Archive for September, 2009
You don’t expect the emotion
I’m a soft touch. But I’m still surprised by welling emotion is some situations. I found a lump in my throat watching this, and I felt kinda silly. But maybe I shouldn’t. In any regard, you can’t deny the cheese!
Go Corsairs! Go #70!
Football – Fall 2009
And then there’s football. Judah’s been playing since August 2. And it’s been grueling. And it’s be scorching. Until last week, at 5:30 pm when they start practice, it’s been 102°F on average. Finally, this last week it broken down to about 95° on average; a relative cold front. And so until recently, you might understand why on the way to practice, there’s almost been tears. On the backend though, we’re almost laughing on the way home. Finally though, it’s leveled out.
The first game last Saturday didn’t go as planned. Too many fumbles. Too many missed tackles. Too many penalties. And fairly poor on special teams. And Pflugerville had a 2 or 3 guys faster than we’d seen thus far. So, though our offense did have some real success in moving the ball, we never saw the endzone. A shame really since our misdirections and well executed fakes made us quite competitive. In the end, we held them to 1 TD per quarter stopping half the point-after attempts.
And so, practice this week has been tough, but in reality easier thanks to a much gentler sun. Oh, and actually had some rain recently. Thanks El Nino.
Before practice
Pre game
Sidelines
Into the action
Kick return team
Open field blocking
Set
Another block
Halftime
Volleyball – Fall 2009
We’re now well into volleyball season. Tabitha, now being a 7th grader, is allowed to participate. And I must say, she participates _extremely_ well. I don’t mean that as a boast. There are certainly things that she must improve in order to play at the next level (i.e., high school). But I felt so proud watching her on the court last Thursday. The coach has made her setter. I feel torn about it. At this level, she’ll be fortunate to get more than 6 sets all year. And any kills will probably be on poor “pass overs”. But, it’s a position of leadership and respect for her abilities.
They won their game of Thursday, 25-10, 25-11, with Tabitha serving out the final points. Very cool. But I had to remind her afterward that the more competitive teams (due to their financial access to volleyball clubs) were still to come, so take it one game at a time. And that her competitive advantage was unique due to UT volleyball camp this summer, and her (our) life-long love of this game giving her a focus on getting better.
Prayer
Revelation hits me occasionally. Often I fail to write them down, and my memory is so poor, those epiphanies float away to oblivion as far as they depend on me. Not too long ago (compared to my 37 years and 15 of marriage) Tamara decided to begin writing hers down in a single book. One of those things that hit her and changed the way she did stuff. (By the way, I respect her immensely for this and do not read it unless asked to. Really.) But every once in a while, she’ll mention something to the effect “Person X and I/us would be great friends if we knew each other”. And while I consider it, I either think/say “yep” or “I have no idea”. Its never been “no” (that I can remember). But Tamara simply expresses it. I on the other hand don’t roll that way. My response to such promptings about people is to “do something” instead of saying/thinking it. For example, in one of my goofier moments I handed Jordan Shipley and Colt McCoy a pokemon card (I think it was Squirtel or Bulbasaur) with our contact information on it. You see, being the college group leaders at our church, I’d been looking for ways to be creative in extending our group’s merits by first establishing communication and letting them know personally the ways they can participate with other students who regularly attend Westover, but without being pushy or overbearing. Or the time I tried to write an email to the writer of “Walk On – Life from the End of the Bench” simply because we both grew up in Memphis. Or when I sent a “Facebook message” to Juliann Faucette simply because we love UT volleyball *and* had worshiped with her at Austin Stone. Or… I could go on. So, I’ve decided to just mark these behavioral differences up to having opposite personality characteristics. But I think Tamara’s is less embarrassing. And honestly, she takes these insights to the Father much more often than I. So, her “doings” are more often effective. There’s so much for me to learn.
One Copeland Crew 