Play Ball

Sophie had her first two volleyball games this week! The first was an away game yesterday, we came to the home game that happened today. She's on the developmental team, which is a fancy way to say the 7th graders are still learning the game. That's just fine with Sophie. She played well, but her real superpower was cheering on her teammates, both from the bench and the court.

Bump, Set, Spike

Sophie spent Monday and Tuesday evening trying out for the middle school volleyball team. Tuesday night the coaches made the first round of cuts and Sophie was invited back to continue trying out on Wednesday night.

On that final evening, the coaches sent all the girls home with a letter in an envelope telling whether they made the team or not and told them not to open the letters until they were in their cars.

This is what Sophie's said:

She is thrilled! When she read the letter she cried happy tears. Each night she came out of the tryout and said that playing volleyball brought her so much joy. I'm so happy that she gets to play this season!

She had her first practice yesterday and this is the selfie she took afterward, the happiness is pouring out of her.

After her practice we attended a volleyball family booster dinner. Her coach came over and introduced himself. He enthusiastically praised Sophie's tryout and told us that for every four girls that tried out, only one got in.

Well done, Sophie!

Play Ball!

A few weeks before school ended Sophie had the opportunity to sing the national anthem with the other elementary chorus singers at a local AAA baseball game. We went to support her, then stayed for the game. Peter even joined us after a long day of missionary work. Phoebe was on a school trip, so she missed the game.

She did a great job!

The weather turned cold during the game. I held on as long as I could, but I finally retreated to the van during the eighth inning. I took Topher with me and he found several more photo ops.

The game went into extra innings, so Bryan, Cooper, and Sophie (Peter had driven separately and had already left) decided to call it and headed for the van. As they were walking out a hit ball landed right at their feet. It was a pretty cool souvenir.

One Last Time

We had a whirlwind trip down to North Carolina last week for Bryan's brother Paul's wedding! It was wonderful to see family that we haven't seen in ages and the wedding was lovely. Also, after nearly twenty hours in the car for the roundtrip, we're all still exhausted. Hopefully I'll get a bunch of pictures up soon of the adventure. 

But for today, I'll share this picture of Cooper's last track meet of high school. We delayed leaving for the wedding until after he had finished his race on Wednesday afternoon. That means we arrived at our hotel at 5:00 in the morning on Thursday, with the first wedding activity (the rehearsal) starting at 9:00 that morning (but only for Bryan and Topher since they participated in the wedding).

Hopefully we were all coherent that day.

For his final event, Cooper ran the 3200M, the two-mile run. He finished sixth and ran a 10:44. It's amazing how much he improved since starting just over a year ago.

Five Below

Cooper ran a sub-five-minute mile! At his track meet last week, he ran the mile in 4:54. He's been working toward this goal all season. We're all so proud that he achieved it!

We came to cheer him on. I even caught Phoebe in this picture, even though she was sitting with friends at the top of the bleachers.

After his race, we all got to walk onto the field with him when they honored the seniors on the track team.

Congratulations on reaching your goal, Cooper!

Five

On Saturday Cooper ran the 1600M at an invitational at a university about 40 minutes away from our house. Bryan was there to cheer him on and has the sunburn to prove it. Cooper beat his personal best and ran it in 5 minutes! I think that's amazing!

His next goal is to run a sub-five minute mile.

Here he is warming up.

And here he is crossing the finish line. This is a screen capture from the video Bryan took.

Well done, Cooper!

Go, Go, Go

For the first time, Cooper ran in two events at one track meet. He ran the third leg of the 4x800 meter relay and he ran the 3200. Thankfully one event was at the beginning and the other event was at the end of the meet. They won the relay and Cooper placed fourth in the 3200. I think it's the fastest I've ever seen him run!

Personal Record

Cooper had another indoor track meet on Saturday. He ran the 800 in 2 minutes and 26 seconds, which I think is crazy fast. That's probably why he looked like this at the end of the race.

Run, Run Rudolph

While I was off performing and shuttling kids, Bryan and Cooper were at the track meet. Bryan estimates there were at least twenty schools that participated and Cooper said there were individual runners that weren't associated with any schools there as well. Cooper competed in the mile.

He finished his race in five minutes and sixteen seconds and got second place in his heat! He ended up placing twelfth overall, which I think is amazing! He's improved quite a bit from when he ran track in the spring. Plus, after running 5Ks in cross country all fall, a mile seemed pretty easy.

That Early Morning Air

Our Thanksgiving started out cold and early. Cooper had registered to run in a 5K that started at 9:00 and we came out to support him. The temperature was right around freezing when they started running and didn't get much warmer while we were outside.

I snapped a picture of Cooper at the starting line.

Can you see him? I'll zoom in. He's wearing a hat.

Bryan got a video of Cooper crossing the finish line, but I was so focused on cheering that my phone wasn't even out of my pocket.

He placed 6th in his division and 24th overall with a time of 19:24, not bad considering how very cold it was. He appreciated the free donuts at the end of the run. 

Play Ball

Leave It All on the Course

Cooper had his last cross country meet yesterday. I chatted briefly with his coach before the race started. He commented how impressed he was that Cooper made it to Districts in his first year with the sport. Cooper placed 39th out of 124 runners. I'm so impressed with his dedication and all the work he's put in this year.

Now that cross country is over, he's looking forward to the track season in the spring.

I've Run Out of Running Puns

Cooper ran in the league championships today. He placed 42nd overall, but was the fifth person from his school to cross the finish line. He did well enough that he qualified for the district championships next week. He's had a great cross country season.