joedag32

The Honey Badgers had a double header this week. This always scares me a bit, because of all the throwing that our guys will do doing on the night. I always fear someone is going to burn their arm/shoulder out. Plus I’m still working up my arm strength/endurance and still have a throw count that I’m gradually building up.

Well to help out our cause this week, we happened to be issued a free agent. Bearded Joe (I don’t know his last name yet, and since we now have 2 Joe’s that’s what I’m going with for now). He instantly proved to be a great teammate and pretty solid player as well. I don’t know how we do it, but we always seem to do great with free agents.

Former Honey Badger great Lauren was on hand as well, not to play (fractured hand) but to present a great fundraiser coming up in May for MS. I’m going to do my best to get the team to volunteer and hopefully get more of the league as well. It sounds like a noble cause.

Our first game was against the Banzai Executioners. As always it was a fun and tight contest. We always enjoy playing them, and it was really neck and neck for the most part. We actually had to call the match short due to time, so I’m not exactly sure if they officially got the victory or if it will be made up at this point.

Overall I thought we underachieved a bit as a team (a bad trend), but did flash signs of improvement along the way. Eryn and Ginny really stood out for their improvement and earned Honey Badger of the Week honors as a result. I thought Chris really played a lot better too, and new addition Bearded Joe not only brought intensity on the court, but off the court as well cheering teammates on.

Our later game was against the new team, Sea You Next Tuesday. I haven’t seen them play before last night, so had no idea what we were up against. They had some talented players, but you could tell they were overall new to the game still.

We were able to defeat them, earning our very first official win of the season! It was pretty nice to finally get that win.

As far as my comeback tour goes, I’ve been very impressed thus far. I’ve been throwing extremely hard and pretty accurate as well. I even have been having success getting some solid, late movement on my throws as well. They’ve been coming off heavy and low, making them very difficult to catch (none have been caught thus far).

All that hard work training and rehabbing have freakishly paid off to me. There’s no way even two months ago I’d of told you I’d be throwing as well as I am today. Arm strength/endurance is still an issue though. The shoulder is doing better than ever, but the elbow does tire out and get’s painful pretty early on though. Gradually working it up every week does seem to build up strength without setbacks so far.

Enough about me, all in all I was very pleased with the team this week! Our girls played a lot more aggressive and that made a huge difference. I hope we continue to improve towards the playoffs.

I know this might not be a big deal to most, but last night was my return to dodgeball using my reconstructed right elbow!

Not only was I able to throw for the first time in 6 months, but I threw pretty damn well all things considering.

All my throws were tight and low, with many having some late movement on them. None were caught and a couple resulted in the few pegs. I’m not sure it could have gone much better for my first attempt at returning.

I only played in 2 matches to ease my arm back into form. Even though it was only 2 matches, both involved a lot of throwing and wow am I sore as a result. Last night I was a bit concerned that the soreness could be something more serious, but while still very sore I think it’s gone down a bit today. Hopefully it’s just soreness and I’ll be fine in a day or so.

The only real drawback on the night was that we lost the game! But, we did play a lot better than the previous week, so I’m hoping we can get some wins soon!

I still don’t think we’re playing up to our potential as a team just yet.

One of my favorite days of the year, the first week of a SJSL season! It’s great to see all the familiar faces, say hello, etc. It reminds me of the first day of grade school when you see all the kids who you were friends with but didn’t see much over the summer.

This season we had almost all of our players returning as well as the addition of 3 new additions (technically 4, but one didn’t show last night). One is my friend since 1st grade, so I knew Wes would fit right in a be a fine addition to the squad. And I must say I’m very much impressed by Megan and Chris as well. Both not only were fine participants, but picked up the rules right away and got along great with everyone. Should be a fun season.

The only negative on the  night was our opponent, 3-time champion The Ghostbusters. Not only are they very, very good, but we were playing with brand new dodgeballs last night. Brand new dodgeballs means a faster ball with more movement. This would wind up making shot work of many Honey Badgers on the night.

It really hard to say much about the game, we were pretty much dominated from start to finish. Our guys did win 1 match and it was pretty great. With our reaction you’d of thought we won the entire league.

Once everyone settles down, I do think we should have a pretty solid team. Our girls are all pretty athletic and if they play a bit more aggressively I do believe they can beat any girl squad. I just need them to be more aggressive in going for catches, so many of them are great at catching but they still seem committed to dodging all the time.

Our guys are looking ok too. We just drew a really tough match-up for our first game. But like I told everyone, the game will seem much slower playing the other teams now.

Despite the loss, I’m really impressed with our potential and know it will be fun.