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South Lewis Volleyball Tournament

Scott, Bill, Michael, Kirsten, Kathryn and I entered into the South Lewis Volleyball Tournament as “Fully Compliant”. After much debate we entered into the Recreational Division instead of the competitive division. We were truly a ‘tweener’ likely to get beat by most, if not all, competitive teams, but a little too experienced to be a recreational team.

We played two games versus the five other recreational teams not losing a game and winning most by a comfortable margin. Scott and Bill had many effective blocks; Scott blocking outside hitters and Bill denying the setter’s quick tips. We passed effectively and had good defensive coverage.

We were seeded 1st in the playoffs and after a 1st round bye we vanquished the play-in and the #2 seed, “Maintain Swagger” in the championship. We all got a t-shirt for the championship. Games began at 9:30am and we played until 3:30pm making for a long day of volleyball.

HP Gold Playoffs

HP Gold, the 3rd and 4th grade basketball team, finished their season with a successful playoff run in John Dellacontrada League. HP Gold finished their regular season as the 2nd seed in the thirteen team league. Round 1 featured HP Gold vs. Oriskany – a team we have already played in two scrimmages and one league game. While they have greatly improved most of Oriskany’s roster consists of 3rd graders and 1st time basketball players. HP Gold played tough defense and won 28 – 10. Eric had 4 steals, a couple of rebounds, and 6 points. Three steals came from the same situation with Oriskany running the same play to the right side and Eric anticipating the pass. Unfortunately he missed all four lay-ups off the steals…..

Round 2 featured HP Gold vs. HP Purple at 10:15 Sunday morning. It was a closely competed game with HP Gold winning 24-22.

The Championship Game pitted Rome White (#1 Seed) vs. HP Gold. HP Gold gained an early lead by playing excellent defense and minimizing turn-overs. Scoring was distributed with Caleb, Dan, Sawyer, Eric, Trevor, Luke and DeVante all scoring at least 4 points apiece. Michael had a number of rebound put-backs and Jack had a couple of steals and scores with both boys scoring 6-8 points.

Below Eric and the team celebrate the end of the game!

The boys sign the game ball for Coach Matt.

HP Gold: Row 1 Jack, Luke and Caleb. Row 2 Eric, Trevor, Dan, Mike, Sawyer and DeVante. Back row: Coaches Matt, Ryan and Jim

What a great bunch of kids and it was a lot of fun to participate in coaching these boys this year. The improvement from November was remarkable for all the players. It was nice to have a final game where everyone contributed so much.

On April 21st the boys were honored along with 6 other youth sports teams at the Rome Sports Hall of Fame. Below Eric receives a certificate from Matt as Stan Evans reads off the roster.

Basketball: Postion Round and New Hartford Tournament

Saturday Eric had three basketball games. A position round game matching #1 Oneida vs. #2 HP Gold team in the Rome league. The team was down 11-1 and came back to tie the game, ultimately losing by 2 points.

In the afternoon they played in a tournament, losing the 1st game versus JCCC by 3 points. Again the kids got down early 13-5 in the 1st half, 15-7 in the early 2nd half, finally getting to 18-15. They lost the 2nd game to Frankfort by lots and lots of points. Only one more week of basketball left. Whew!

Frankfort had a couple of quick players who were very committed to getting to the rim and where capable of making little bounce passes to the post players if they were denied by a switching defensive player. Below Eric plays defense, sets a pick for Michael, calls for the ball, advances the ball in a crowd, watches the opening tip and holds his form on his jump shot.

Eric’s Science Fair Entry: Old Faithful

Eric’s Science Fair got re-scheduled to Friday after school until 7pm. He had a poster board about Old Faithful. The poster covered the location of Old Faithful, Interesting Facts about Old Faithful and the three essentials for a geyser (Water, Heat and a Plumbing System). He had a working model which consisted of plastic storage bins, gravel, plastic tubing, a super-soaker and some benches and tourists made from Legos. The super-soaker represented the pressure caused by water coming into contact with the magma. Eric gave away mints to those students, parents and teachers that visited his display. He had a sign that announced the next eruption, but it turned out scheduled eruptions didn’t suit the Science Fair.

The Science Fair started at 3pm after school and ended at 7pm with a pizza break for the kids from 5-5:30pm. After the break Eric mounted his model on the table.

Afterwards we realized this caused difficulties in pressuring the water. Below you can see Eric struggling to generate pressure and the resulting geyser.

The View From Pen Bonc

Earlier this week I retraced our loop trail and bolstered the flagging on portions that were a little confusing. Unfortunately, Kathryn got a cold and then went to Ottawa with Eric, Margaret and Harrisen and did not get to ski the trail. We got another 6″ of snow afterwards and then the weather turned warm – making for heavy, wet snow.

On Friday I took the dogs for a short walk and made it to Cookout Corner. On Saturday we broke trail to the top of the hill where I took this picture moments before sleet came in and we head for home.

The Weekend of Lots of Youth Basketball

Friday night Eric went downhill skiing for the 1st time and, of course, loved it. He had been invited by his buddy Jack. He needed to take a lesson and stay on the easy slopes. so he didn’t do much skiing with Jack.

Saturday morning HP Gold played two basketball games in the Rome League; v.s. Oneida and v.s. Oriskany, winning both games.

Saturday evening we went to play volleyball in Remsen, unremarkable except for the fact that we were playing on women’s height nets and I took a ball to the glasses and forehead by blocking above the net. The glasses gave me a patterned cut across both eye lids and forehead, rendering me looking like a face-tatooed StarTrek character.

Sunday morning HP Gold played a team from Utica at the Jewish Community Center. It was challenge for the boys as they had not played ‘stealing off the dribble’ and it took a while to adjust. Some boys wilted under the pressure, but Luke relished it. Eric played well, scoring 8 points. At one point he made 3 consecutive shots. I was pleased that he used a little pump fake on two of his shots – making one of them.

Below: Luke, Marquis, Eric (with the ball), Caleb and Trevor.

Trailblazing

We got 9″ of new snow on Friday evening, finally enabling some XC skiing and snowshoeing. Kathryn got ‘lost’ on Saturday when she tried to ski the loop so Sunday AM we set off to traverse the loop and flag the confusing portions. Eric wore XC skis, I wore snowshoes and Kathryn wore her snowshoes and packed her skis; planning to ski the return trip downhill on our trail. Below the group takes a break near cookout corner.

We got to the top of the hill where Eric grew fatigued, complained of stomach problems and asked to return. So he and Kathryn skied back down the hill while I snowshoed the loop and flagged the trail such that Kathryn could easily repeat the trip. It took me from 9:30 – 11:30 to make the snowshoe trail through the woods but it was a pretty trip.

BB Gun Hunters

We went to look for Hunting Rifles for Sale last week and saw all different kinds. Among those were 9 mm, BB guns, ar-15 rifles online (on the gun source) and in store. So much to choose from but we ended up with BB guns. Trevor and Eric wanted to go ‘hunting’ with their BB guns, so we bundled up, Trevor and I donned snowshoes and we went through the 9″ of new snow looking for ‘game’. We wandered around in the woods, looking at deer tracks and trying to find targets for the boys to shoot at. They shot at empty bird nests, overturned root balls and eventually went home cold and empty-handed.

Coyote at Dinner Time

During dinner tonight a coyote crossed the pasture just below our house and settled in for a nap. The foraging deer were not impressed.

Eric’s SuperBowl Poster

Eric had Trevor over to play after their basketball game and the boys got enthused about making posters for the SuperBowl game. Trevor for Baltimore (with a picture of Ray Lewis) and Eric for San Francisco (with a picture of Colin Kaepernick).

Kathryn left on Sunday to visit her friend Judy overnight. I told Eric that if he took a nap he could stay up and watch the SuperBowl to the end. Eric and I made a quick shopping trip hitting the Pet Store for dog food, Phillipson’s looking for a wind shirt, and Game Stop to turn in some of his PlayStation Games for a new FIFA Soccer game. We hung the poster next to the TV during the game and ate pizza and snacks during the game. We had a good time.