Photos from Kelly’s last race came in on the Cross-Country website.

What do you think Nicole is yelling here? (See more in Stonegate Gallery.)

For this next girl I have only one word… WOW! — Coach B

That’s how Coach B introduced Kelly as he announced her to come up for one of five special “coach’s awards.” That was the third time Kelly was called up for the evening. When Kathy, Claire, and I joined Kelly for the Cross Country banquet, we had early confirmation that she had lettered for the season, much to our and both coaches’ surprise. But we did not know she was going to be called up to stand in front of the crowd for two other reasons. First she was called up and recognized for being a Scholar Athlete. The photo below shows the new athletics director shaking her hand.

I wondered how she achieved Honors Athlete when she had not gotten her first high school report card. The director explained that for freshmen, given cross country is a fall sport, they used the previous semester middle school grades. So here good work in middle school paid off immediately in high school!

Next she was called up with the group that had achieved their letters. In the photo below, you can see her standing near coach B.

The big surprise was at the end when Coach B announced 5 special awards. That’s when he introduced Kelly with the “Wow” word as he explained she had gone from just barely being able to qualify, to not finishing her first meet, to shaving off almost 8 minutes through the season to qualify for a letter in the final meet. For that she earned most improved and got a special award plate handmade by Coach B’s wife. One of the other winners can be seen in crutches. She ran state with a broken bone in her foot that had to have surgery three days after the season ended.

I asked Kelly if she got tired having to keep going up front. Nope.

Click on this photo to see the movie…

Each fall, Spring Hill’s baseball team has an off season competition called the Purple and White Series. Half of the baseball team plays the other half for a best of 7 series. This comes at the end of fall practice and helps determine who will start in the next season, which begins in February.

Danny landed on the purple team, which I figured was better if only because it involves more color. He was hoping to get to start a game, but was sure he would at least get to be a reliever. The series started on Friday night. Saturday night was Kelly’s chorus performance in Athens, but Kathy, Grandad, and Gramlie were all ready to head down early on Sunday if Danny was called up for the Sunday night game. (Gramalie and Grandad would drive down the next day as reported here.)

Late Saturday night the word came in from Danny. He would be starting the Sunday game pitching against his friend Mike Scanino, but the coach wanted to move it to a day game, so he would start at 3 p.m. That was just too early to drive down, so I sent instructions for Danny’s roommate, Patrick, to get some good photos. I let it be known there would be a bounty of brownies.

Danny was stiff for the first inning and pitched 29 pitches, but only one run scored. He was able to settle in the next four innings and keep the White team from scoring. He had a total of 71 pitches for a total of five innings before a reliever came in. Scanio did not fair so well, the Purple team scoring 6 runs in one inning against him. The final score was 8 to 3, Danny taking the win. Although he felt bad about it being one sided, he still enjoyed his first official trip back to the mound. The Brookwood playoffs seem like a long time ago (and 20 less pounds ago.)

Danny was able to play in two more games. He came in as first reliever in the 6th inning on the Wednesday game. He had 8 pitches and no one got on. The Purple team won the series 4 to 1, but the coach wanted to play one more game. Danny was the starter for the last game on Friday. While it did not “count”, he still had a good showing pitching 4 innings. He did not allow any runs and had several strike outs.

Meanwhile, Patrick has some camera problems, so the only two known photos are seen here. One is just after Danny pitched on Sunday. That’s ice on his arm.

I’m glad we got these two photos, though. It’s good to see DC back in an official uniform… and a Purple one at that. Patrick will get his brownies.

Kelly has had remarkable improvement in the month of October. At this rate, I told her she would be able to run 3 miles in 0 minutes 0 seconds sometime in June. Her goal is to get into the top 20 so she can be Varsity. She thinks she is top 27 right now and needs to get down to about 23 minutes.

(And yes, this was another non-throw-up race. Thank goodness.)

Kelly had to get up at 6:00 am this morning to catch the 6:30 team bus for a cross-country meet at Marist. I dropped her off and made sure she got checked in. Then Claire and I headed down to Decatur for a soccer match. It was cold and foggy, but the sun came out in time for the game. Claire’s team did not play well, and 3 balls got by Claire who played goalie most of the game. Towards the end of the game, Claire came out to play forward. The good news, is Claire got some things happening. At one point she was threatening, and the opposing goalie came out to challenge her along with two defenders. The ball suddenly popped out of the group of four players, and Katie, one of Claire’s teammates, kicked the ball over the group of four and scored. So at least it wasn’t a shut-out. Final score 3 to 1.

Meanwhile, Kathy headed over to Marist to watch Kelly. This course was the the most “country” so far with lots of hills and woods. Kelly ran well and did not get nauseous this time. Even though the course was tough (and a lot of her peers lagged behind) Kelly was able to finish with her best 3-mile time yet: 26:19. Improving her time and improving her stomach control. Good race.

Claire and I ended up going over to Ted’s house, since we were in the neighborhood, and we got to meet Austin. Austin is smaller than Katie, which I did not realize. Austin likes to jump up on Ted and let Ted hold both of his paws. Dogs aren’t supposed to like having their paws held this way, but Austin doesn’t mind. Both dogs seemed to really enjoy Claire and I coming over. Ted didn’t seem to mind either.

Photos from the boys’ get-away. We missed Bob and said so several times, although Ted did a pretty good job of cooking bacon.

Click to view: Photos

Drink: Lime Beer

Phrase: “You idiot!”

Come backs: UGA, ND

Loser: Falcons

Winner: New Orleans

Crossword: Irony vs. Coincidence

Driver: Grant

Before Dinner: Alligators

Center of Dinner: Hole / Trashcan

Snack: Peanuts

Dessert: Susan’s Brownies

Nourishment: Mom’s soup

Forgot: Beach towels, sunscreen, bug spray, beach chairs, PAL

Frustration: Cemetary Geocache

Danger: Swim to pelican sandbar

Distraction: Biting flys

Irritant: The guy from Jersey

Find: 4 bottles with messages

Excess: Sand dollars

Lost: Michael’s football

Disputed: Definition of lost

Pew buddy: Aunt Margie

Most missed: Bob E.

The game: Bocce

Kelly participated in her first cross country meet this morning. This was a county meet, so there were hundreds of kids participating. While the morning was cool at first, it warmed up, and unfortunately for Kelly, the JV girls ran last.

The course wove in and out of a huge soccer field complex and included a couple of tricky hills and bridges. Kelly started off strong, pulling well ahead of her Brookwood peer group. In fact, she pulled too far ahead and clocked a 7 minute 16 seconds on her first mile. While she has been able to run 3, 4, and 5 miles in practice fine, by the time Kelly passed her second mile mark, she was in bad shape with a terrible side ache. Getting dizzy, she sat on the side of the course almost about to pass out.

A kind dad (not me… I was waiting to photograph her around the bend and didn’t see) carried her to the Brookwood tent to recover. She felt awful and took about 15 minutes before she could even try to stand back up. She napped all the way home (with air conditioning turned on to max.)

It probably didn’t help that she had been sick earlier in the week, and was still a little on the mend. But we are still proud of her, and doesn’t she look like the real athlete with her race number and her uniform? For at least a mile-and-a-half she looked like a pro!

The Start

Going Strong At 1.5 Miles

We all converged on Anna Maria Island without incident, although Dad’s trip down the day before involved a 3 hour delay in getting a flat tire replaced. Carol had FOPAB shirts ready for us. The houses are much nicer than we expected. Bob bought a wireless router to hook up to cable, and we now have 5 laptops with internet access (in case in rains.) We look forward to Nicole and hopefully Ted joining us.

CONNECT FOUR

CALENDAR CHALLENGE

January – Andrew

February – Uncle Jeb

March – Uncle Jeb

April – Andrew

May – Andrew

June – Andrew

July – Uncle Jeb

August – Andrew

September – Uncle Jeb

October – andrew

November – andrew

December -andrew

Andrew 8 months

Uncle Jeb 4 months