I Hate Christian Laettner

Not only is Sanford taking over the world of medicine, they are also taking over the world of athletic development.  Sanford Power sponsored a nice little basketball clinic today, featuring a certain famous Duke basketball player.  He is best know for this play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3_IT622Sbc

His role in the clinic was mostly for promotional purposes, as a different dude did the majority of the coaching.  Pretty cool for these young kids either way.  And for this old Mom.

Boy vs Hurdles

J has some nice road rash to coordinate with his black eye.  He had a rough day with the 110 m hurdles, tripping over 2 of the hurdles.  He got up an still finished the race.  Following the hurdles, he did his long jump, and got a personal best of 11'5".  No luck on the high jump this meet.  The starting height was raised to 4'4" this time, and he has only cleared 4'.  Next time.  He'll get it next time.

2016 Grand Am

One of my  favorite weekends of the year is the Grand Am Tournament in Grand Forks.  It is fun to get out of town for a tournament to (hopefully) play some teams different than what we get to play locally.  The boys are always pumped because of how big the tournament is (28 teams in their bracket this year).  I am always pumped because I enjoy getting back to Grand Forks and UND.

Our first game was against the WF Packers, a team we haven't played before.  They were a little rough, but not nearly as dirty as the other WF team we have played several times.  We lost by 7.  The silver lining in losing the first game is that there is still a chance for 5 games, and obviously we want to play as many games as we can while we are there.

The 2nd game was against the Wolves, a team we play all the time, and just last weekend.  One of the Moms bribed the boys with DQ-any size-if they won by 30.  It fired them up!  Got the 'W', but not by 30.  We did lead by 20 some points, but the Wolves had a fun (for them...scary for us) comeback in the 2nd half and I think we only won by 7ish points.

J sunk this 3-his only 3 of the tourny.  Ended this game with 10 points.

 J swished his first 3 free throws  

 I wish I caught this image in focus.  J just went to the bench and instead of the usual high 5 his coach gives him, he knelt beside J to discuss some things.  I asked him what was said after the game.  J replied "He said 'you're a good basketball player, right?' ", then provided some constructive comments on J's rebounding (or rather, lack of rebounding :-) )

Our 3rd, and potentially final game, of the tourny/ was against a Moorhead team.  At least 3 of their players were taller than me.  They were well developed.  The boys played hard, but we were lost.  This team went on to win the consolation bracket easily. 

The boys finished their 7th grade traveling season with a record of 21-5, with 2 of those losses happening in this tourny.  They took 1st place in 4 of their 8 tournaments.  Proud of this team-their work ethic, grit, sportsmanship, and their ability to shake things off and look ahead to their next challenge.  

Music Ensemble

Eric had his percussion performance/music ensemble a few weeks ago.  Haven't heard what rating they received yet.  He did a solo piece and a duet.

archery

Each league night ended with a fun game.    Last week, they folded dollar bills up.  If you hit it, you got it.   He was in the middle skill group, so his dollar bill target was folded in half, and the targets were 30 yards away.  

Rushmore and Bailey

Our neighbor got a Golden Retriever puppy a few weeks a go.  His name is Bailey.  Rushmore and Bailey are going to be great friends.  They run up and down the fence together, and try to wrestle through the fence.  Sometimes I find Rush just laying next to the fence waiting for Bailey to come outside.  We are also seeing signs of a holes being dug....on each side of the fence.