Letters and Panthers

Last night was the fall sports award ceremony.  The coaches got a bit long-winded so it lasted about an hour and a half, but the longest talking coach was the football coach and the guys had such a great season, that I guess I'll cut him a little slack.  Part of the problem is that the ceremony recognizes the seniors and there were a dozen seniors on the football team, and since each one was highlighted, he had a lot of highlighting to do.  Angel #4 received her first letter - apparently, football managers letter each year they manage, which no one thinks is really fair, but it's the way it goes, so she's got a letter under her belt.  Our homecoming court is decided based on how many letters someone has plus their GPA, so we were joking that this is her first step toward homecoming queen.  Since there are only 3 freshman girls who lettered, she's well on her way.

Also mentioned last night was the infamous pink night football announcer flub-up.  One football game was dedicated to breast cancer awareness, with raffles, the football players wearing pink socks, etc.  Trying to drum  up more business for the raffle tickets, the game announcer said:  this is  your last chance to buy raffle tickets for breast awareness.   Once he heard the crowd burst into laughter, he red-facededly corrected it to breast CANCER awareness.

WE's girlfriend won the Panther Award for girls volleyball.  The Panther Award goes to a person who may not be the best on the team, but who is an inspiration, a good team supporter and just a general asset to the team in terms of morale.  She definitely deserved it.  She's been in volley ball, basket ball & track all through high school, but she isn't very good (except in volleyball, but the coach is an idiot who wouldn't put her out on the court because she plays favorites).  Because of not being real good, she's never lettered in any of her sports.  Last night she got her first letter in addition to the Panther Award, we were all so proud of her.

WE didn't win any particular awards in cross country, besides lettering.  But as the teams co-captain, and a senior, he was singled out last night as well.  He and his fellow captain dressed to the nines in dress shirts, nice pants and even ties - and absolutely identically right down to their white belts.  The cross kids were all dressed up really nice and I was so proud of what an awesome group of kids they are.  WE even said the same thing on the way home, expressing  how much he loves the cross country freshmen (8 out of 19 kids on the team are freshmen) and what a cool group of kids they are.  One I was particularly glad to see walk out with both a letter and a most improved player award was a boy named Kyle.  Kyle's been in cross since middle school, he's a junior now.  He's always struggled and came in last in most of his races,but kept pushing on regardless.  Last year during cross, the boys were goofing around during practice and Kyle received a severe concussion.  He's never been mentally the same since and his parents have brought him to doctors all over the country in an effort to get him help.  As a result, things are just a little bit harder for Kyle since then, he has weird episodes where he just spaces out and he also gets frustrated because he knows he used to catch on to things much easier in the past than he does now.  Anyway, all last summer, Kyle's been out running, 6 days a week, every week.  Since the concussion, he's also struggled with dealing with heat, which made running all the more difficult.  He had a little bit of a problem with the first couple cross country meets, mainly because it was pretty warm outside, but as the season went on, he kept doing better and better.  Since last year's season, he's knocked 2 1/2 minutes per MILE off his time!  Is that incredible or what?  I know I was so proud to see him walk up there and get the MIP award, I can only imagine how his parents felt.