Ellie’s 8th Grade Volleyball Season

Ellie had 15 girls on her volleyball team – a crowded roster for sure!  Coach had started the season expecting to have an “A” team and a “B” team.  As practice continued, she decided that the skill levels of the girls were not distinctive enough to create the disparity of teams.  So, she played two similarly skilled teams of kids.  Sometimes the first set would win, sometimes the second set.  They group supported and encouraged one another.  And they all showed growth.  It was a lot of fun watching, with some nail-biters thrown in for good measure!

    

Ellie played middle hitter for a majority of the season.  She worked on blocking, getting her hands on quite a few balls.  She also worked on becoming more aggressive with her hits.  While she had few opportunities to serve in a game, she did show more consistency in her serve. 

              

She had fun – jumped around, cheered, got nervous, high-fived, and prepared for each game. 

Youth night at Dalton:

Volley for the Cure game:

Then, came the tournament.  We were seeded #1, with a loss to Hillsdale and a loss to Northwestern.  First up, we played Rittman.  While we felt pretty confident we would win, you just never know.  (We did win.) Then, we watched Norwayne fall to Waynedale – an upset by all accounts, but Waynedale had shown some huge improvement during the season.  We had to play them in the next round.  Our advantage?  They only had 7 on their team, the Norwayne game had been long and draining, and they were tired.  We had just sat and relaxed.  We won, but it was a fight. Finally, we waited to see who the final would be against – the other games had been played in the middle school gym at Smithville and we wondered who would come over.  Northwestern – a rematch from last season when we lost. 

At some point, Ellie missed her chance to sub in for Ava Doty.  So, Ava played middle for a point.  It gave us all a reason to laugh a minute.

We went 3 sets, always playing from behind and somehow scraping up points to win.   The win was well earned and very exciting!!

      

Regardless of how the season would have ended, we were so proud of you, Ellie.  You played with your heart on your sleeve.  You encouraged others and you felt the win or lose the same whether you were on or off the court for final point.  We hope you continue to love playing and can continue to improve along the way.  Love you!

Madison’s Sophomore Volleyball Season

Every year is different.  Being on JV is not the same as being on the freshmen team.  But I believe it could be. 

I write this, and I don’t know how to write this.  It was a hard season.  Probably a harder season for us as parents than it was for Madison.  Mostly, because she is a better person than us.  I want this to be a true testament to the season for my future self to remember.  But I also want it to reflect positively on Madison.  So, maybe there will be two different perspectives.  I’ll start with the hard and end with the good.

This summer, there were opportunities for the volleyball girls – open gyms, lifting sessions, summer league, and additional agility sessions.  She loved agility training, enjoyed open gyms, and saw growth in what she could do at lifting.  Summer league was another story.  She went to this and all things any time she was available and poured her heart into it.  The new JV coach, however, saw summer not as a chance to let the girls flourish, make mistakes, grow, develop, and bond, but as a time to win, find her favorites, and make her team.  It is not what it is supposed to be – it is not required; it is not the season.  So, Madison, along with 4 others, found that they sat out at summer league games.  Then, they continued to sit – even at 2 different scrimmages – scrimmages that were each 3 hours long against various other schools – never once getting a chance to get in the game … at a scrimmage.  Our minds were blown.  Never have we been a part of programs where scrimmages were seen as a do or die situation.  The season continued in the same manner.  If the coach put in benchwarmers, it was in the last few points of the game and only one at a time, so they alternated random nights of play.  It was the saddest thing I have ever been a part of. 

    

It maybe would have made a tiny bit of sense if the players on the court were all-stars who didn’t make many mistakes, who looked like a well-oiled machine, and who looked like they were having fun.  But none of those things were true.  The girls playing were pretty much at the same skill level as those sitting the bench.  Those playing made a TON of mistakes with no fear that they would ever come out – while those that hardly got in played thinking if they shanked the ball once meant they wouldn’t get in again.  Those playing did not communicate or move cohesively as a team and they didn’t look like they were having fun most of the time.  Not trying to tear them down, I am just saying there were some that could have been given a chance.  Did they win?  Yes.  So, if that is the goal, great.  But I think the goal of a JV team is to grow players for a varsity level team.  That means you have no idea who is going to improve and who is at their peak. That you give kids playing time – not equal, but earned and deserved opportunities – to develop.  That is what coaching is about, right?  Taking each player and helping them grow – and rewarding them in the best possible way… as a part of a team on and off the court.

While Jeremy and I sat on the bleachers stewing and mumbling in disbelief as the gap in the score widen and no one got in, Madison and her crew stood up and cheered, high-fived the two subs that went in, and pressed on.  There were only two games during the season where Madison showed disappointment/frustration with how things were going.  And those were the two most difficult times. 

On a positive note, Madison worked hard.  She showed resilience in an obviously difficult situation.  It was hard to see if she was making progress/getting better with the lack of court time.  However, she would come back and tell us about her serves steadily improving – going farther and more consistently over the net.  I could see her movement on the court was good, adjusting to block coverage and hitting coverage.  When she was on the court, she picked up some nice digs, had some good passes to the setter, and played well overall. 

    

While this season was not as we expected, we were so proud of our daughter.  She never quit, never had a bad attitude, always encouraged, and worked hard.  We hope she walked away from the season believing the best of herself and still enjoying volleyball.  We love you to the moon and back!

Madison Continues with Track

Madison had a hard November when she tried out for the 323 volleyball league and didn’t make it.  They said they would like to see her strengthen her serving and passing skills.  It was incredibly disappointing.  Her plan was to do this in the spring to improve her volleyball for the fall.  It would be her spring sport.  However, it didn’t work out as we had hoped.

But it was a blessing in disguise.  Because she didn’t participate in that, she decided she would try track at the high school level.  She was unsure which events to do.  She had done hurdles and high jump in middle school.  So, she started there.  She did some work outs with the sprinters and didn’t love it.  She did work outs with the distance people and found her groove.  She still did some hurdle work, but her focus became the mile, a hole that needed filled on the roster, and whatever else was needed.  She did 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, ran on the 4x400m relay, and ran on the 4x800m relay, and ran the 800m dash/run.  She had a lot of fun this season getting to know the girls on the team, working to PR (personal record), and just running… she says running is fun (must get that from Jeremy!). 

It was fun to watch her mile time tick down by seconds as the season progressed.  Her first meet she ran a 7:12, then a 7:03, then her goal was to be sub 7 minute mile.  She hit that mark at the next meet with a 6:59:49!  The next week, she knocked 10 seconds off that time for a 6:49:92!  At WCAL meet, she ran a 6:48:6.  And at districts, she placed 13th with a time of 6:48:33.  Every meet she pushed harder and came up a little quicker.  And let me tell you, the weather was not in her favor!  We sat through rain, snow, wind, cold almost every meet.  If it was a track day, you could almost guarantee it was raining.

                  

She also was a part of the 4x800m relay team.  The first time mid-season.  They ran a 10:53 collectively that race.  Then, because her friend, Jaida, was struggling physically with her knees by the end of the season, Madison filled in for her at districts.  My mom joined me to cheer Madison on at Districts which were an hour away (Jeremy was traveling and Ellie had a middle school dance).  And it was raining for the beginning of the meet, but let up by the time her relay came around.  They blew their previous time out of the water with a time of 10:34 (Madison’s leg was 2:53) to place 3rd and move onto regionals. 

        

We celebrated with Cane’s afterwards.

Regionals were also about an hour away.  Jeremy was traveling (again!), but Ellie went with me to cheer her on!  And you guessed it, it rained!  Then, let up for us to watch the relays.  The team did well, but the competition was tough.  They placed 11th with a time of 10:35 (Madison’s leg was 2:54).  But with such a young team, one junior, one sophomore and two freshmen, they could be so proud of what they did!

    

Way to go, Madison!  I am learning to love track.  So proud of your hard work!

Ellie tries out Track

So, as a middle schooler, there are a few sports options – cross country, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, cheerleading, and track.  Ellie started the year with volleyball and took off the winter sports season.  She got bored and decided that track would be worth a shot.  And she loved it! 

I was surprised that she loved it to be honest, but I was so happy she did.  She tried long jump, high jump, and 100m hurdles.  She was able to compete the most with high jump since you can send 3 people to invites and there were not many participating (usually 8th graders will take those spots).  She cleared opening height (3’8”) at her first meet.  Her PR was clearing 4’2” at Chippewa – 3 levels up from starting! 

    

She hurdled in county head to head meets and tried long jump once.  I wasn’t very good at clocking her hurdle times.  I only have the one from Chippewa with a time of 22.19 seconds.

    

I am fairly certain she will go out again.  It will be interesting to see if she sticks with the same events or broadens her scope.  Way to go, Ellie!  It was so fun watching you do new things this year!

Wrestling

Sam and Cale both wrestled this season.  Sam, unfortunately, had to have some surgery on his knee at the beginning of the season and didn’t make it back until District Tournament.  Cale was able to compete the whole season.  It is kinda hard to get to these meets – they are pretty far away and they pretty much last all day.  They are often in tournament format with a double elimination set-up.  I have a love-hate relationship with wrestling.  I find it captivating to watch what is happening between two opponents, but I also cringe and want to cover up my eyes with a lot of what is allowed to happen.  Bodies are just contorted in interesting ways. 

At any rate, I made it to a few meets.  Cale had a tough season.  He has not had the best record, which means he ends up wrestling a lot of #1 seeds at tournaments.  And the tournaments they go to are really hard – like wrestlers who have done this since they could walk, live and breathe it.  Cale has endured.  He came out last season after not wrestling since junior high? or youth wrestling?  He has worked hard and shown improvement and not quit.  And it must be so hard to get out there against the best and keep working.  I was so proud of him for doing it every. single. tournament.

Sam, on the other hand, has been wrestling consistently over the years.  He really enjoys wrestling and has been able to pick up on things and done well.  This season was unique for him.  When he came back for districts, I drove up to watch since I hadn’t seen him all season.  He plowed through the bracket like no one else had a chance.  He came out as the #1 seed and moved on to State!  It was incredible to watch. 

    

    

I took the day off school the following weekend.  We took the girls out of school.  And we headed to the state wrestling tournament.  It is a 3 day event.  We bought tickets for the first day of wrestling.  There were three Dalton wrestlers competing: Sam, Kaden, and Cohen.  The Schottenstein Arena at Ohio State is a pretty cool venue.  While our seats were kinda high, they weren’t bad.  But we could actually sit wherever there were open seats, which was nice.

We watched Sam’s match first.  He came out strong and won the first match.  He was done for the night and would wrestle the next morning.  We decided there was no way we were missing that, so we bought tickets for Saturday morning.

We left to go eat at Cheesecake Factory, check in at our hotel, and shop a bit (Ulta and Barnes and Noble and Target). 

We had early matches the next day, so we didn’t hang out long in the hotel.  Sam started his next match and had something tweak in his leg within the first round.  It made me scared he had reinjured his knee, but he didn’t.  He ended up losing the match; that kid ended up taking second place in the tournament to the kid who has won state since his freshman year (4 time state champion!).  Sam had a second match not long after.  He still wasn’t 100% but he came out more aggressive and worked hard.  He did not win.  But wow!  We were so proud of him – a win his first time at state is a huge deal, as is just getting to state.  It was a lot of fun to be there.

We took off pretty quickly.  We were needed to get Madison to OMEA choir competition (see a previous post) about 1-1/2 hours away.