Pure Gold

Okay, a quick karate update… I earned my gold belt a couple of weeks ago, which opens up a wednesday class for me (which I plan to attend for the first time tonight) and really makes me feel more like an official member of the program.  From here on out I actually have to test for each new belt and the progression will be much slower (Mr. Mazzola told me he basically thought of me as a gold belt the first class I attended) so I look forward to the challenge.

(I really need to get pictures posted)

As for the rest of the family, Sidra and Zalen both won their sparring tournaments over the weekend… hilarious video of Zalen winning his 1st place match in 27 seconds total, I’ll try and get that posted.  Sidra added first places in form and self-defense for a rare triple.

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More Tuesday Kicks

You know what’s impossible?  I mean, practically the definition of “impossible?”  Trying to run a soccer practice for 1st and 2nd graders while the ice cream truck circles the neighborhood, music blaring.  Ugh.

After our 5-1 win on Saturday, I went to practice Tuesday night all excited about working on a couple of key things that we didn’t do well Saturday and instead got a group of completely disinterested kids.  Good news:  I’ve got gamers.  Bad news:  They feel about practice the same way Allen Iverson used to.

So we’ll have to wait until Saturday to see if anything stuck.

From there it was off to karate where it was “quad night…”  Figure eight front kicks and squat kicks… and even my first foray into self-defense.  Fortunately weeks and weeks of elliptical work had my quads in pretty good shape… I’m probably less sore today than I have been so far.  And I grabbed my third stripe on my white belt, meaning the gold belt is right around the corner!

Ay-yah!

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Here We Go Again!

After four years of coaching Sidra’s soccer teams, this spring I agreed to coach Zalen’s 1st and 2nd grade co-ed team and, oh boy, here we go again!

We won Saturday 5-1 and we are stacked.  I can’t imagine anyone has a group of girls as good as they group we have and our boys are strong too (arguably our second best player, Nolan, didn’t even play Saturday).

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Just for Kicks

Tuesday are going to be a real whirlwind for the next several weeks! 

After four years of coaching Sidra’s soccer teams, Zalen finally decided he wanted to give it a shot this spring so I’m coaching his 1st and 2nd grade team… and decided to host practices on Tuesdays at 5:30pm… which gives me enough time to rush home, change into my gi and hit karate at 7:00pm. 

Of course, that plan didn’t take into account practicing in a mud pit.  Our first practice was tuesday night and what a mess.  The thunderstorms turned our practice field into a mess, not quite bad enough to actually cancel practice, but bad enough to turn us all into muddy messes.  As for the team itself, pretty good talent.  I don’t know if we’ll be any good or not, but I like our chances. 

And Zalen did pretty well!  He only ran off the field upset once (he used to do it multiple times when he would “help” at Sidra’s pratices so I consider this a win!) and hopefully he’ll enjoy it.  Let’s see, Joey, Nolan, Braden, Zalen, Rachel, Jamie, Gianna and Jennifer.  Whew, good deal.  We also have Aaron who didn’t show.

So instead of rushing home and changing, we had to rush home, shower off all the mud and then get to karate.  The whole family came along as tonight was the big night, daddy gets his first belt!

Mr. Conlee taught the class, my first impression was his class was a little easier physically than Mr. Mazzola’s.  Until the end when he took whatever energy we had left out of us with rapid-fire sets of push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and squats.  To his credit, he did tell us zapping of us of any remaining energy was the purpose.

And at the end of class, as promised, I earned my first belt, white.   It does kind of feel a little more official now… on the downside, I have to learn how to tie those damn belts.

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Exhausting (But Great!) Weekend

Wow, this weekend was just a blur.

Took the kids to the Field Museum Friday night for “Dozin’ with the Dinos”… really a good time.  We saw most of the exhibits, a really cool 3D movie and got to sleep under the watchful eyes of the bears and wolves!  Zalen hit the wall around 9:00 p.m. and I thought we might get to bed early but he caught a second wind which allowed us to do the flashlight tour of the Egyptian exhibit around 10:30 p.m. 

Fortunately I got a nap in Saturday before Sky and I co-hosted our “Wine about the Holidays” party at WineStyles with Kris and Eric.  Wildly successful in my opinion and I may have discovered a new favorite Cabernet!

We hit Lifetime to work out Sunday morning/afternoon and did work around the house for the rest of Sunday.  Monday morning came VERY quickly!

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This is One Dangerous Family!

(Pics to come soon!)

Saturday was the National Karate tournament out in Roselle and the Capriolo family made quite the showing! 

Zalen is only his second tournament finished 3rd in basics in his belt/age group.  Sky was beaming with pride watching her curly-haired go through his routine and we gave each other a look when the judges scores put Zalen in 1st place!   Two kids later managed to pass him but he did a great job.

Sidra was a bundle of nerves for her sparring tournament.  There was a bit of chaos in her belt group and after winning her first match in sudden death overtime, she was matched up against a girl about a foot taller than she was.  Trying to cope with the reach disadvantage, Sidra fell behind 4-0 (first to 5 wins) and then delivered the hardest kick I’ve ever seen her deliver (karate, soccer or otherwise) to pull within 4-2 (Sidra later told me she was very angry because she was losing!) and two points later she had tied it at 4!   She ended up losing in a dramatic final point and was very upset (Sidra does NOT like to lose!) but several black belts came up to her afterward and told her how great she did. 

As it turned out, they had decided to divide the girls up by height as well as belt/age, but there was some confusion.  Later the guy organizing that particular group told me he was really impressed with Sidra’s fight against the taller girl and wasn’t sure how he was going to handle it if she had won!   Anyway, they ended up giving Sidra a first place for her “height division.”  In general, this tournament is more about encouragement and kudos than actual competition so that’s a good thing.  I’m curious to see, however, how Sidra will handle a competitive tournament like Diamond Nationals.  Again, not the best at handling losing 😉

Sidra also took second in her age group (this time no dividing up for height this time!) for form. 

Meanwhile, Sky won her belt group for sparring as well, avenging a loss to her good friend Gianna from last tournament.   Unfortunately Sky and Sidra were sparring at the same time in separate rings so while I caught all of Sky’s first match and Sidra’s two matches, I missed the back end of Sky’s last match.   Nevertheless, quite an impressive showing by all!!!

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Zalen Earns His Bobcat

The Tiger Cubs present the colors

Zalen wears the blue and yellow Cub Scout face paint

Zalen shows off his new Bobcat Badge

Newly-minted Bobcat Badge recipients Zalen and Patrick

Pack 496 poses for a picture

Ho ho ho! Merry Bobcat!

Congratulations to Zalen who earned his first major Cub Scout patch last night, the Bobcat Badge!   He had to memorize the Cub Scout promise, motto, law of the pack… sign, salute, handshake… all that good stuff. 

So there was a little ceremony at Pack night with Zalen and his fellow Tiger Cubs receiving their badges and their “Akelas” (family leaders) earning their own ribbon and pin!   They painted the boys’ faces with blue and yellow… and then we had to quickly wash their faces for den and pack pictures.   Oh!  The Tiger Cubs also presented the colors before and after Pack Night.  I’m very proud of Zalen, he really seems to be enjoying scouts and embracing it.  It really wasn’t my thing at all but he loves it.

At the end of the night there was a bake auction and Zalen snagged the chocolate cupcakes he coveted.  They also made the boys up as Santa Claus (I’m not sure why) and Zalen looked hilarious!

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R.I.P. AJ (1987 – 2009)

Alex Coleman, a.k.a. AJ died Thursday morning

People talk a lot about how the internet has made the world a much smaller place.  We’re all so in touch now with things happening all over the world and many of us find ourselves with friends in all corners of the globe, many of whom we’ve never actually met face-to-face.

I’m a member of an online poker forum called “67 suited”… at least, poker is the common thread that brought all of us there.  Now it’s more of a social club, a place where we discuss everything in our lives.  This morning we all learned that one of the site’s original members and co-founders Alex Coleman, better known to all of us as AJ, had passed away at the woefully young age of 21.  AJ had been dealt a tough hand in life health-wise, having had two heart transplants as a kid, and his heart finally gave in early Thursday morning.

I never met AJ face-to-face, he lived in England.  And honestly, he and I weren’t overly tight on 67 either, having only chatted a touch, although he had agreed at one point to become my poker coach when I began to play NLHE cash games.  Nevertheless it was a bit of a blow hearing it this morning.  I think when you become older and have kids and start to treasure life a bit more, you really begin to empathize with the loss others feel.

My heart goes out to AJ’s girlfriend Sam and his family.  God Bless You, AJ.

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The Crazyheads Go For the Championship!

Sidra chasing down the loose ball

Besty controls against a defender

Sidra attacks ex-teammate Angelina

Sophie shows off the Trophy

Crazyheads are #1!

Crazyhead Champs!

Let’s just fast forward because I don’t have the energy to TR the entire day…

Saturday was the end-of-the-season tournament for Sidra’s soccer team (which I coach) and we didn’t play very well at all in our first two games. In part because our leading scorer (Farrah) missed the first game and barely played in game two because she was sick.  In part because the field was not in good shape after a lot of rain and our biggest strength is moving the ball on the ground. And in part because the games were 40% shorter for the tournament, meaning we had less time to assert ourselves.

Nevertheless, we managed to advance to the championship game against the only team who beat us during the season.

In the title game, I wanted to get a jump on them early, especially because the game is so short… goals are at a premium and the team that jumps out to a 1-0 lead is going to have a huge advantage. Fortunately, we were the team as Farrah, who basically sat around cherry picking because she had no energy, made a big run down the left wing and made one move towards the middle before sliding a shot far-post past the goalie to give us a 1-0 lead!

The first half ended 1-0 and when the girls went out for the 2nd half, I walked around to each one of them, patted them on the head and said “gimme everything you got for one last half and you’re a champion…” There wasn’t a single one of them that looked at me like I was weird or like I was being corny. I’m happy to say they all wanted this pretty bad.

So the second half was just an awesome half of soccer. Both teams had chances and Emily, our goalie, just freaking sacrificed herself multiple times for the team. She made one diving save and another time beat an opponent to the ball in the box for which she got promptly kicked in the hand. About midway through the second half she made her biggest play of the game on a 50/50 ball in the box in which she shot off her line and absolutely roll blocked the opposing forward, getting to the ball a split second before the forward did.

One of the things I worked on for literally 30 minutes a practice was our play out of the corners. Both Farrah and Sophie have big legs but unfortunately that caused them to try some crazy long, angled shots from the corner instead of crossing the ball or passing to an open player in the box. We worked and worked and worked on quick switches from one side to the other in those situations and while by the end of practice they’d get it, they rarely executed it very well during the game, mostly because Farrah/Sophie would usually just try taking the crazy angled shot through three defenders.

With about 5 minutes left in the game and still clinging to a 1-0 lead, Marina (our sweeper) made a huge clear to the left corner and Sophie tracked it down. Sophie made one move and then rather than taking a shot over/through two defenders she pushed a past to to the top of the box to Sidra. Sidra trapped and immediately pushed it further along the line to a wide open Farrah on the right side.

A 100% healthy Farrah slams that ball into the back of the net… but Farrah was not 100% healthy. Instead she got a decent shot off, but just a touch to the left of the goalie who was already sliding in that direction. The goalie shot a hand out and deflected it out in front of the net.

The rest of this play was like one of those bizarre dreams where everything’s in slow motion. The three closest people to the ball at this point were the goalie and two defenders. But impossibly, Sophie, who had started the whole play from the corner, beat all three to the ball and slammed it into the back of the net! 2-0!!!!

When we scored our first goal there was celebration, but when the second one went in, all hell broke loose. The girls mobbed Sophie and it took a bit for us to get back into place. From there our defense just took over. I don’t think they even got another chance, much less a legitimate shot on goal… and minutes later the final whistle blew!

My favorite part of the whole day was how the girls reacted. Complete mob scene. Hugging each other and dancing around, there were a few tears. Awesome stuff. So proud of them… BOOM!

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Quick Start for the “Crazyheads”

it’s going to be a looooong, looooong season… FOR THE REST OF THE LEAGUE.

4-1 beatdown today of the team I think is probably the 2nd best team in the league.

Funniest part:

It’s 2-0 at the half and I’m talking to my team and look down to see this little, pony-tailed girl sitting in the middle of everyone.

Me: “Oh you must be Farrah, huh??”

Farrah is playing in two soccer leagues this year and she just happens to have practice for the other one on the same night I hold practice so we’re working out a schedule but she missed the first two practices and so I’m literally meeting her for the first time.

So I put her in as a forward to start the second half and, well, she’s stupid good. She scores both our goals in the second half and nearly adds a third on a shot from outside the box that just glances off the goalpost wide… I thought WITHOUT her we had a pretty good team… with her I’m not sure we’re beatable.

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