Category: Sports

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Dodgeball Week 3

GhostbustersThe Ghostbusters were our week 3 opponenets. They are a very solid team and seem to get much more movement on the ball than any team we’ve played thus far.

With a gutsy opening game performance, our guys did mange to take the first match. It was great to not start ourselves in such a deep hole, as we’ve seemed to do thus far. I felt as though we played a lot more comfortably in week 3. I didn’t sense as much confusion as in previous weeks.

Our girls were down Caitlin who was unfortunately ill, and played 4 against 5 the entire night. Despite playing a girl down, they did pretty well. It was nice to see how much they had improved in catching the ball.

They all had some great catches and also showed excellent judgement in when to not catch and just get out of the way. Meghan seemed to be the last standing most of the games and almost single handedly won a few matches for us. If we can protect her and her sister, I think we can win a lot of matches.

I personally didn’t play very well overall. My throws just didn’t have any pop on them this week. I kinda realized this in warm-ups, but hopefully this was just a one night thing and not signs of a dead arm already.

The Ghostbusters was the game, but we did win 4 of the matches. With our guys winning 3 of them against their very good guys team. I really think we can build on this and continue to improve.

Afterwards I asked the Ghostbusters is they wanted to play a few more games just for fun. We agreed and decided to play everyone co-ed at once. It was pretty crazy having so many people on the court at once, but a lot of fun. I had no idea when throws were coming from and didn’t last as long as I would’ve liked, but it was fun just to see everyone else play. Ryan the referee hopped in there too on our team, which was nice to see.

Even though we lost, I thought we made some big strides overall as a team this week. I hope that we manage to peak right as playoffs begin (still a ways off).

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Dodgeball Week 2

Honey BadgerWeek 2 pitted the noble Honey Badgers against the all boy team of the Banzai Executioners. This week we were allowed to mix a co-ed team to play when their girls were supposed to be playing games. It did level things in terms of fairness, but I felt bad that it meant more sitting out for some of our girls.

We got ourselves into a pretty deep whole early, losing the first several matches. They had a couple of hard throwers on their team, with one guy really launching that ball with some serious heat.

Once we settled down we began to take several games, some in a dominant fashion. I saw us develop some teamwork; coordinating attacks, communicating better, shielding our throwers, etc. It was really great to see us play better as a team. I’m still pretty certain that if we can develop some further chemistry we’ll be able to take down any dodgeball squad.

I did catch a fastball from robo-dodgeball man. I thought this was important to try to do. I wanted everyone to know that he was human and we didn’t have to just duck whenever he unleashed a laser on our side. I was also glad to get a good amount of hits in tonight as well, it’s great feeling when you hear a teammate say, “nice throw”. The whole playing for your teammates is corny be also really gratifying as well.

Afterwards I stopped by Gregory’s with the lady Honey Badgers minus Lauren (apparently she really likes Dancing with the Stars). It was really great to get to know one another better. They all seem to be a really great bunch and I’ve very glad to be on the same team as them.

It was also nice to get carded as well as see jaws drop by my teammates when they learned my age. While I’m not exactly super old, it’s still nice to know that I also don’t look my age either. They were all very funny about it, I did get a little chuckle out of it.

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Dodgeball Week 1

Honey BadgerThe SJSL dodgeball league kicked off last night, and the Honey Badgers (our team) played 2 games to start the season. Let me start off by saying what a great bunch of teammates we’ve got. We somehow seem to really luck out with getting good people randomly assigned to our team. The 3 “new” girls were fantastic and perfect teammates, really look forward to playing more alongside them.

The first game was against the Terror Squad. They had some hard throwers on both their girl and guy sides. As a team we started pretty slow, but once we settled down and got the hang of the speed and the ball we won a few of the matches.

I personally got off to a pretty lousy start. I don’t think I threw a ball until the 3rd or 4th match. I spent too much time surveying the field and got hit with some pretty easy one’s early on. Once I settled in though, I let out some decent throws.

The Terror Squad won the game, but I could feel our team’s confidence grow as we played more matches. I was really proud of our girls. Lauren and the sisters Caitlin and Meghan were really aggressive running up to the line to get the ball make many throws. Katie and Stephanie played really great too, lot’s of courage on display.

Dodgeball is very tiring. The frantic pace of the games and playing 16 matches per game can really were you out. Our team somehow drew to play 2 games this night. Despite the fatigue, we were ready for our second game (against a fresh team that hadn’t played yet)!

The Lightning Donkeys greeted us for our second game of the night. A very unique aspect of their team is that they have no girls, just guys. So they played a handicapped game of 4 of their guys against our 5 girls. I’m not so sure that this format will be fair as the season goes on, but we’ll see.

Easily the highlight of the night was the first game pitting our 5 girls against 4 of their guys. I can genuinely say that I can’t easily recall a prouder moment than watching our girls play that first game. They were fearless! They sprinted up to the line and played tough the entire game. In an instant classic moment for the ages, we were down to just Caitlin and a few of their guys. Caitlin took them all out! It was amazing, she is truly my hero.

Our guys new settled down and wiser from our earlier game were able to handle their guys for all but one of our matches. I saw some much improved play by Jared and Kevin the iron man didn’t rest a single match last night (I how you still have an arm today).

I felt a lot more comfortable throwing and was pleased to of been able to take out a number of their guys, with a few clinching our victory. I still have to work on staying more alert and not being so reckless on the court, but the season is still earlier. Hopefully their is a Coach Emanski instructional VHS tape on the fundamentals of dodgeball I can watch.

In an ugly moment for the night Katie did get struck perfectly in the face by a very hard throw by one of the Lightning Donkeys. It was a pretty bad scene, she wasn’t at all pleased, but it was clearly an accident. He wasn’t trying to hit anyone in the head, but at the same time their guys didn’t have to throw quite so hard at our girls when they were playing against them.

All in all it was a great night. Big Mike launching some bone crushing throws, Dustin and Geoff with very solid play, great stuff. While a bit hectic at times, dodgeball is really shaping up to be one of the better ideas in a long time.

Honey Badgers don’t care!

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Kickball: Championship Game

kickball logoLast night was the big game, the SJSL kickball championship game. I was truly honored to be participating in the inaugural event with my Express Pizza teammates.

There was a little bit of rain right before kickoff, but it quickly moved out for our game. I huddled up the team and gave a little thanks speech for all their hard work this season. We really did have a great bunch on this team.

We just made some minor adjustments to our kicking order. I really wanted to move Geoff up a spot, to help him get an extra at bat and increase his chances of kicking in more base runners. The change did work very well for us, we got 5 runs in the first inning to start off the game.

It was a tremendous start to the game. We had some great kicks, knocking in a few runs with 2 outs as well. Bait and Tackle however did answer back with 5 runs of their own in the bottom of the first to even things back up.

As good as our kicking was that night, theirs was just more precise and effective than ours. I really must tip my hat to them for finding holes in our defense and consistently kicking to those holes. They did an almost surgical job of adjusting to our fielding changes as they were made too.

I hardly got a chance to field any plays at short. They were dropping in many to the short infield and blasting some very deep kicks as well.

It also got very dark very fast as the game went on. Surprisingly there were a number of bats swooping down while be played in the dark. None close enough to interfere with play, but still very strange to hear something flying overhead.

Bait and Tackle with their tremendous play won the game and took the SJSL championship. We kicked very well, but they just out fielded us and out kicked us in the end.

After the game, I handed out certificates to our teammates. It was funny and again, I’m very glad that I got a chance to play a season with each and everyone of them. This season was some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

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Kickball: Week 8

This was a very big week for us. We had our last regular season game scheduled for 6:15 pm with a possible playoff game at 7:15 pm depending on the outcome of the regular season. If we won, we’d be the #1 seed and play the championship game the following week, a loss and we’d have to play in the playoff game later that night.

As it turned out, the biggest obstacle of the night wasn’t a kickball team but a lock. The field at 15th and Haven was locked. We don’t know why, all we know was that we were unable to legally access it for  our games.

We would later relocate to the field at 6th and Haven, but even when we got there all the fields were being used. Luckily a girls soccer practice was concluding and we were able to make use of that field. However, with all the time that had passed it meant whomever was playing in the later playoff game would be doing so in darkness.

The early game against Bait and Tackle started off pretty well for us, with a lot of early runs on both sides. However the much shorter left field really worked to their strengths. They had more guys who could clear it and get a homerun that would have either been caught in our regular field or been a double had it fallen in.

This really hurt us, as they got many of their runs in this manner. Also, I do feel that many on our team put a little too much pressure on themselves for the big game. But, you can’t fault someone for wanting to do their best.

The change in field led to some confusion in the field at times for us. We had what could’ve been a much uglier than it turned out to be collision between Kevin and Katie in right field. With numerous other occurrences as well.

In the end we wound up losing the game, meaning that we would have to play an elimination playoff game immediately after. I wasn’t concerned that we might be tired at this point, just possibly deflated from our loss. Luckily this wasn’t the case with this bunch and we approached the playoff game fresh and with a clean slate.

Jake’s is a great bunch of players, and we do enjoy playing with them a great deal. Even though I’d of preferred to of skipping this game, it was really nice to play against them one last time. We got to a nice early lead thanks to some big time kicking and solid fielding.

The first 6 innings were great. I’m really proud of how we bounced back from our previous game and put out a very solid effort. However the darkness soon settled in and Jake’s did give us a scare in their last inning.

They sure didn’t go down without a fight, and at times it seemed we might never get a second out. Eventually we did and we advanced to the SJSL kickball championship game. Very excited for the big game next week, an amazing season.

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Kickball: Week 7

red ballThe weather last night was perfect for kickball, and our play was very close to perfect as well. We beat Jake’s Water Ice, 17-2 with the mercy rule ending the game in the 6th inning. Jake’s had a double header and preferred to end the game and rest for their later game.

Kevin was unable to play this week and his presence was sorely missed to the team, but fill in John did an amazing job. He had an unbelievable natural break on the ball in the field. He seemed to be most everywhere in the field at times. He really fit in to the team too, a great fill in.

We had some really slick fielding as well. Some big catches, and some great throws to 1st base this week to get the runner out. Normally it’s pretty tough to get a runner out going to 1st since it’s a kickball, but the new balls this week were a bit easier to grip and throw.

I was very proud of a scoop and throw on the run to 1st base for an out that I made. I even game credit to Coach Emanski baseball videos (which I’ve never watched, but loved the commercials growing up). I also had a kicked drilled at me that I held onto with little effort. I’m still wondering why I can’t make a a simple catch, but can make difficult plays seem easy at times. Really have to work on those routine ones.

The highlight of the night was Katie’s slide at home plate. It was a really tight play, but she was able to slide between 2 girls at the plate to just beat out the tag. It was a really close play, and I’m just happy nobody got hurt on it. An amazing effort.

Kathy also made a very alert catch on a ball that I tipped up into the air. I knew that I couldn’t catch a kick coming my way, but figured that if I got my fingertips on it, that maybe it might just stay up in the air long enough for John to catch it behind me. Well my tip went to Kathy’s side and she made the big catch to get us the out.

On offense Geoff continued his big kicks and had the furthest kick I’ve seen all season. It literally went to the fences for what could have been a walking home run. I knew we’d have the potential for some deep kicks tonight with the new ball, but that one exceeded my expectations.

All in all a very impressive night for Express Pizza. All of Jake’s are so great to play with. I even got in a pregame rock, paper, scissor match and learned how to play cowboy, indian, bear as well. It’s a crazy game, but one that I’m dying to play more.