Motivational Sport Quotes

1. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – unknown
2. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
3. “I believe in myself.” – Muhammad Ali
4. “Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.” – John Wooden
5. “Set your goals high, and don’t stop until you get there.” – Bo Jackson
6. “If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.” Hershel Walker
7. “To be prepared is half the victory.” – Miguel Cervantes
8. “Adversity causes some to break; others to break records.” – William Ward
9. “Ain’t no chance, if you don’t take it.” – Guy Clark
10. “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vince Lombardi
11. “There is no ‘I’ in team” – unknown
12. “I am the greatest. I said that before I knew I was.” Muhammad Ali
13. “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you’ll never change the outcome.” – Michael Jordan
14. “Success is dependent upon effort.” – unknown
15. “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
16. “Wisdom is always an over match for strength.” – Phil Jackson
17. “Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done the best way it can be done, and do it that way every time.” – Bob Knight
18. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
19. “Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.” – Lou Brock
20. “Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.” – Michael Jordan

Bullying (repost)

I was told the school was "going in a different direction" with their yard duties next year (I got fired, pretty much), so here's a repost of something I was forced to remove last year, which I feel very bitter about. 

I was written up at work for this.... but, hey, what are they going to do if I post it now, fire me????


All over the news, a lot of talk in staff meetings at schools, and it seems like everywhere there is a huge awareness of bullying and it's effects on people.  Kids who commit suicide's parents blame kids for bullying, people who are depressed blame bullies, people who do bad in school blame bullies, etc....  I never had to deal with much bullying when my big kids were growing up.  My first real taste of it was last soccer season when a mom thought her kid was being bullied when Bradley wouldn't pass him the ball or something like that....when that happened, I really thought that she used the term "bully" wrong.  That's probably because I don't see Bradley as a bully, but also because not  everything should be classified as "bullying".

There's the term "boys being boys" and "kids will be kids"....those are never used anymore, everything kids do seems to be classified as "bullying".  As a yard duty, I even think kids have had so many assemblies and lessons ON bullying that they even are now confused as to what it really is. 

But, the past few weeks, Andrew has been coming home from school saying he HATES school, he is sad, and he feels bullied.  I got in trouble a few weeks ago for something that happened while I was yard duty and it involved Andrew, so I really need to step back and not "bust" kids who wrong Andrew while I am working, but tell me if this would really bother you.....

The most popular, most athletic, one of the smartest, tallest, parent used to be a teacher there, everyone likes him (kids and grown ups)....kid in the 6th grade calls Andrew a "red neck" every chance he gets.  When Andrew misses a catch in football, the kid says, "nice catch red neck".  When Andrew is eating lunch, the kid says, "hey red neck, what are you eating, a dog foot".  "Does your family shoot squirrels and make squirrel soup, Red Neck?"  And he also makes comments about Andrew as a flag football player (the kid plays "real" football)....when he knocks Andrew to the ground after Andrew catches a pass, he says "Welcome to real football, red neck".  Or "get up Red Neck".

The kid is a leader, now the other kids are starting to call Andrew "red neck", too. 

I don't know if I agree with all labels of bullying, but is this just kids being kids?  Kids being MEAN kids!!!!!

We are poorer than most, Scott does drive a beat up truck, we live in a small house with a messy yard....maybe we are Red Necks???? 

I told Andrew to remember how he feels and not to treat other kids the way this kid is treating him.  I told the teacher about the kid and one of the mom's that I know about her son participating in the taunting. 

Andrew played soccer today at recess instead of football and I think he solved the problem himself........just walk away!!!!! 

Team Video

I don't have any photos this week because last Monday when we got home from Reno, the guy who let us have a "long term loan" of his camera decided to use it against Scott and call 5 times a day asking for a ride to the store or the gym, or for a loan, or for construction help, etc.  He kept saying, "You owe me, you owe me $1,000 cuz I let you borrow my camera."  So Scott gave it back and said, "Here, don't call me again."  And he hasn't...but our friend who lives near him said he saw two cops in front of his house Friday night, so maybe he's in jail!  (prob, he's crazy)

But I hope to get the camera I let William take to France back.  He took it to college and hasn't sent me a photo or even posted more than two or three all semester, so he's going to give me back that camera because of his non use of it. (He forgot it at Christmas, even though I reminded him several times!)  He has a camera on his Ipod, so that's usually all he uses, while the camera sits in his room!  I will be happy to have it back.  It's a little pocket size camera, while the other was the kind with the strap you wear around your neck.  They have the same pixels and zoom, so the small one is way more my style!!!

I've been working on making a Movie Maker video for Andrew's team party with the video's I've been taking all season.  Here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nn8J-dEVgE&feature=youtube_gdata

You should watch it if you like junior high age basketball.  It's 17 minutes long, though.  I am the team score keeper, so I have lots to do and not concentrate on photos or videos....but I got enough to make that video.  I missed some good things by having coaches stand in front of me or action that took place while I was keeping track of stats and such. 

I have a few complaints about the Movie Maker program.  I know I shouldn't complain because it is FREE....but, I could improve it so much!  I read a few site for tips and all the sites pretty much stated that if you want more than basic movie making, you are going to have to use a different program. 

I made a few videos for Melanee's soccer seasons years back and used an earlier version of Movie Maker.  That had one feature this new one doesn't....a time line....and a storyline....with that, I could move things here and there and everywhere a lot easier.  With that, I could remove photos or video clips, but save them below....with this new one, if I hit "remove" they were removed from the video completely...no different than a delete. 

I started off with all the "good" plays I ever recorded....but had a 25 minute video before the last tournament was even played.  So, I went through and got rid of just about anything that wasn't a basket.  All the steals, rebounds, stuff like that got deleted.  Some of it was quality, but I didn't want to make TOO long of a video.  Then, I realized I had less screen time of the non scorers....but since I "removed" their steal/rebounds/defensive plays....I couldn't easily find them again.  That stunk!  I ended up making a 17 minute video.  I was shooting for 15, but didn't have the heart to delete any more!!!  I figured if I was one of those players/parents watching at the team party, I'd want to see it ALL, everything my kid was in, so I stopped deleting.  I also took about 7 action shots of each player and gave each player a little 15 second snippit of music....I couldn't really shorten the music, so I left all 7 of each of them, but I know that section of the video is TOO long....but I figure, like before, I'd want to see it all, so hopefully they will too! 

Another feature that needs improving is that when adding music, you have to add it in order.  You cant take out a song in the middle, when you do, the songs after it move up.  You cant stick a new song into the middle of your video.  VERY, VERY frustrating!  One of the snippit songs skips a little.  If I wanted to replace it, I'd have to re do all the songs below it.  I worked on that for a long time before giving up.  It's just a BASIC movie making program. 

On the titles, it wouldn't let me make some words big and some words small.  I couldn't write THANK YOU parents.  Or Reno Tournament May 23rd.  They should fix that, too!

Besides all of the frustrations, I had fun, and can now easily make another one. 

This season was shorter than the Chico Junior High season, but the end of year video is longer.  That's because I consciously tried to get video of everyone!  I hope they like it.  If  you watch it, let me know what you think or any suggestions for next time!!!!

Reno AAU Championship

It's almost the weekend again and I just realized that I haven't blogged about our latest basketball trip.  This was our last tournament of the season.  We went to Reno.  Reno is the furthest we've gone for a tournament, but it's really only 3 hours away, so not too far.  Unfortunately, the tournament took place on a holiday weekend, so we couldn't find any of the $29 dollar hotel rooms advertised on all the billboards in Nevada and on Priceline! 

As we were driving along to Reno, we saw a scenic overlook.  We were above the clouds on a stormy day.  I pulled over to get a look plus to stretch our legs.  When we got out of the car, we realized we had stopped there before on a different trip. 

We have made this drive before and I really love the pine trees lining both sides of the road.  One time we drove through this in snow....this day it was only rain.

The superstitious part of me was bothered by the freeway exit number the GPS wanted us to take...but luckily I was traveling with Andrew, who thinks superstitions aren't real. 

And Andrew took a picture of this because it reminds us of the hardest level in Mario Cart.

There is a traditional stop my family always makes on the way to/through Nevada----the Donner Summit Monument. 

No one around to take a picture of both of us.

Then we stopped at Cabelas and Andrew had fun shooting random targets in the shooting gallery.

Andrew thought that this monument was way cooler than the Donner one, so we got a photo here, too.  I think, though, that we should have went around to the front!

We got to Reno with a little time to spare.  We weren't the first ones there or the last.  The other game hadn't even hit half time yet, so we were fine.  Later you will see a photo where I tried to capture the enormous size of the Reno Convention center, but the first game was played in just one of the wings, or side rooms.  There were 54 basketball courts set up.  They were made from some plastic tiles that were put together like toys.  Andrew said you really had to bounce the ball down hard to get it to bounce back up correctly.  The place was LOUD and CROWDED.  The first team they played was a Bay Area team.  They were good...but we played bad because both of our point guards couldn't play...one was sick, one was too old.  Point guards are the ball handlers...without ball handlers, there are MANY turnovers!!!  You don't score if you turn it over.  They lost. 

Between games we had 8 hours to kill.  Andrew and I were going to spend the night at our friends house 45 minutes outside of Reno, so we went to Circus Circus.  One of Andrew's teammates family was staying there.  Circus Circus also has free parking and a fun arcade and Circus acts. 

Next to the Circus Circus was another hotel/casino.  We wandered over there a little bit until we saw the "no children allowed" signs. 

Our friends wanted to check into their rooms and take showers and stuff...so Andrew and I went to the arcade.

We got to ride a tram to the hotel portion of the Circus Circus.  It was fun like a Disneyland ride for Andrew.

I didn't take many basketball pictures.  You've seen enough of those over the season anyway.  The second game was played at 9:20 at night.  That is not the ideal time for 13 year olds.  That is also not the ideal time after an 8 hour break.  Two of the kids were late coming back. One of the kids got sick in between the games.  Three ate junk food.  Three ran around too much and were tired.  Everyone traveled that day, so we all left Chico before 8 am.  The team played horribly.  They were making bad decisions with the ball and really looked off.  They got creamed.  (This team we played went on to take 2nd place in the 12 team bracket, so they were pretty good!)

Andrew and I then drove to our friend's house.  We didn't get there till after 11.  Our GPS got us to their street, but not their house.  (too new, I guess).  We had to call Scott, he had to start up his computer, find my messages, and give us the correct house number. (We should have just went to the only one with the lights on....haha, but that one didn't have cars I recognized as our friends.)

We slept pretty ok on a air mattress together.  It was the kind that Andrew could bounce me off of, he had fun doing that.  I got hot then cold and couldn't really get comfortable.  Andrew woke up at 5:30 and said, "Let's GO"...I told him to go back to sleep.  The sun was really bright that day in Nevada.  We decided to go to church in Reno, instead of the city we were in, so that we wouldn't have to rush afterwards.  Our GPS kind of gave us the run around.  The first church it tried to lead us to was 11 miles off the freeway....we didn't want to do that.  Then it lead us to a residential neighborhood (must have been a bishop's house???)  Then it lead us to a Storehouse.  Then we called Scott he had us enter 4th AVE....Reno didn't have a 4th Ave...so it took us to 4th Street.  4th Street was in the slums and there was a line up of homeless men waiting to get fed.  We called again and Scott told us to change our city location.  We found it!  FINALLY.  We went there and church was just starting.  We stayed for Sacrament Meeting and tried to sneak out quietly before 1,000 people tried to greet us and welcome us to the ward.  Just as we got to the door, we heard, "Excuse me mam."  We turned around.  (Andrew thought it was someone asking us to stay longer, he wanted to GET OUT OF THERE.)  It was someone I knew as a kid from 20 years ago who was all grown up and married.  It was so crazy to see someone in the middle of Nevada that I knew without knowing she lived there!  Her married name is Kelly Kelley!  I don't even think I'd have dated that guy if his last name was my first name. 

This is what Nevada looks like.  The state flower is sage brush and/or orange cones!

We went back to Circus Circus and got ready for the game.  At this tournament they never knew which color uniforms to wear, so these three guys came up with a brilliant idea, so they wouldn't have to change both shirt and shorts....They wore half home, half away.  I thought they looked really sharp like this...but the rest of the team made them change when we got there.  Here they are on the tram, playing basketball....probably a forbidden activity!

Here is my attempt to show the enormousness of the building, but I failed.  I wish I could have climbed up higher somehow!

After the Saturday games the whole team met over at the Grand Sierra Resort.  (I call it the MGM Grand).  It is like an entire city in one building.  While there the team did a lot of fun activities together and the parent socialized, too!  This would have been an ideal beginning of the season activity.  Everyone became great friends....well, except the one teammate who punched Andrew in the jaw....still mad at that kid...I am still mad, Andrew is fine!

Big Sky is not only in Wyoming alone, Nevada has beautiful skies!!!

The team did go cart racing.

We ate at Johnny Rockets

Some of the players went swimming in the rain.

Pizza for dinner.

Then final game, which they WON!

CD music in the car

     When we go to out of town games, Andrew always turns on the radio or the CDs and sings a long.  It's fun.  We don't have a very good song collection, but we like what we have.  A few of our CDs are hit songs from when Melanee and William were in school.  Those are the best.  We also have all 3 High School Musical CDs, 2 Big Time Rush, 2 NSync, 2 Taylor Swift, and a Backstreet Boys.  

     Andrew's coach is a 23 year old young guy.  He drives an old lady car.  He has to drive here and there and everywhere to coach this team and gas is not cheap.  In talking last time we were in Redding, I kinda offered him a ride if he ever needed one, but we never made any definite plans, so right before this weekend, I texted him to see if he wanted to ride to Sacramento with Andrew and I....(I even told him he could bring his girlfriend).  He ended up not needing one, but when I told Andrew he might come with us, Andrew's first reaction was, "Now I cant listen to our music and sing out loud."  Well, I was thinking about it and our discs from 2005 to 2008 would be the music the coach listened to in high school!!!  He wouldn't have minded at all!!!

     Different story to go along with the music in the car topic.  When we were getting really close to the school they were playing at I told Andrew, "Time for some pump up music."  He changes discs and puts in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3.....that was his pump up music?????????  haha!!!!!

Tournament Champions...again!!!

Youth sports are not about the winning or losing...but they sure are fun when your team wins!!!

Andrew has been enjoying this AAU Chico Blue Devils season since the start.  Before we signed him up I heard/read a lot of negatives about AAU basketball.  Mostly stuff like "too intense", "too expensive", "don't put your kid through it".  But the team Andrew is on is NOTHING like that!  A group of parents from the junior high team put the team together....no tryouts, no paying a club, and WE PICKED OUR COACH.  I think the coach thing is the key, since I've seen lots of bad ones lately.  I also like the price we paid, even though it's more than soccer or baseball.  We paid half of what the other Chico Basketball Clubs charge.  Since we put the team together, we got the families/players we wanted.  And, since this team is mainly our junior high team, playing together in the off season is going to make them ready for 8th grade basketball! 

Winning the tournament two weeks ago was slightly AMAZING....I was very shocked, but in a good/happy way.  I didn't really know this team was "good" before.  I knew some of the players were good.  I knew they were hard workers.  But from what I had seen in the previous two tournaments, I was kind of thinking they weren't a very good team....average, but not good.  Then last tournament happened and they played together, they passed, they made their shots, they rebounded...it was just beautiful! 

This weekend we went to Sacramento to play.  Going out of town to a big city always means the competition will be tough!  AAU is really just all star basketball...our team really is just a junior high team.  We really shouldn't stand a chance.  BUT, these boys are just amazing.  They play SO HARD and so well together that they can beat the teams with one or two standout super stars.  We have 10 guys of about equal talent.  But since basketball is a team sport, our team does well.  They are great passers, they are selfless (most of the time), they work hard on defense, and they really listen to the coach (and he gives lots of instruction!!!). 

Andrew's team won the first game 33-27.  They had a lead for a while, but the other team was making a mad comeback and almost caught up.  The other team was really good, so this was an excellent game.  The second game was a blow out.  Andrew's team won 46-12.  One player on the other team had 10 of those 12 and when he fouled out, the other team didn't stand a chance.  I talked to the refs a little at half time and on the breaks and one of them worked for the Sacramento Kings, so that was cool.  Andrew had 8 points in the second game, his season high.  (He had 2 in the first game.) 

The third game was to be the championship game because it was a 4 team bracket, each team playing the other 3 teams in the bracket.  Andrew's team kept up the intensity, but they missed A LOT of shots... A LOT!!!  The game was close.  The other team had one super star, another big guy, and a few other talented players.  (We don't usually face teams with two "big guys", so we didn't have an advantage like we usually do (we have 4 "big guys").)  This game went into overtime.  Overtime in this tournament was 2 minutes.  If it would have went to double overtime, that would have been "Golden Basket", where the first basket wins.  But Andrew's team won it in overtime 31-30.  Right at the end of regulation, Andrew's team had a chance to win it, there was about 30 seconds on the clock and we had the ball, the coach wanted to hold it for last shot (no shot clock in 7th grade basketball).  We held it, but held it too long and the shot went in, but was ruled "after the buzzer".  So, overtime went back and forth with a lot of important rebounds and shots.  The other team thought they tied it on a last second 3 pointer buzzer beater, but at that moment they were 4 points behind, so Andrew's team won. 

They are improving so much each and every week.  Next week will be a tough test, though.  We are going to Reno where teams from all over California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and even Utah will be playing and we are in the "competitive" division, not the recreational division.  They have confidence on their side now, so that will help.  They are such a great group of kids.  I really like them all!  Their basketball is super exciting to watch, too. 

I think Andrew was getting personal instruction right here-

new sweatshirt

Kids in Chico wear shorts and sweatshirts....even when it's cold....Andrew only has one sweatshirt, it's ratty from being worn/washed so much.  Right now is the perfect time to buy sweatshirts because they are on clearance because the weather is getting nicer.  I found this plain blue sweatshirt at Sears for $3.00 (or $3.99).  All the parents who wanted team shirts wanted different styles, like some wanted womens fit, some wanted soft material, some wanted v necks...I bought $1.99 t shirts at Michaels Craft store!!!  The mom who organized the screen printing for the uniforms took all our shirts in and got the Chico Blue Devil logo printed on them....I sent in Andrew's cheap sweatshirt and paid $5.00 extra for the back....and it's PERFECT!  Bet everyone else wish they would have done the same!

(I don't think there were 10 sweatshirts on that Sears clearance rack, though!)

Tournament Champions!!!

Andrew's team actually WON a tournament!  And they really did it with an amazing effort.  The first game was against a team that had already beat them, the second was against a team that possibly had maybe more talent than them, and this game today....WOW....Andrew's team REALLY wanted it more, they REALLY played HARD.  This was one of those CLOSE games of the ages.  Either team could have won.  It almost came down to who made the least mistakes more than who made the most baskets. Andrew's team usually commits TONS of turn overs, but they only had a few today.  They usually just take wild shots without any reason...today they made the best plays.  They dove for loose balls, the jumped higher than you would think they possibly could.  They started out 0-6 and those 6 were all right one after the other on turnovers and bad plays...then Andrew's team came back slowly and were leading by the end of the first quarter.  It was obvious, though, that this was going to be a tough game.  Andrew's team has 10 players, all 10 contributed to this win.  They played as a team.  They were all 100% into it and all gave their all.  The other team had a few tremendous athletes, who were taller, stronger, faster than our guys.  Both teams fouled a TON.  It was an aggressive game.  The other team came from the Bay Area.  Their coach was MEAN.  Their fans were loud.  Their bench was cheering and yelling non stop. 

Andrew scored 3 points.  He got his basket off a steal and also added a free throw. 

 

His job was to cover their BBBIIIGGGG guy, you can see him here in this picture--#31

 For the win, the undefeated run in the tournament, they each got a medal.  I took a great team photo.  What a great looking team!

 I also convinced the parents to get in a photo!  Great group of families!!!

 Andrew was hoping they would give out "tournament champions" t shirt instead of medals, but he really liked his medal.

He even wore it to church under his white shirt.

warm ups

These are from last weekend and I used one of these pictures in a different post, but I made this collage out of photos I took during warm ups.  Look at the top left one, in the background those are really cool stained glass windows (surrounded by championship flags).  The camera seems to work better pre game!  Less "action" and chaos going on, I guess.

Blue Devils vs. Humbolt

Blue Devils vs. Thunder