Halloween 2022
Month: October 2022
Shots from Yesterday
Highlight Reel
Despite battling illness and the MaxPreps top-ranked volleyball player in South Carolina, River Bluff pushed Mauldin to the limit in each of their 3 sets during Thursday’s Upper State Semifinal AAAAA State Playoff match. A mere 7 points separated the two teams in the 3 sets. Still, the Mavericks proved just a little too much for the Gators.
While all three sets saw numerous lead changes, River Bluff’s points seemed to come with more difficulty. When all was said and done, fans had been treated to a match between two of the best volleyball teams in the state. In fact, one could easily argue that the state’s top four AAAAA teams were competing in Thursday’s Upper State semifinals. While River Bluff’s season ended prematurely for Gator fans, the team can rest somewhat comfortably knowing they were a part of this elite group.
River Bluff Athletics
Throw In
It’s heartbreaking to watch the Boy’s team, who has won only one game this year, take a 1-0 lead in the first half only to lose 1-2. But the Boy had a great game.
“I’d say we should move him up to attack,” said one of the parents, “but he’s our best defender, too.”
Today’s Guest Teacher
Quarter Finals
The Girl’s team went into tonight as the underdogs. Facing River Bluff, the number 1 seed in the state, our girls were ranked fourth. Add to it the fact that River Bluff had already beaten us twice this year and it’s easy to see why Mauldin was not the favorite.
On the River Bluff athletic’s page, they posted a short story about it today:
River Bluff hopes to continue their playoff drive tonight as they travel to Mauldin for a matchup between two number 1 seeds. While the two programs are quite similar, River Bluff won both of the matches between the two programs earlier in the season in close 2-set sweeps.
River Bluff Athletics
They even included stats about the previous games, and even though the first chart of team-scoring averages seemed to favor Mauldin, they still had beaten us in both meetings, by the same scores, in fact.
My thought was that we had to win that first set. That seemed like a non-negotiable. Early on we were up by four or more, but then River Bluff came back. It went back and forth until Mauldin broke free and won 25-22.
“River Bluff will be out for blood now,” I thought, and they were indeed. They led most of the second set, and when it was 18-22, I thought we might not be able to recover. But we did, taking the second set 27-25.
“The River Bluff girls are broken now,” I told K. I didn’t mean that they were going to fall apart but simply that while they could have brushed off a first-set loss, a second-set loss would sting all the more. I thought one thing would be running through the River Bluff girls’ heads: had this been a best-of-three set game like in most tournaments, it would have been over.
The third set was close, but in the end, our girls swept them with a 25-23 win in the final set. The reaction was amazing, first from the girls, then from the students watching:
The River Bluff girls were heartbroken, with several of them just in tears. “I saw,” L said, “it was kind of sad.” That’s just the nature of sports, though. Someone has to win; someone has to lose. And after our rough club season earlier this year, I am so glad to see our Girl winning like this.
A couple of L’s friends from another high school — the high school we’d beaten to be regional champions — came to cheer Mauldin on. The three of them played club together this year, and they’re happy for L as well.
“That’s the number one team in the state!” I said to one of the girls. Her expression grew serious as she clarified, “Not anymore.”
Indeed.
Next up — Dorman. Last year, they beat Mauldin in the quarter-finals. Time for some revenge…
Wednesday
Students today began an incredibly short Halloween unit that will focus on irony, so we did a quick review of irony with a gallery walk. It’s always a fun activity: the kids move around the room, looking at various images or texts and discuss them with a particular end in mind. Today, for example, they were to determine how each image was ironic.
“Don’t just explain what’s going on in the picture,” I clarified after we’d done a quick review of what irony is. “If you don’t explain the expectation and how that expectation was defied, you haven’t explained irony.”
In the evening, the Boy and I went out to find basketball shoes for him as he begins his basketball season.
At first, I was hesitant: “They’re somewhat expensive,” I texted K, “and I don’t really know that he needs them.”
“He only has one pair of shoes,” she replied, “so he’ll need another pair soon enough.”
I looked at him: “Will you wear these to school after basketball season?”
“Of course!”
The Journey Continues
Tonight the Girl’s high school volleyball team’s quest for the state championship continued with a victory over Byrnes High School.
“It shouldn’t be any problem,” the Girl said offhandedly. “We’ve beaten them three times already this year.”
When the first set began, though, the girls from Byrnes seemed intent on telling a different story. They went back and forth, staying within a point of each other until the girls from Byrnes eased ahead: 12-13. Then 13-14. And 15-16. And 16-17. They just maintained that one-point lead, which is nothing to worry about, but if a one-point lead extends to a two- or three-point lead as they near 20, it becomes more problematic. 18-19, and I began to wonder.
Finally, the girls leveled it out at 19-19, and L rotated into server. She sent one skimming over the top of the net and the Byrnes girls struggled to receive it, and they were forced to pass it over with a free-ball. Our girls made quick work of it: 20-19. L served again. The Byrnes girls set their outside hitter, but our right side and middle were there and stuff the ball back to make it 21-19. Then L hit an ace for 22-19. Byrnes at this point called time out, but our girls were on a roll. L served again, and we won the point. 23-19. The Girl sent a shot that skipped off the top of the net and dropped among the defenders for set point: 24-19. Finally, L served for set. The Byrnes girls received it, set their hitter, and our libero took it easily, passing it to the setter. We all knew who was getting the ball: she’s a senior, the most powerful hitter, and team leader. The set went to Journee, sent a lightening ball into Byrnes’ court. It had ricocheted off the floor and was well above the girls’ heads before they knew what hit them.
This Thursday, they have their most important game of the season: they face River Bluff, who has beaten them twice this year. However, the Girl’s team has beaten teams that beat River Bluff, so it’s far from clear who will win.
We’ll find out soon enough.
Another Shot from Table Rock
Table Rock
Final Soccer
It’s been a tough season: our team has one win and who knows how many losses. Each Saturday, we head out, and I tell the Boy to do his best, to enjoy the game, to keep his chin up no matter the outcome, to tell him that they can indeed win because they have done it before — and I convince myself of it. And then three, five, seven minutes into the game, the other team scores its first goal, and I immediately turn pessimistic.
Today was no different. Within the first half of the first half, we were down 0-3. We stopped the hemorrhaging and even scored a goal to enter the half-time break down 1-3.
Then I hear from the couple sitting beside me, “Oh no. No. Dear God, no.” I look up and see that their son is putting on the goalie jersey. This is their son’s first year playing, and like many kids, he’s not particularly athletic. But he wants to play, and he does the best he can. His parents cheer him on continually, and the other boys on the team are supportive as well. “I love my son,” the other said, “but he doesn’t throw himself in front of anything.” Yet the boys hold it together fairly well, letting two more goals in while scoring two more themselves to end 3-5.
After our third goal, one of the parents from the other team became irate. “Call the illegal throw!” he screamed. I didn’t see that our boys had done anything illegal, but he apparently thought they had. I glanced over to see a fairly muscular tattooed man with bulging veins in his neck as he yelled “Call the illegal throw!” again.
What a jerk, I thought. What a way to set an excellent example: yell at the ref who is himself a high-school-aged kid. How embarrassing.
Eventually, he calmed down, but he continued making remarks about the ref and how our boys weren’t following the rules.
I wanted to walk over to him and say, “Look, man, it’s a game. They’re kids; the ref is a kid; your kid’s team is up by 2 — calm yourself and stop making an ass of yourself.” Of course, that would have made me just as bad as he in many ways, and nothing good could come of a confrontation like that.
It turns out, though, that this was the opponents’ first win of the season. That makes us tied as far as records go…
View from Babia
Scouting
Family Festival
Old Pictures
E will be working on a Veterans’ Day Project that pays tribute to Papa and his service in the Navy. I got to wondering what old pictures we have of Papa, so I began searching. One thing led to another and I was on ancestry.com, checking on the family tree I’d worked on in the past. And I noticed a few pictures I could add to flesh out the Polish side of our family tree.
Region Champions
As of tonight, it’s official: the Girl’s varsity volleyball team are region champions. We didn’t play a game to settle it: it was a matter of whether another team lost or not. Technically, it wasn’t: our team was forced to forfeit against Woodmont because of having played too many games this season. (Apparently, that’s a rule.) If Woodmont had won tonight, they would have had the same record as Mauldin but because of the forfeit score (three sets of 25-0), they would have won because total points come into play in the event of a tie.
We’d played Woodmont earlier this year, and as with every other regional game, our girls took the game in straight sets. We would have undoubtedly done it again last Thursday were the girls not forced to forfeit, and honestly, everyone in the region probably realizes this as well: our girls are that good.
And so we’re into the playoffs, with the hope of winning the state championship in three weeks.
Looking Glass
Around the House and More
Parkour
Forfeit
Does a win count as a win if an outside power forces a team to forfeit? Does the loss count as a loss? Do the standings afterward in any way reflect reality?