Sparks Ignite!

This week we held our first ever tryout for Calgary Sparks Volleyball Club! What an amazing turnout we had too. With us being a brand new club we were a little surprised at how many girls showed up for our 16U team tryout. All said and done we figure we had 70 girls come give their 110% for 2 hrs straight both Wednesday and Thursday evening.

Coach Wildman ran the girls go through a very rigorous fitness portion of the tryout each night which really pushed the girls to earn his attention. Interesting feedback that we recieved was that most of the girls really enjoyed the high expectation and tough drills and appreciated his intensity. Go figure!

The main reason Jared and I decided to start our own club was because there simply isn't enough teams out there for all the girls that want to play. Our girls have gone through the process of trying out for multiple clubs amongst these high number of other girl athletes that are vying for one of 12 spots on a roster. Honestly most others , if not all other clubs, are only looking for a few new players and misleading these athletes and their parents to believe all spots are available which in fact they are not. Therefore taking tryout fees from athletes who never had a chance to begin with. That's deceiving in our eyes and want no part of that. Sparks volleyball is commited to holding open tryouts each and every year to have each girl earn their spot and not hold spots for favorable athletes. Our goal is to run an honest, reputable and successful club.

All said and done, the first tryout is done and two remain. We will also be running a 14U and 13U teams as well and are looking forward to seeing more of the talent and enthusiasm these girls bring to the sport of volleyball. Also can't wait to see the expressions on all our competitions and "nay-sayers" faces when we come out strong and victorious! Go Sparks!

Two for Two!

K. I know my last post was basically the same thing, but my free time is taken up these days in one form or another by volleyball. Whether it's Jared and me finishing up our coaching certification, organizing our new club, or me coaching Kennedy's Jr. volleyball team at school or taxi-ing McKinley back and forth to her school teams tournaments. We are a volleyball dominated family. (Aside from Cage, of coure, who will do ANYTHING to get out of watching yet another volleyball game). Anyway, our Centennial Coyotes Jr. girls team brought home another gold at Western High School's invitational over the weekend! Instead of medals this time they received the t-shirts worn in the photo above. That's great though because with all the t-shirts we've either bought or received over the last couple years through camps etc. we are that much closer to a fabulous new quilt! That's the plan, anyway. :O) 

Coyotes are top dogs!

Two days after the final cut, our Centennial Coyotes Jr. girls team won the gold medal at the Dinos ice breaker tournament! It took a lot of team work and determination and they had to dig deep to pull it off but they were up for the challenge and came out victorious. Way to go Yotes!  

That's it folks!

As summer comes to a bitter sweet end I am glad to get back into some form of a crazy routine again. I'll miss sleeping in, the warmth of the morning sun while I eat breakfast on our deck, the tickle of grass between my toes while me and my girls rally a volleyball in our backyard, road trips with my family, watering my flower pots even though they could have used a little more attention than I gave them. I feel a little more domestic and maybe even a little closer to my Mom when I'm tending to my summer planters. (She is Mother Nature to me. :O) There is alot I'll miss and more that I'll cherish from this summer but there's a season for everything they say and I'm ready to see what autumn will bring... 

Say, "Hello", to my little friend!

Look at this little thief! Today we celebrated McKinley's birthday, a little late, yes, but celebrated it non the less. We did so at Sikome Lake with 12 of her friends and spent our time doing what people do when you're at a public lake. Anyway, we weren't one of the fortunate groups of people to find any available picnic table so we threw down our blanket and towels and picniced on pizza, pop, chips and oreo cookies on the grass. A diet fit for most any group of teenagers, wouldn't you say? (Well, at least for their birthday party). Anyway, this little gopher didn't waste any time getting in on his piece of the party either. We had only stepped away from the blanket for a minute and he snuck up, all stealth-like of course, and snatched an oreo! At least he was gracious enough to let me get close enough for the picture above! 

This is a pic of McKinley with her friends who came to celebrate!