A week to end all weeks (One week to rule them all....)

Whew! Poor Hunter. In addition to maintaining his position as co-valedictorian, Wednesday was the CHS Homecoming coronation. Hunter made the cut of 10 but the King was his good friend Jeff Gendreau, another soccer player and 4.0 student. Thursday night was none other than the Mr. CHS pageant, which Hunter won by his combination of terrific costumes (Thanks Earthgirl!) his awesome fiddling, and his snappy comebacks to stupid questions ("How would you describe your love?" Hunter: "My love is like diarrhea - I just can't hold it in.")

On Saturday, the Patriots played the Demons in Mandan for the West Region Championship. We scored 26 seconds in and the final was 3-1 with the BHS goal being very questionable as a defender kicked the ball off the line (in soccer the entire ball has to cross the goal line as opposed to American football where you only have to break the plane. As an aside: Why is it called a touchdown if you don't have to actually place the ball on the ground while under your control? Just sayin'.

Anyway, Hunter was named to the All-Tournament team, which is a bit of a misnomer since they don't have a true tournament as the #1 and #2 seeds meet in the championship based on the regular season record, so the award was more for his season, and considering the limited playing time he's seen this year, it was more of a lifetime achievement award. I think the West Region coaches were sending his coach a message as in "Why the hell does this terrific player play only 30 minutes a game?"

Here are a couple of candids, and remember that this makes 4 #1 seeds in a row for Century>

Soccer, soccer, and more soccer...

As freshmen, Luke and Will had very little chance of making either the Varsity or Varsity reserve teams since Century has such depth. Bismarck Public Schools also has a no-cut policy so there are quite a few Juniors and Seniors who want to play but who can't make the top two teams either. This leads to two "developmental teams", one of which is primarily freshmen and sophomores and the other the older players.

 

 

 

Because many of the older players know L&W through Hunter they were invited to play on that team and I think they not only had a lot of fun but learned a lot about being part of a team and working hard while you are in the game. Final result: undefeated season. Many, many goals, and both boys had a lot of success, Luke scoring a number of goals from the midfield, and Will getting a couple of goals but many assists on free kicks. Photos to follow!

A career winding down

I am nearly in shock as I recently realized that we only get to watch Hunter in 5 more soccer games in his career. He has already told us he does not want to play in college, so that means a West Region game against Jamestown on Tuesday, the West Region Championship game next weekend, and the three games at the State Tournament in Fargo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hunter started playing soccer in kindergarten in the Bismarck Public School league which was parent coached and run. The big step came when Tami sent him to the English Summer soccer camp as part of The Capitol City Soccer Club when he was 10. He was awarded hardest working player trophy for that week and his decision was made - a soccer player he would be. He had some success at basketball (until he stopped growing) and a lot of success at baseball (another season behind the plate next spring for Century), plays golf and tennis but the truest love has been soccer. So many summer travelling championships, 2 or 3 summer state championships, 2 North Dakota High School second place finishes and one State High School Championship and it all comes down to .... 5 more games.

Victory!

So a couple of weeks have gone by and Century finds themselves in a Virtual 3 way tie with 2 losses (and 1 less game played) and time for the BHS rematch and the real Patriots show up for the first time all year and destroy the Demons 6-0 and it could have been worse.

Hunter had a nice assist on a corner headed in by Jeff Gendreau. He is still seeing limited playing time ( 25 minutes out of 80 typically) but when he is on the offensive end is revitalized and exciting. They have too many players who just coast and expect to get quality shots and aren't working to make those things happen.

In other good news, Luke and Will were informed that they will be traveling to Jamestown Saturday to play on the JV team.  They have been stuck down on one of the developmental teams and playing well, and their coach must have put in a good word for them so they get to travel with Hunter on the bus on Saturday. Yeah!

OMG -- You blink twice and weeks have passed

Here's the soccer update. CHS blew their first game with BHS in my humble opinion by having 6 sophomores on the field in the 2nd half when 4 different BHS player s had gone down from cramps (conditioning issues, Tim?). The defense got weak and in goes a goal and Century never really got back into their groove. Since then they've beaten St Mary's and Grand Forks Central and Grand Forks Red River all by 3-0 scores. Next up is the rematch with Minot at the Bowl and we'll see if they can keep it going. Only good games left in regular season are BHS and St Mary's rematches.

Work has been crazy and time at a premium.

Thursday night and the yearly trek to Minot for soccer. The Magicians make a real attempt to play soccer and to build a real program. The game was. OT nearly as close (final score 1-0 Century) as the Patriots controlled the ball and the pace for most of the game. Century has such depth that you don't see any dropoff no matter how many subs or underclassmen are on the field. The new young coach hasn't quite figured out which combination of players works best together but he has so much talent that none of the combos has been "bad." Hunter has been sharing time with another senior named Brandon but I hope we'll see more and more of him as the season goes on. Next game is Thursday night vs. Bismarck.

First real Fall Soccer

We traveled to Jamestown early this morning for the East-West Classic. 6 teams from each region come together and play 2 games against teams from the other region. The first game was a 2-1 Century win over West Fargo (who I later learned had played to a tie with Fargo Shanley in the EDC opener) in a game that was typical of these early season games. A little rusty, some flashes of great play but overall pretty conservative games. In the second game Century faced off against Fargo Davies, which is the new high school on the south side of Fargo. After a scoreless first half Davies got on the board first with an unassisted goal early in the 2nd half. Century controlled the ball but the Davies keeper made several terrific saves on shots on goal. With about 15 minutes left Hunter made a run right down the middle and while sliding slashed the ball just inside the left post for the equalizer. Century continued the pressure and the entire last 10 minutes was played in the Davies end but Century was unable to convert so final score was 1-1. A side note, Hunter rocked a ball off of a defenders knee directly back into his own face which got him a deserved(?) break on the sideline to fix his bloody nose.

Just a note....August 1 was the 20th Anniversary for yours truly and the Earth Girl. We had a nice quiet dinner and then took a little driving memory tour around town. This included stops at Simle Drive (Thanks Jen!) and 8th Street just south of the Capitol (Thanks L'il Petey!) and of course a drive by our first house in Highland Acres. I don't suppose you ever forget where you were when those babies showed up. The boys started soccer tryouts last night in 91 degree heat. Looks cloudy and somewhat cooler today. Hunter seemed excited to be back out there since he took his first summer soccer season off in 7 years. Luke and Will are just trying to make the JV squad but Century is loaded with talented players so they will have to work very hard and be patient while they wait for the opportunity to play. Tomorrow is my birthday which I will celebrate by playing (another) bad round of golf at Prairie West and then work and then haul kids to soccer. Maybe wisdom is just around the corner?

Sorry sports fans for the delay in programming...

Alright, here's the real story. I've been too #@$*&#$ busy to post anything. I know, you don't really care. But coming soon will be updates on Century Soccer (3 boys playing this year!) and life in general. I have been reading more evolutionary theory and especially books on the human genome and how it is helping trace populations and how neatly it fits with our linguistic studies. I continue to be fascinated by the fact that "we" homo sapiens survived and flourished while the other hominids all died off. I know most of you don't find that exciting, but I think it is great stuff. Politics. It is clear from the Electoral College data that, barring a scandal or the complete meltdown of the American monetary system, that Barack Obama will be re-elected President of the United States of America. Yeah! The much bigger longterm question is "Will we elect enough Democrats to the House and the Senate to be able to overcome the filibuster and actually resume governing these United States?" Romney is an Ass, and the Republicans continue to prove EVERYDAY that they are the party of George Wallace and Lester Maddox, not the party of Abraham Lincoln or Dwight Eisenhower. According to them, it is a sin to (1) invest in America and (2) invest in Americans. Race baiting, total disregard for the welfare of a significant portion of our citizens, and blatant refusal to consider requiring those with extraordinary income and resources to pay more taxes leaves them out of the mainstream and leads them into the dark alleys of criminal activities such as voter disenfranchisement and partisan (not population based) redistricting.

Chilly Scenes of Winter...