. And then it is not.

One of the nice things about sharing my apple account with the boys is that I get to see things….what music Kevin buys, where his phone is, and what pictures Matthew takes (Cpher is on Mom’s account…).

All of these pictures are taken since graduation weekend and pretty indicative of how often that subject shows up in a picture…about once a week.

Heading a ball!

Wiley’s sharp decline into a bad way has been, well, precipitous.  Not less than 3 weeks ago all was well….this picture is probably six weeks back.  Never the world’s most active dog, Wiley has enjoyed a renaissance of car rides this year that has been unparalleled in the last eight years of his life….almost daily trips in the morning and afterschool to drop off and pick up Christopher from school.  And he has loved every minute of it and even the slightest hint of a car key jingle in the morning will send him off to the side of the car to see if the door will open to take him away.

Wiley’s placement in this photo is incidental….but now just the sight of him standing confidently on his back legs is, well, something we desperately hope we see again.  But day by day this seems less likely.  So, what’s happened? 

A few weeks back Wiley developed a pronounced limp….he could still get around, he was sometimes less than graceful jumping into the car or up onto  the couch, but, he was limping.  There were some moments where he was his normal self and would rocket out of the house with Holly chasing god knows what scent in the backyard….so, we weren’t all that concerned at first.  The limp persisted, and we finally made the call to the vet to go in and see what was up.  They took an x-ray, and while there was a lesion on his spine in the x-ray, the big takeaway seemed to be that he had signs of arthritis and let’s try some non-steroid inflammation/pain drugs.

I know this picture is on a US World Cup Match Day….Matthew is sporting his US jersey.

And he was better for a day or so, or, improving at least….and then through the July 4th weekend it just got worse and worse.  Barely moving….would struggle to get up onto all four legs and very reluctantly would come out to eat and drink.

So vet visit #2 was last Monday.   Very obviously is not arthritis….is most likely that lesion, which is in a very bad spot, where all the nerve endings for both legs come together (I have been continually befuddled trying to explain which leg is the problem….because it seems like different ones at different times.  This would explain that).  Solutions here are limited….surgery, but, the minimum cost on that is $3k and that’s not happening.  Dump the non-steroid, move to a full-on steroid to help with inflammation, move to a full-on pain pill and get a heavy-duty antibiotic since he’s running a big fever as well. 

This picture was sent to Matthew at camp on Sunday night…

Improvement since the trip to the vet has been minimal; Kevin and I have had to help pick him up to get him on all four feet at times   A big milestone after the vet visit; could Wiley poop Monday afternoon (because apparently he hadn’t been going because he couldn’t bear down on those back legs).   He did go Monday….and Tuesday….but today he didn’t, and it is not a good sign when the dog isn’t achieving the lowest of benchmarks.  He is eating, and drinking, but, there is next to no movement without a whole lot of encouragement, and none of that movement is without a limp.   Started on two pain pills (he gets them every six hours), tried to dial it back to one every six hours but his movements have gotten worse….so we are back at two as of tonight.

At the vet Monday…..

So what’s next?  A whole lot of hoping……hoping the antibiotics and steroids have an effect soon and Wiley walks better….hope that he can at least achieve something close to normal (eat, drink, sleep, pee, poop) and accept that he is going to be more sedentary.    And that seems to be the absolute best case.  The worst case, sadly, seems to be approaching closer with every day that things don’t improve even a little bit.   Kevin and Cpher are fully aware of what is going on; we have not mentioned this to Matthew since he is away at camp but he will get a full and complete update tomorrow night.

From The Sports Desk – Williamston Four v Four

2014-2015:  Tryouts have come and gone; there are no big changes to report.  We have 16 on the team (one boy was moved down to the ‘B’ team; one boy left to do other sports).  16 is better than 18. 

Operation Fitness:  Both boys seems to be well, if not enthusiastic, at least not openly complaining about the plan.  I think I am enjoying the agility ladder sessions the most (the boys, and the dog, get a good laugh out of me attempting the exercises).

Hard at work….

The hardest thing is the strength and conditioning work that the soccer team has developed….Matthew has definitely been winded and sore at the end of those exercises.

To, um, encourage the boys on Operation Fitness I’ve offered some lessons at the high school….

 

This boy is a little bit more coordinated than the other one at this stage of the driving game…..

The 4v4:  We won’t be doing as many 4v4’s this summer as last…the schedule doesn’t work out for them.  Matthew is gone at camp during a lot of them and then I think the soccer team schedule is going to conflict with the big one at the end of the summer.  

The boys, watching the U12G final.  Matthew’s, hmmm, girlfriend isn’t the right term but it is the closest.  The girl-who-Matthew-is-going-out-with.  That’ll work.  Anyway, she is on that team. 

Game 1:  We lose 3-2 to Corn FC.  Corn is a team of kids from Matthew’s team, but, this game is more the story of us than them.  We hit the post of the goal four times in the first half….great chances, no conversion, and if you don’t score when you can you get this kind of result.

Game 2:  We beat Kickstart 10-2.  They aren’t that good, and we play everyone in different positions and still are scoring when the mercy rule kicks in.  

Feel bad for this team…they were the ultimate victim of some very strange bracketing/scheduling decisions made by the tournament this year.  There are eight teams; they have teams 1-4 play each other and teams 5-8 play each other.  Teams 1-4 are the ‘good’ teams…except for Kickstart, who got walloped by every team they played.  Teams 5-8 were lesser teams and while I can sit back and say the bracketing gave all of those teams some competitive games, the scheduling certainly didn’t seem like it determined who the best team was

Game 2.5:  We’re not playing, but Corn is playing our next opponent BB….and they lose 4-2.  That means, based on everyone’s guess at what the committee is doing, we can win our next game against BB and still move onto the final.

Game 3:  We beat BB 7-4.  BB is made up of six kids from other travel teams in the area and is pretty good….and we don’t miss this time and keep possession and take advantage of their mistakes.  We are winning 3-2 at the half and give up two quick goals in the second half to go down 4-3….but score the next four to put it away.

So, Corn, BB, and us (oh yeah, we were named Tim Howard’s Haircut) are all tied with 2 wins and 1 loss.  We think it will come down to goals allowed, and we lose out on that to Corn….because they know they need to keep the goals down against the weak Kickstart team and play that game to dominate.  If it had been goal differential, we would have advanced.

Turns out it didn’t matter either way…the committee took all the teams in one ‘pool’ and there were two teams in the other bracket who had two wins and one tie.  So both of them move on to the final.  Really disappointing to not even have a chance to play those kids…because any of the the three good teams in our bracket would have trashed them.

Quizbusters – The End

Grand Championship 2014

Click.  Picture.  Video.

Quick 10:  The only time all year that the team is behind in a match happens here…mainly because Ravi buzzes in wrong twice.  Kevin gets the Grimm brothers.  Ends tied 40-40.

Toss-Up 1:  This match, unlike the division finals which are longer than all of the others, is shorter because of the long halftime and trophy presentations.  So not as many questions in these toss-ups as at other times.  Mom, who missed these matches while in Seattle, was disappointed that they didn’t get Betsy Ross a lot sooner than they did.  This match is over after these toss-ups and bonuses, up 140-40

Pop Quiz 1:  K-R.  Kevin does not get Krakatoa (he was late on it).  Gets Coach K.  And was sitting there waiting for Kraft.  Up 180-80.

Toss-Up 2:  The bonuses here are not as hard as the division championships; the ‘busters’ questions were pretty simple until the last one.  Up 210-110.

Toss-Up 3:  Hey, we finally get a quiz bunch question!  And get nothing on the bonus….which figures.  Kevin knows all of these New York mayors…and I’m happy he doesn’t buzz in on the Bieber question…but it seems like he knew it right as Ravi buzzes in.  Up 320-110

Pop Quiz 2:  K-U.  Kevin’s last pop quiz goes…poorly.  Doesn’t get kudo.  Doesn’t get kudzu (says he has never heard of it).  Doesn’t get Kubla Khan. Up 360-130

Toss-Up 4:  Kevin buzzes in pretty early with Arizona and they get a musical bonus.  And the questions, the first two at least, are easy.  Kevin is irked by the last one, the description is pretty similar to Streetcar Named Desire except at the very end.  Up 390-180.

Lightning Round:  Kevin gets Wall Street to start it and gets William Henry Harrison to end it.  They win 450-180.  Kevin knew both questions missed; he easier Pavlov instead of Chekhov and Garrison instead of Smith. 

Boy.  Dad.  Trophy.  Hug.

The End

Quizbusters – Saline

Green Division Championship – aka The Day of the Parking Deck Car Crash!

Click on the picture for the video

Quick 10:  Kevin not happy that Abhijit buzzes in for Earth Day…but he was slow on Arbor Day.  Abhijit and Ravi basically rule this round, we are up 60-20 at the end.

Toss-Up 1:  The difference in this game?  Saline answers early and wrong at times, and Saline gets nothing on the bonus from the toss-ups they win….and we get points on almost all of them.  Happy that the boy got Gettsyburg.  Little surprised they didn’t get the airport bonus.  Kevin starts smiling when he hears island battles in the Pacific in World War II. Up 140-to 30. 

Pop Quiz 1:  H-E-I.   Kevin does not get heinous.  Gets Heisenberg crazy early – they players, especially the ones who go later, write down as many words as they can and know to be waiting for some of the answers….Kevin is particularly good at this.   Kevin does not get heifer. Up 210-80

Toss-Up 2:  Again, we are not as successful on the bonus questions as we usually are; only 1 bonus answer on the Poe question.  But Saline gets nothing on leaders of Egypt.  I think there have been a lot of golf club questions; I think we have missed all of them…..and Saline finally cleans up on a bonus category.  Up 230-140.

Toss-Up 3:  Not doing well on these quiz bunch questions….and Kevin was irked he didn’t get the Crime and Punishment question (I had asked him to read this one summer when he was sitting around doing nothing).  I think after this bonus is when I finally saw the score in the control room.  Again, not cleaning up on the bonuses but getting one or two right every time.  Kevin buzzes in and misses Arthur Miller….but Saline only gets only gets one bonus.  280-230.

Pop Quiz 2:  H-A-T.  Kevin is sitting and waiting for Hathaway.  Both miss the Egyptian God Hator.  Kevin gets hatchback.  Up 310-280.  About as close as a match has ever been this late.

Toss-Up 4:  We win the first toss-up (World War I) and get two of the bonus questions.  We win the second toss-up (Sweeney Todd) and get lucky…a version of that Bolivian capital question shows up again and we get two of the bonus questions.  We win the third toss-up (Australia) and get one of the bonus questions…Ravi had it but they went with lyrics instead of words.  Up 390-280…..this round is where the game essentially ended.

Lightning Round:  Kevin gets Santa Ana but that is it…we win 440-300.

Quizbusters - Hartland

The final episodes are finally airing!  Click on the picture to go to the video….

Quick Ten:  Another state capital answer; Albany.  And then he buzzed in earlier and puzzled his way to the right answer of the River Thames.  Up 80 to 20.

Toss-Up 1:  Kevin knew all of the poets from the first toss-up.  Had to laugh at the math question; everyone but Kevin goes for the button when they hear ‘Mersenne’….winning 160-70.

Pop Quiz 1:  R-O-S.  Kevin knows the explorer Ross, knows the sled is Rosebud (I was surprised he got this).  Did not get Rosenberg.  Winning 240-90.

Toss-Up 2:  Nothing going on here….we lost both toss-ups.  Winning 240-130.

Toss-Up 3:  Miss that pesky toss-up that leads to the video question again!  I don’t think I noticed at the time that they had closed to within 60 points….but we win the next three toss-ups and pull ahead.  The second toss-up is one of the highlights of this show, Kevin gets his chance at obscure Caribbean capitals.  Kevin almost pulls the sweep here but messes up the saints for Grenada.  Couldn’t believe they didn’t know Watership Down though!  Winning 300-180.

Pop Quiz 2:  R-O-O.  Kevin was waiting for ‘rook’ and jumped all over that.  The highlight of the show is next…Kevin pulls out ‘Rooney’, probably through osmosis or some other genetic pass-through and saves himself an endless amount of abuse. Kevin’s facial expressions during this question are priceless and well worth a second viewing.  Missed ‘root’.  Winning 370-230.

Toss-Up 4:  Picked the wrong Bolivia capital to bomb out of the first toss-up.  Did well on the Italian questions, missed the last one.  Watching those other three kids crash the buzzer on the science question is pretty fun.  Hard for me to tell watching it if Kevin knew the Greek questions.  Winning 460-230.

Lightning Round:  Ravi has another spectularly wrong answer (girls instead of boys for snips and snails and puppy dog tails) that gets you a lot of kidding after the show is over.  Kevin gets albatross but is pretty quiet through here, we win 520-260. 

The next show is the Green Division Final….and the day of the car accident!

From The Sports Desk – End of Season Soccer Evaluations

Didn’t receive these electronically, so, it is just scanned images for use on the blog.

 

So, some thoughts on the team evaluation.

1)  Maybe we have been a little dense; maybe it could have been communicated more clearly to Matthew and us, but, “…a few players below expectation”.  Well, that’s Matthew.

2)  Which is a little strange (see, I am a little dense!) because when I read the comments I think Matthew does a pretty good job at some of the critical points mentioned.  He does try and play quickly (although I think it would be fair to say that the phrase “play quickly AND effectively!” would be something Matthew should look to do). 

3)  In the Areas of Improvement for the team, I don’t think he has anything to worry about for #1, he is pretty good at challenging, being physical, and tackling.  He doesn’t shoot enough by position for me to be too concerned about being ‘clinical’.  And I’d love for him to be more vocal on the field….need to have more of a talk with him about that.

And this evaluation isn’t bad at face value; it was seeing, at a glance, his teammate’s evaluations (teammates we think Matthew is much better than!) with a lot of marks for mastered where Matthew had none that really sunk home that, hey, your coach doesn’t think you are the player we think you are.

And we, as a group, were pretty pissed about this at the end-of-year party.  A pretty bitter pill to swallow!  But Matthew has, I think, settled into a “I am going to prove him wrong” mentality and at least in Day 2 after the evaluation, is hard at work making that happed (even as I type this, he just left with ball in his backpack to go down to the park and shoot on goal).  If having this in print is what it takes to motivate him, great.  Suzanne and I will get over being disgruntled about it.

Popular Posts

It’s taken seven years, but, something I have worried about for a long time with this blog has happened.    Someone within a 10-mile radius of Casa de Graystone has become the most common visitor to the blog!

You can actually see a trace of it while you’re looking at this post.  Scroll down and look over on the right…you’ll see the list of popular posts.

  

Normally, around this quiet portion of the internet, the visitors are few and family-related.  That makes whatever I have posted most recently a very likely candidate to show up on the Popular Post list.  But over the last month, the blog tracking bot says the most common visitor isn’t family, it’s a new IP address.  That person hits the blog by hitting that Quizzing The Year Away page.  A cursory examination of the IP address (I don’t pay for the full version which would give me the whole number, I only get the first three numbers of the four number address) shows that yup, it’s a comcast address from mid-michigan.

So welcome new visitor! 

The 2014 Edition of the Annual Charting of Progress

Decided to get the physicals out of the way early this summer instead of later.  Anytime after April 1 works for the sports physical requirement for sports.  Both boys requested to go with each other again.  As I type this, I don’t know why I continue to be stupid and do this…..there was so much silliness in the examination room it wasn’t even funny.  I mean, I guess it was funny, I could post the six second video I have of Matthew mooning me with the hospital gown on.  And the nurse and doctor both found it amusing I guess….but it grew old quickly for me.

Anyway, onto the charts!

 

Tumbling back towards the chart?  I actually think this is more of a reflection that the boys seem to be later to the growth spurt than their peers…..there are more a lot of kids on Cpher’s team with deeper voices.  Cpher is not one of them; doctor estimates about halfway through puberty…and most of the boys growing occurs at the end of puberty, not the beginning.

 

Not.  Good.  More on this after the next chart.   I have asked Cpher to weigh himself every Monday and this was the confirmation that he hasn’t been reporting the number on the scale. 

The other part of the weight problem.  Heading over the 95% mark on BMI earned Cpher a trip for some blood work…don’t have those results yet.  But, like the shot at the physical, getting the blood drawn was a major production in protest and pain.   Just amazing a kid his size can act this way about it….

Anyway,  about the poundage.  He’s going to have to work at it (and we’ve instituted a pretty good exercise program for him, and me, and Matthew) and as long as the blood work doesn’t show anything alarming the doctor isn’t too alarmed…it is common to bulk up a little before growing, and she, after talking a little about Kevin’s height, said, “Oh, he is going way past him”.   We’ve taken up writing down what food we eat (I do this with Fitbit anyway)….I think it will help Cpher to focus on what he consumes (because he can pack it away at times!).   Plan on posting this chart again at the end of August to see where we are at…..as I told Cpher, the worst part about this is he just finished coming off of two sports with lots of running….he will be hard pressed to hit that level of physical exercise during the summer without putting in some serious time and effort.

 

Six years of measurements exactly on the chart, gone!  Maybe this dip, and Cpher’s, is because of a change in measurement at the doctor’s office?  Who knows?

 

I think, if we had taken a bunch of measurements between the last two measurements you would see a little spike in Matthew’s weight away from the curve where he has always been.  By his own admission, falling out of shape resulted in some bulking up in late winter……he has worked hard in lax and soccer and you can see the change in him on the field.  Better yet, he can see the change, and is pretty motivated right now to continue.

Not much to report here.

As I said, both boys are tracking what they eat and made some goals for themselves, both weight and fitness related.  Should be an interesting post in August to see where we have ended up!

From The Sports Desk – The End of Soccer Edition

Like all of these FTSD posts…..there is nothing current here.  Part of it is that I like to wait for the game reports, but, they seem to have fallen behind as well.  I’ll come back and post them if they ever show up.

Midland:  After the four games of lacrosse at the Waverly Festival, Matthew and I headed north and east for the long drive to Midland.  The game was a 6 pm start, conveniently scheduled as part of a double-header after we played our state cup game.  Since we didn’t qualify, this game is a pain in the ass on many levels (long drive, ugly time).   I can’t complain about the away schedule though…only three away games out of eight on the road and one was an easy jaunt down to Jackson.

Anyway.  We travel north.  Matthew and me in a car for 3+ hours; good times…had some good conversation, he had to get some of his homework done on the car on the way there as well.  So there’s that.

Ask Matthew after the game what he would grade himself at; he says 8.5.  I might have gone 9.  Since I have some extra time on my hands (hah!), I went through and clipped out every instance of him touching or being on the ball.  So, if you click on the photo below, you’ll get that video.

Of course the best place in the video to clip out for a picture is where he makes one of his two…um, areas for improvement from today’s game.  He decided once or twice to linger on the ball and take multiple touches for one reason or another.  And it didn’t work out well either time.   He always works on quick and simple soccer…when it doesn’t happen he knows bad things are going to occur.

So we tie, 2-2.  Matthew has an assist…we score an own goal…that never helps.  But it happens.

Next three games are at the Canton Cup – they are all basically forgettable.

1)  Lost to Knights FC 4-2.  Had a back-up coach for this game and he made some serious…um…errors with playing time.  Matthew only plays last 3 minutes of first half and first 3 minutes of second half…he’s not happy, parents aren’t happy. Not good.  It’s too bad….the team reverted as a group to this ball-first defense I’ve talked about before and having some Matthew-physicality out there.  The less said about this debacle the better.

2)  Lost to Vardar 5-1.  They are one of the two best teams of the state…..this result is not unexpected.  Thought the boy played well as playing time returned to normal but we were just overmatched….it was only 2-0 at the half but they just wore us down.  That Midland game showed about the best of how we can be in possession; there is still a big gulf between us and a really good possession team like Vardar.

3)  Lost to Ole 5-1.  I have video of he first half that I may go back and grab stuff from but, again, they are good and giants are we are not.  Giants.  And sometimes we aren’t even good.  Missed two goals where the guy was alone in front of an empty net.  Sigh.  Thought Matthew again played ok….did not take any physical crap off of those big giants…..and when he stood them up good things happened.

I sent this picture on to a friend to help illustrate the problem of playing Ole.  Matthew is not small, you can only see his head between 9 and 11 there.  The guy bending over is at least as tall as the other kids.  And there are two others at least as tall as them. 

This is before a corner kick we are defending.  Matthew is the one who gets to the ball and gets it out of danger.

Game and tournament reports for these games?  We’ll see……I hope to get them at some point.  That’s the end of the season though; we missed the next game (a 4-0 win) for graduation and the last game of the season was a forfeit.

2014 Spring WSSL Standings

 

2014 Canton Cup U13 White Results

A Smattering of Graduation Photos

I’ll do a more thorough post on the Open House ad Commencement later, but, for now, let me at least get some of the photos that have been sitting on my Iphone out there.

The traditional spot for the first day of school photos; this is the last day of school photo.

 

One down, two to go!

 

La familia.  Man Suzanne and I look short in this photo!

 

Kevin and friends….

 

Kevin and Gavin.  Viola, German, Quiz Bowl….these two have seen a lot together.  Both will be in Boston next year.

     

One of Kevin’s graduation from his parents; this compass. Initials engraved on the front; this phrase on the back.  The phrase is from….

      

Mom had a great idea here….

and Kevin really liked it.

From The Sports Desk – Lax Catch Up and Conclusion Edition

I am so far behind on the sports front it is not even funny.  Let’s figure out just what I’ve missed….

Christopher:  Again, I think I’m really light on Cpher photos.  Part of this is that either he didn’t play scheduled games due to weather or I wasn’t there.  I know the split into 7th and 8th grade teams for games against Caledonia; the 7th graders won 6-5.  We played the ‘A’ team from Holt; we lost 11-0 and it really wasn’t that close.  Apparently the communities agreed to split teams, if you have two, evenly, and everyone but Holt did that.  Did get to see Cpher at attack and middie in this game so that was fun.

The end of the season tournament was out in Clarkston…again, it was the same time as Kevin’s Open House so I missed it.  Cpher drove out with the coach and a friend or two.  They lost both games…..I really think the lacrosse program needs to reevaluate how we enter these tournaments and festivals.  The other communities are entering A and B teams…..even if we would split by grade we would be more competitive.  As it is, the 5th and 7th graders are weak spots on both teams.  Cpher only played Saturday; spent Sunday at home with us for graduation.

Matthew:  There are no pictures from the two games between the Waverly tournament and the end of the year tournament, but, each game had something to talk about.   The first was a 6-4 win against East Lansing, where, again, my boy is the one who is hurt when some kid on the other team decides to pick up the granddaddy of penalties, 2 minutes, non-releasable. 

So what happened?  Matthew is charging in after picking the ball up on defense; he beats one kid, he beats another, spins, spins….and the last defender comes up and uses his d-pole like you would use a spear against a charging pig…..and literally shoves the head right at Matthew’s neck!  Every parent, from both teams, makes that ‘Ooooooo’ sound; not good.

Of course, Matthew goes down in a heap…..he comes off the field and does end up going in later, but, he has taken his share of lumps this year!

The last ‘game’ of the year is parent appreciation day….it is a scrimmage against the other 5/6 split squad team.  Apparently, there is a lot of trash talk at school before the game; Matthew’s team is undefeated in split squad games so he is feeling pretty confident and has not been shy about telling the other team both that fact and his opinion.

He was right; we win 11-3.  The boy had every chance to score in this game; I think he put two shots off the post!  I thought his finest moments were when he took faceoffs against one of his best friends, Joey.  Absolutely dominated him; won possession, headed upfield, took great shots on goal.  

The other highlight of this game was that the coaches asked the kids to sign cards for their parents.  Many kids went simple, Thanks-Mom, something short.  Matthew put some time and thought into it…he told us afterwards as he sat there and wrote his card out that two or three kids came over with their card and left as they were done.   We told him he was the hero of the day, because other parents were pretty jealous when we opened our card and received a well thought out thank you.

Cpher thought he might have merited a mention (and he might be right).  Kevin was pretty touched to hear that his two years of lacrosse was remembered by his little brother…..

Matthew’s season, like Cpher’s, ends at Clarkston.  His games are in the morning so I go out with him for the double-header.  Like his brother, we run up against A teams with our full squad and that is not a recipe for success, we lose 6-0 and 11-0 or something like that.  I do have some pictures.

I’m a broken record sometimes; team gets hammered and I think Matthew has played well.  But I do think, if it were just our 6th graders playing his team, it would have been a different story.   

Played middie.  Again, this faceoff isn’t particularly fair. 

I think this kid was reduced to trying to flop his body over the ball after Matthew flattened him…

 

I think, I know(!), that I have been talking to Matthew for a month about leading by example in his sports and being physical…both teams, lacrosse and soccer, seem to have a lot of defense-without-contact going on and well, it just doesn’t work.  In lacrosse, if you are all stick and no body the guy just goes by you.

Matthew, bless his little heart, has been a stalwart at knocking kids on their butts.  One sequence in this game is memorable enough for me to remember two weeks later….this one kid from Howell is running up the sideline and our parents are yelling ‘Push Him Out, Push Him Out’.  And two kids can’t do it….and finally Matthew comes over and flattens the kid and he hits the sideline and the ball is ours.   I should mention Matthew also is doing this cleanly…he hasn’t seen he penalty box in a long time…..

In the second game, this defenseman on the other team is running upfield through the middle of the field; he has beat our two middies and three attack and the only thing standing between him and our defense is Matthew about midfield.  The guy comes in, fakes, Matthew slows him a little with his stick and runs through him.  Turnover, Matthew heads upfield with the ball……

 

Had his chances to score in the first game….did a nice job with the ball when he had it.  But didn’t play as much as he or I would have wished because of the large team size….