Category: Sports

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Sports

32 Kickball Runs

Though earlier in the day it was looking like it might be a rainy day, it turned out to be probably the nicest kickball weather we’ve had all year. A lovely day for some kickball against our opponent the Star Spangled Bangers. They are a very athletic team and though we’ve had some close battles they tend to take the majority of the victories.

Well today would turned out to be an explosive offensive performance right from the start and continued throughout the entire game. What really made the difference for us were the numerous 2 out kicks. There were so many times where what would have been a small inning for us turned into a big inning with us continually finding the defensive holes kicking with 2 outs.

The kickball gods were truly with us yesterday as we just continually dropped kicks exactly where they couldn’t be played. It was quite a nice feeling and great to see everyone have a great moment or two against a quality opponent.

All in all we would wind up scoring 32 impressive runs and had a lot of fun doing so. It was relentless, and we managed to score several in each inning. Quite a fun time and I’m glad everyone had fun.

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Adventure Sports

3rd Annual Honey Badger Holiday Party

While the official Honey Badger Holiday Party was a bit later this year, it was still quite an amazing bit of fun! Since it fell at the end of January, we worked in a Chinese New Year theme in some bits. The turn out was pretty amazing, with a steady 18-20 Badgers throughout the entire night.

I was a bit worried since I was hosting this year at my home, but all seemed to go well. I wasn’t sure if there’d be enough room, I still hadn’t purchased a couch, and frankly I’m not the most domesticated guy out there. Once again the team stepped up and chipped in just like during a game and brought folding chairs and countless yummy dishes to contribute to the great time.

We had a games challenge similar to last years, with numerous random activities.

  • chopsticks challenge
  • sticker stalker
  • Chinese Zodiac match
  • Mario Kart
  • push ups
  • drawing a picture
  • dart gun (sadly the gun broke?)
  • Wii Fit luge
  • sudoku

All the games with the exception of the dart gun game went extremely well. Sadly the dart gun broke early on, but not before the Shepherd put on a clinic in accuracy. It was kind of frightening to see, but impressive.

The majority of the guests stayed up until the end when Caitlin and Allen/Scott were crowned champions!

My only regret on the night is that I didn’t take photos! I was so busy keeping track of the events and keeping things going that I didn’t take the time to take any photos.

Overall I’d say it was another tremendous Badger success. I had a great deal of fun and will have to have the Badgers over more often!

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Sports

Honey Badger Recognition

I might be a bit crazy, but over the past several years I have taken it very seriously to make sure that my SJSL team is always run in a professional and fun manner. I always make sure everyone is aware of rules, game times, league news, and most importantly are in a position where they can have a lot of fun playing.

This means that I make sure that there is a recap of each and every game, and even and awards ceremony at the completion of each season. We also organize and offer numerous activities throughout the year.

While this does take up a bit of time and resources at times, it’s really worth it when we all have so much fun. I know how much my teammates appreciate the great almost family-like atmosphere we have created and continue to experience through co-ed recreational sports.

What really stuck out to me and made me smile was that on two different occassions the Honey Badgers have been credited by other teams in a public manner over being a well run and fun team that they truly enjoy playing and aspire to be like.

I know it sounds a bit silly, but both instances were really appreciated and it was pretty cool to see that even those who aren’t a part of the team know what a great thing the Honey Badgers have going!

Thanks to all Honey Badgers & Express Pizza players past and present for making us such a great SJSL franchise! We’re only as good as the people we have, and we sure have had some amazing friends over our numerous seasons!

Thanks.

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Sports

Opening Day of Fall 2014 Dodgeball

Few if anything things are as exciting to me as the first night of dodgeball. It’s like the first day of school. You see all your dodgeball friends, some I haven’t seen in weeks or even months. It’s pretty great.

This season the Honey Badgers have a lot of change, perhaps the most we’ve ever had. We are without legendary Badger Caitlin, Ginny & Eryn this season. On the guy’s side we say good by to Ricky and Sean.

With all of this loss we also did invite some new faces as well thanks entirely to Bethany who is rejoining the Badgers for dodgeball and bringing what seems like her entire family and extended family. All off seem like amazing additions to the team from what I’ve seen so far.

In a twist last night opened up with an Open Night of dodgeball and not the regular season. That was nice since we do have so many new players, it really give them a good shot at getting a feel for the game.

However a drawback of Open Night is that you tend to play more than in a regular game. I did my best not to overthrow, but did get some soreness as the night went on. Oh well, it doesn’t feel all that bad the next day, but it’s still something to be aware of.

All in all I have to say that this may very well be the best guys squad that we’ve ever had. The addition of Steve and Jacob really brought another solid arm and an abundance of energy to the team. Everyone on the roster also seems to be very intelligent players too. They naturally played off one another.

I’m really interested to see how this plays out.

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Adventure Sports

Capture the Flag

Just finished up a fine afternoon of playing Capture the Flag at Birch Grove Park. Never played the game before, but it was an excellent suggestion from Caitlin and we got a solid turnout of 11 people to play. Not too shabby.

There was a lot of back and forth and debate about where would be the best place to play. A lot of it really came down to how many people were playing. Too big of an area and not enough people, way too long of a game and the inverse would be true as well.

So I did a lot of scouting at Birch Grove Park to find sections of the park that I thought might work well. This morning I got there real early just to confirm and draw some boundaries on the ground (but it turned out that wasn’t too necessary).

I think we played a total of 4 games, but it could have been 5. We used water guns or 2 hand touch to get someone out. The water guns turned out to be a lot of fun on a hot day. After the first game we did make some rule adjustments which turned out to help out the game.

I think the other team did a better job of playing as a team, they seemed to operate in clusters more and were backing one another up. Our guys were a bit more of individuals doing their own thing. Apparently teamwork won out this day (as it most always does) with the other team taking the majority of the matches.

Another exciting fact that I learned today is that Kevin apparently cannot feel when he is struck by water! I shot him numerous times and I saw Maggie get him a couple times too and he just kept on going. Ha, it’s ok it was still a lot of fun.

Oh and also that if you get a splinter right under your fingernail it will hurt quite a bit for such a little thing. How do I always manage to randomly harm myself? It’s a true talent.

This was another fun and unique Honey Badger Fun Day. Glad I met so many fine people who are willing to play such a silly, yet fun game!

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Sports

Shorthanded Improbable Kickball Victory

I do believe our victory over Pitches be Crazy last night was the finest athletic team effort I’ve ever been a part of. We were down a guy in the field all game, only started with 2 girls and had to take the out penalty, and played a fairly strong team.
Well in one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, I watched us all take the field in the first missing 2 fielders giving them Grand Canyon sized gaps to kick to. With some amazing fielding we walked away giving up only 2 runs and would hold it to that until the very last inning. We won I believe 15-4 (though it may of been more for us) and all the ref could do was look at me like how is this really happening.
It was really awesome and I’m so proud that everyone gave it their all and played so well. It’d of been very easy to just assume that we couldn’t win with our lack of a proper roster.
A pretty amazing game.