volleyball
Knoxville Day 1
Savannah 2021
Southern Classic, Day 2
At their age and ability level, the Girl and her teammates can go from one extreme to another. For example, they can lose the first set 25-16 and then turn around and win the next set 25-16.
They can make a brilliant play and follow it up by letting the ball flop slowly and gently in between three players as they all look at it, each on expecting someone else to get it, each one making a move for it and then backing off, each one remaining perfectly silent.
The Girl can hit serves that float over the net gently and then power rockets over the net. Then she can miss her timing and the serve doesn't even make it to the net.
Today, they got third place in the silver division. That means, roughly, they finished seventh place overall, I think.
Not horrible but not what they wanted. Still, they were all in a good mood at the end of the tournament, which is what counts.
Dalton 2021 Day 2
Dalton 2021 Day 1
It's a different tournament this year. There are fewer courts this year: five instead of eight. This means fewer teams in the building, so fewer players, fewer parents -- reduced risk, in short.
They won their first two games in straight sets. They didn't have much problem with either team.
As often happens, though, the third team was a different story. Our girls (and single boy -- long story) lost the first set something like 25-22. Not a devastating loss, but a loss nonetheless.
They started the second set strong and before we knew it, our team was up 19-12. "Surely this is a done deal." Nope. They ended up losing 26-24, which means in the second half of the game, they were consistently outscored 2-1.
It's a question of experience, of gelling together as a team. It's only their second tournament, and many of the points they lost were from silly, unforced errors. They'll weed those out with time, with some experience.
And the Boy got his soccer uniform for the spring season.
First Tournament 2021
The girls won the first four, lost the last.
A good start. They're not too humbled and yet their egos got a little check.
Meter
Today we finished up a quick day-and-a-half overview of meter after spending about a week on Shakespearean sonnets. I wanted kids really to understand the level of Shakespeare's achievement, how much he wrote in iambic pentameter.
"Remember, kiddos," I said, "he was not only choosing words based on the ideas he wanted to express; he was also having to take into account their length and rhythm."
In the evening, during L's club volleyball signing and uniform fitting, I ran into two of my students who are playing on L's team. They're having a test tomorrow on sonnets but not on meter. It's not in the standards in any sense, so I couldn't justify testing them on it, and I could just barely justify to myself spending almost two days on it. It's just on interpreting, on picking up on some of the rudimentary differences between modern and Elizabethan English. I reminded one of the girls to keep preparing for the test.
"We were going over it in the car," said her father.
All Saints’ Day 2020
We got a late start today, even with the time change. We weren’t home until so incredibly late that even K slept in a little
In the early afternoon, we went to Nana’s grave to clean a little and try to set some new candles. Of course, we didn’t have the proper candles that are ubiquitous in Polish florist shops this time of year, except for this year. The cemeteries were closed for three days, including today, in order to minimize the spread of the virus.
Which led to the circulation of an amusing joke: “For everyone planning on jumping the fence to the cemetery for All Saints’ Day, please remember that the hours of six to eight are reserved for seniors.” Translated as best as I can recall the original.
We had our own adventures at the site, though: we’d planned on giving the marker a good scrubbing, but then left all the supplies at the house. Sounds about right.
In the afternoon, a family meeting to help L make a big decision: she got accepted into two volleyball clubs, and in each of them, she’s being recruited into the highest-level teams. She tried out for Carolina One again this year, and she’s leaning away from their offer for a number of reasons. One of them: they didn’t choose her last year.
“Typical thirteen-year-old logic,” K and I laughed, acknowledging, though, that it’s ultimately her choice.
Covid-willing that is. There’s a high chance, I think, that everything will be canceled before it starts, with rising numbers everywhere but especially here in Greenville. The teams all have very strict covid protocols in place, but things might reach a point that even that is impossible or impractically dangerous.
Tryouts
Today was the first of three days of tryouts for club teams. L will be trying out for two clubs: Excell Sports, where she played last year, and Carolina One, which gave her the cold shoulder last year.
Today was day one at Excell.
Her coach from last year was there. "L's really improved," he said.
The owner and head coach of Excell, Shane, talked to L and me after tryouts.
"Everyone was impressed with your hitting," he said. "Last year, you were a baby giraffe: you had these long arms and legs and didn't know what to do with them. You know what to do with them now."