To the Brink and Back?... Fall Sports Update

Well we are about half way through the fall sports season and the kids' teams have not performed as expected.  Peach's team is 4-8, and Sampson's team has actually done really well, but the way they are finishing is all over the place.  In the smaller meets they are winning them because they have 7 or 8 guys finish before most teams get 5 across which I though would happen, but the order of the top 4 or 5 has changed every race, which is unusual for cross country.  Normally guys finish in similar order and one or two guys will switch spots every now and then depending on the course, weather, prep, etc., but this team will have one guy finish first, then fourth, then second and the top 4 is just a shuffle and see what happens.  Sampson has been hampered by some breathing issues through about 3 races and cramped up in that first race, but has finished first for the team twice, and finished second overall once.  He hasn't finished outside the top 10 in any race, which is impressive as the last race had about 243 kids...approximately.  Overall they have done well, but still haven't been ranked.  I think if they do well at the next meet they could crack the top 20 team rankings but they need everyone to run well.

As for Peach's team it has been a little rougher.  They started out 3-3 and they were doing the little things to pass the ball and hit it over that they didn't do last year and eventually I thought it would translate to wins, but instead it was a lot of close losses because they weren't really hitting with power or to the open spots.  Also the servers are pretty even talent wise and we don't have one dominate server, but we do have one weak return rotation that always seems to get put up against the other teams best server and that is when we give up the majority of service points to the other team.  Anyway, Peach's team was in the midst of a 5 game skid and during the last 3 games they had kind of fallen apart, especially the last game.  I would say Peach probably played her worst game on the road at the Huskies.  Everything she hit was weak, or hit incorrectly and the coach was laying into her pretty heavy on every point.  Well she ended up getting taken out for a 7th grader and this kind of sent her over the edge mentally and she kind of checked out.  Well she was so far out of it that the coach decided to give her a call and talk to her.  Sophie also had a talk, but that was because one of the girls Mom's had passed over the weekend and she was trying to give her a heads up... for 40 minutes or so....  Anyway I was prepared to throw in the towel thinking the season was lost, I have even given up line judging as I was extremely agitated.  In the past I have seen teams fall completely apart and usually they are just done, and mail it in the rest of the season and you might see one or two kids have some individual success, but you never see the team really put it together to pull out a dub in a tough situation.  Well the game last night may have changed the out look yet again.  We were playing the hated Jets (I mean it is junior high girl volleyball, so hated or rival may be a little overstated) and they had beat us in 3 sets in their house during the 5 game losing streak.  Basically that game was 1 set a piece and it was anyone's game and they made a huge momentum play to get the ball over the net, got the mo, and had a server fire fastballs over the net for 6 straight serves or so and every other time she has served was no more than 2 before she netted it or hit it out, so that was extremely unlucky, at least for us.  So we won the first set in a close manner, and the second set was not going our way (bad rotation first I think), but about midway through the set Peach started playing out of her mind.  She had 4 or 5 kills in a row (which at this level is crazy) and everything that was coming over she was hitting and making passes or hitting it over and she finally got a jump ball at the net.  It was crazy!!!  Her team was totally fired up and they just kept feeding her and she kept making plays.  I was very happy for her, and I think she figured out if she just plays things will go better.  That is the trick for young kids, getting them to actually play, rather than just execute A, B, C or X when Y happens.  Playing to me is just reacting and letting instinct take over and the instincts result is good plays without overthinking.  It is a hard place to get to, and we will see if she was just in the "zone" once or if her playing style is changed as they play again tonight, this time against the evil empire.  So that name may be harsh for junior high, but the school has totally earned that nick name, plus they are Sophie's old rival so she definitely has no issue with that name.  Hopefully we are trending up the rest of the season, time will tell...