NWC Cross Country - September

Elizabeth had an up and down first month of cross country.  She was in shape when practices began, which was a real leg up for her.  She had some really good time trials during the first few weeks of practice but was unable to repeat those performances in her first two races.  She has battled foot pain on and off and so we had her fitted for new running shoes and she met with the athletic trainer.  The combination of the new shoes, a few days off and consistent icing resulted in a great finish at the Winding Trails Invitational, where she was three minutes faster than her prior races and was the second female finisher for the NWC girls' team at 24:14.  The next race was in brutal conditions and her pace fell off again.  October will be a busy month of running and we hope that she can put together some good runs and perhaps do well enough to earn a varsity letter.

Team prayer before each race.

The start. 

The start at their first home race. 

Heading up the big hill at Winding Trails. 

Sprinting for the finish line - you can see it on her face, she knew she ran well.

Julia and Elizabeth, both freshman, were 1-2 for NWC in the Winding Trails varsity race. 

Camp Sloper Relays

On Friday, the JPII middle school cross country team ran its first race.  Lee and I are coaching the team together this year and we have a great bunch of kids.  Several of our kids asked me for a running plan over the summer so almost the entire team came into the season in pretty good shape.  Due to weather (heat) related cancellations, we were only able to have five practices before the first race - but that didn't seem to be an issue.  Our boys team did great, with four runners in the top 50 and the girls team had some breakout performances, led by Emily, who was 31st overall.  We are looking forward to October, in which there is a race every week.

7th graders 

There were over 120 runners in the girls race - amazing that I was able to see Emily.

Emily at the finish

Waiting at the awards ceremony. 

Elizabeth and Brody, both JPII class of 2018, came to the race and ran with two of my newest runners, who I knew would have a hard time getting through the course.  They did an amazing job and I'm so grateful to them!

August Odds and Ends

Some photos that didn't make a post in August....

Bernie Ward Labor Day Shoot Out

This past weekend, the Sporting 06 girls played in the Bernie Ward Labor Day Shootout.  The Magic girls won this tournament the last two years, playing in the lower bracket.  The Sporting girls played in the top bracket this year against some great competition.  They lost to the #2 team in Rhode Island, a regional team that likely has the best talent in the state.  They then beat a strong NPL team from New Jersey and lost a very close game on Sunday morning to the #3 team in Connecticut.  They played them very even and but for a momentary lapse, likely would have tied or beaten them.  The girls look good, and are starting to adjust to the bigger field and make better decisions.  Emily had played very well in the second game and parts of the other two games.  She definitely had a case of the jitters and felt some pressure about playing time.  Lee and I talked to her about things she can do differently as the season progresses and hopefully, things will go better for her this weekend.

She wishes she could have a do-over on this shot. 

This was one of her best games in a long time. 

This run down of the ball was the beginning of an assist from Emily on the lone goal of the game.  The passing combination on the goal was beautiful and something to look forward to as the season progresses.

Sporting 06 Girls

7th and 9th

This year, the girls started school on different days and at different schools - which hasn't happened since Emily was in kindergarten!  Emily jumped right in with a full day on Wednesday (a brutally hot, "feels like" day of 108 degrees), while Elizabeth started with half days on Thursday and Friday.  This week, they will both be in school for full days and activities will be in full swing - in addition to soccer practice three nights a week, Emily starts band and cross country. Elizabeth runs her first cross country race as a high schooler on Friday.  We are grateful that they both love school so the transition has been relatively seamless.

Elizabeth's cross country practice was cancelled due to the extreme heat so we went for a quick run after putting Emily on the bus that first morning.

Freshman orientation.

Ice beakers (love how social media allows you to creep your kid....)

NWC Class of 2022.

Honors

In the middle of August, we received Emily's program report from Choate.  She did extremely well, as both her dorm advisor and her instructor were filled with praise for her.

From her dorm advisor: Emily was "attentive to dorm procedures, friendly with her peers, and was respectful to adults.  Living at a boarding school requires skills in time management and learning how to live with people with different ideas and opinions.  These were areas of strength for Emily....consistently on time for check in and lights out...engaged in the social activities in the door with her peers...."

From her instructor:  "Emily did a terrific job this summer in our Invention and Design Lab.  She worked incredibly hard on all of her projects and made modification after modification on her rubber band car trying to get it to work...Learning when to continue on and when to go in a different direction is part of designing, but Emily's persistence and determination are tremendous....Emily took full advantage of our program and learned a great deal about coding and design."

For her final grade, Emily earned Honors. We were a bit surprised, as this is the highest graded awarded in the summer program and few students are able to achieve it.  We are very proud of her and the long hours she spent in the lab each night, working and learning and designing.  She is more excited about math than ever and we hope this leads to great things for her in the future!