NWC Soccer Part 2

The girls soccer team finished the season with a 7-1-1 record, which was good enough for number one in their division of the CCC.  Although they had hoped to play 12 games during the regular season, one school pulled their girls team out of the bracket two weeks into the season due to COVID numbers and one other game was cancelled as the school went to full remote status for 10 days and cancelled all athletics.  The girls are scheduled to have a tournament experience through mid-November and hope to end the year strong.

Announced in the starting line up against Hall.

The girls receive video after every game to analyze.  Emily was impressed with her throw in here, and sent it to me.  There is a girl on her team that can throw 30-35 yards, so she doesn't get to take a lot of the throws and tries to make the most of them when she has the opportunity.

The win against Hall was definitely the biggest win/game of October and Emily played the full 80 minutes. It was such an exciting game.

On a brutally windy and cold November night, the girls finished the regular season with a huge win over Simsbury, sealing their fate as the top team in their division of the CCC.

I took a ton of photos at the end of the Simsbury game as the girls thought it might be their last of the season, and this one of my favorites.  One of the defenders went up to each of the other defenders after the game to congratulate them on their play.  The team culture so positive and this photo is such a great demonstration of that.

Love watching these three besties play together.

NWC Cross Country 2020

The cross country season ended on Wednesday afternoon.  It was definitely an unusual season, as there were no large invitations and the teams were only able to compete once a week, in dual meets.  Oddly enough, this is one of the strongest girls cross country teams that NWC has ever put together, and the girls won several of their dual meets.  They were not able to do very much training before races actually began (a little less than four weeks), but most of the girls came into the season in shape and ready to run.  On the day of the first meet, Elizabeth learned that the coach had selected her as one of the captains of the team, which is a role that she took very seriously over the course of the season.  We are so proud of her for all of her hard work and for once again being recognized by her coaches as a leader.

Three best friends before the first meet.

The girls team.

Daily prayer from our captain. 

Elizabeth and Hannah ran together at almost every race, one going ahead of the other the entire time, until the end of the race - they often sprinted together side by side until the last few yards of a race. 

The team only had one home meet this season, but Elizabeth PR'd on the home course, which was great.

Junior Investiture

 In a non-COVID year, Junior Investiture would be one of the most important parts of Elizabeth's junior year.  Junior Investiture is a sacred tradition at Northwest Catholic, at which juniors are formally acknowledged as upperclassmen and leaders in the school.  As leaders, juniors are called to share their light with the world in the way of the NWC motto: In your light we shall see light.

This year, the tradition was changed a bit as the attended a partial day retreat, held on school grounds.  The ceremony, highly anticipated for juniors and their parents, as well as seniors, was held virtually and we were not really able to see Elizabeth.  She did take a few photos with her friends, which are all we have to memorialize this special event in her life.

NWC Soccer Part 1

I've been hesitant to post anything about fall sports because we all know that they could end in an instant - either with a positive case on the team, an opposing team, or high numbers in the district.  But with the season about to come to an end, it seems safe at this point.  Emily has been looking forward to high school soccer for as long as we can remember and she worked really hard this spring and summer to position herself well at tryouts.  The NWC coach is very young, having only recently graduated from college, but she is well liked by the team and from what we can tell, she is really good at what she does.  Although tryouts were anything but traditional, Emily was one of three freshman that earned a spot on varsity, which was her goal.  Over the course of the season, she definitely had good games and not so good games, but overall, we've been pleased with her play, her improvement and her dedication to her team and her sport.

She started the first game of her high school career.  I will admit, it made me very emotional to see her hard work pay off like that.

Our favorite freshmen.

After a rough second game, Emily had a fantastic game at outside back against Conard, including an assist on the game winning goal.

Our girl earned herself a milkshake game.