Presidents Day Classic

Some days I wonder who this person is, my 14-year-old daughter.

I always thought we were very alike, but I think I was wrong. True, we are similar in many ways. Between the two of us, there are never any awkward silences at our house. And who else would be my Dr. Who and Castle watching buddy? But while I enjoyed music and dance at her age, she is a lot more athletic than I ever was. And she has the never-quit mind of an athlete to match. Her determination astounds me.

Mandy’s volleyball team played at the Qwest Center this weekend in the President’s Day Classic. And they lost. Actually, they lost a lot.

Her team played traveling teams from Kansas City, Denver, Iowa City, and other cities in the Mid-West. It was an incredible assembly of girls in spandex shorts and ponytails. It was every teenage boy’s dream. There were 90-some volleyball courts setup in the Qwest Center and I heard there were more than 400 teams at the tournament in total. I think there were around 40 teams just in her 14-year age bracket. The sound of screaming girls and squeaking shoes was deafening. Volleyballs were flying everywhere. And the number of towering Amazon girls was dizzying. I can’t imagine where they buy jeans.

The first day of the tournament, the girls played three games and lost all of their sets. Of course, they were way out-matched. But the girls played hard and looked better after each game they played. Mandy played awesome Saturday and had some great hits and blocks. And her serving was awesome -- she only missed one. The girls came out of the day upbeat, ready to take on the next day.

The second day, the girls played three teams with which they were more equally matched. But somehow our team lost all three games. After they lost the first set of the first game, several players just quit trying. But Mandy didn’t quit. Every time they took the court, Mandy came out screaming and jumping and trying to pump the girls up. One of the moms said Mandy was the team cheerleader, trying to keep everyone upbeat. She was still screaming for the ball to make her hits and was still making spot serves. But even with a great cheerleader like Mandy, it wasn’t enough to win.

After the team lost the first set of the third game, most of the girls on the team were in tears, the fans had stopped cheering, and the coaches had quit talking. The girls walked out on the court very somber for their last set of the day.

Then out of nowhere, Mandy jumps up in the air and starts screaming. One second she was stone faced, and the next she was a screaming lunatic. She screams at the top of her lungs and goes around the circle to each girl on the team, high fiving them, and then jumps up and down waving her arms in the air to pump up the crowd. Not only did she have the team laughing and her coaches busting a gut, the entire crowd was laughing, as well as the other team and the officials.

Of course her team lost the last set. And then they came back Monday and lost one last game. It was not a good day. In fact, it was a pretty dismal weekend altogether.

So if it was me, I would throw in the towel. I would be ready to call volleyball quits and chalk up the whole experience as a lesson learned. If it doesn’t go just right, I would rather not do it at all.

But not Mandy. I asked her if she was done with it – volleyball and her team. She said no. She said she loves volleyball. She still loves to play and she isn’t ready to give up.

She is clearly her father’s daughter. Good looking, good natured and just plain goofy.

I guess I can learn something from a 14-year-old. Just because you lose, doesn’t mean you are beaten. If you give up entirely, then you are truly the loser.

It’s a good thing Mandy bounces back so well. We’ve got another tournament this Friday and Saturday. We will have to switch gears for this one: it’s a school basketball tournament for grades 4 through 8. Both Mandy and Joe will play on the team together and Rick will assistant coach. Both Mandy and Joe will have to play almost all game, every game because we only have nine players that are out for basketball. And they are all sixth grade and younger, except for Mandy.

We will be evenly matched by a few teams. We will actually be able to beat one or two teams, unless they show up with unexpected help. And there are one or two teams comprised of mostly seventh and eighth graders that we will have to play who have about double the number of players we have. We are in the B pool, so we won’t have to play the big Omaha schools with all eighth graders. At least we have that going for us.

Anyways, we aren’t expecting to win or even come in second. But we will go out and have some fun. Joe will come down with some decent rebounds and hopefully try to shoot a few more baskets. Big Red (Mandy’s new court nickname) will try to own the lane and hack the crap out of anybody who tries to dribble up the middle. It should be highly entertaining if the kids don’t run out of gas before their last game (which of course is against the biggest B team).

So here we go again. I’m hoping Big Red doesn’t foul out and that Joe doesn’t puke after any of his games. And if anyone starts jumping up and down and screaming like a lunatic, this time I’ll have my camera ready and packed. And I think I’ll throw in a puke bag, just in case. With the way our luck is going, it can’t hurt to come prepared.

Postscript:

I wrote this blog a day or so ago, but have to add that things are looking up. The girls had a practice Wednesday night with the other Magic Gold team, team Umi. Mandy had a fantastic night. The director of the club said that Mandy and the middle hitter for the other team were the best passers on both teams. Middle hitters are generally bad at passing, because they don’t generally get low to get under the ball. (Bummer the two of them come out and are replaced by liberos when they play back row.) And Mandy is one of the fastest players on her team. Evidently that is also rare for a middle hitter. She was congratulated Wednesday night at practice for finishing her laps ahead of more than half of her team. And tonight (Thursday) at practice, she beat everyone on her team when they ran lines. She even streaked ahead of the fast little libero. The director and a coach from another team came over and gave her a high five for running so fast. So, hard work is paying off and her confidence is returning. Watch out in Hastings next weekend. I have a feeling Big Red will return jumping and screaming. She’s ready to go at it again. Better bring the ear plugs.

Basketball, Basketball, Basketball

Sometimes life has a real way of surprising you.

Sometimes your boyfriend turns you into a girl in front of your co-workers and sends you flowers at work (woohoo Carrie). Sometimes your son withstands a game of full-court press against an aggressive boys’ basketball team and doesn’t have to puke afterwards. Sometimes your daughter, who absolutely hates basketball, turns out to be a decent player.

The basketball season is just building up steam here in Lincoln. Along with the school team that both kids play on, our daughter Mandy is playing in a recreational basketball league for the YMCA in Lincoln. Unfortunately she absolutely loathes basketball. She lives for volleyball and adores soccer. But not so much basketball.

She’s tall, so her dad thought she should give basketball one last try before she goes to high school next year. She played basketball for the YMCA when she was in 5^th grade, but quit to give her full-time attention to volleyball.

She is loving her club volleyball team this year. They’ve come in second (or possibly third according to some accounts) in two out of the three volleyball tournaments they’ve played in.

Yeah, there was the one tournament they couldn’t win a game. But, that’s life I guess. The next day they played the other gold Magic team – the one that got third in that tournament – and beat them with their killer serves. Go figure.

She loves playing middle hitter and pounding the ball down on the other teams. She just loves to “play the net.” She came home from her last volleyball tournament this weekend and told me, “Apparently I can jump.” Evidently she got a bunch of awesome blocks at the tournament. The little flutter kick she does to get that tall body off the floor somehow works. Her volleyball coaches just love to make fun of her flutter jump. And I was so sad I had to miss it. I stayed behind to take Joe to his basketball game and watched his Spirit YMCA team beat the Fairbury 6^th grade team. He made the first basket of the game. Go Joe.

Anyways, she hates basketball. I’m not sure what it is about the game. I actually think it has more to do with the fact that she hasn’t consistently played it for years. Sometimes she doesn’t know where to be on the court. Sometimes she doesn’t have the perfect form. Sometimes she doesn’t remember what basket she is supposed to be shooting at. Yes, even on the basketball court she is a blond in a brunette’s body and has tried to make a basket for the other team. But fortunately it was during a school game and the basket didn’t go in (either time she shot it). What a goof.

Imagine our surprise this week when she walked into basketball practice and the first thing her coach said was that Mandy had a great game Sunday. Yea! Mandy’s team got beat Sunday, but she played an aggressive game under the basket. A few weeks ago her team played an 8^th grade team from Raymond Central that had three tall, big girls. (This was the game Mandy had to sit out most of the second half because she had four fouls throwing elbows and hacking the big girls under the basket.) This team played on our court immediately after our game Sunday. The coach from the Raymond Central team approached our coach after the game and told him that Mandy was a really good defensive player. He said he was impressed at how she was able to shut down the big girl in Sunday’s game, because the big girl scored lots of points on the Raymond Central team when they played her. YEA!

For somebody who hates basketball, she can really own the lane on defense. If you attempt to drive the lane, be prepared to get pounded. At Sunday’s game, the big girl was dribbling the ball down the court and headed straight for Mandy in the lane. What Mandy should have done was set her feet and drawn a charge. It was a perfect setup for that situation. INSTEAD, what does Mandy do? She turns sideways, lowers her shoulder, and sends the big girl flying. It’s her soccer shoulder shove. She saves it for aggressive soccer players, plus a few 8^th grade boys at soccer camps and soccer jams. Unfortunately, this is not appropriate for basketball. As the big girl falls to the floor, Mandy is called for blocking with her body. Yeah, that’s about right. If that’s not a foul, then I don’t know what is.

Sooooo, after the game we asked Mandy why she didn’t take the charge. “I didn’t want to get hurt. If someone was going to hit the floor I would rather it be her than me.” Oh Mandy. We have to work on that whole “turn the other cheek bit” with her.

I have to admit, Mandy is not exactly the same person she was at this time last year. This year she has matured into a strong player on the court, and a strong personality off of it, as well. She still is extremely outgoing and makes tons of friends. She still is kind-hearted and always has a flock of little kids following her around. She still is goofy, talks a ton, and always is wearing a smile. But, she has found a self confidence that she was lacking last year to help her rally her team.

She has strong opinions, she strongly defends her friends, and she doesn’t back down from conflict or aggressive people. I’m not sure if this is because she no longer has her best friend Megan at school with her to help her fight her battles, or if it is because most of her new best friends are also strong athletes. They are busy girls who like to spend their time on the court and with one another. They prefer to hang out with the girls and have fun. Most of her friends are confident people, and they don’t seem to need to have a boyfriend to feel validated. I think that is fantastic. Heaven knows that 14-year-old girls have enough challenges. Keeping a boy in line shouldn’t be one of them.

I was talking to Megan’s mom today about that very subject. Megan was working on a homework assignment about teen dating for her teen issues class at East High School while we waited at the school kids’ basketball practice. We both said that if we knew back then what we know now, we would have never given most of the boys in high school a second chance or even a second thought.

I am well aware that Mandy is not completely immune to boys. Yes, I’ve seen her Facebook status. That’s her private life and I won’t talk about that here. I will say, however, that if she has a boyfriend or not, it isn’t the end of her world. (Isaac is a very nice boy. I am secretly cheering for Isaac.)

I’m not sure if she would have said the same thing last year at this time, but maybe everything happens for a reason. Maybe last year she wouldn’t have been a strong enough person to start fresh at a high school with 2,000 students. This year she can’t wait.

One thing I am sure about, focusing on the things she loves has made all the difference. She came home from volleyball tonight talking about all the great hits she made while they were scrimmaging the 15-year-old team. She has been working so hard at conditioning, practices, and individual training to improve her volleyball game, and it is really paying off. Tonight the director at the volleyball club told Rick that he has noticed how Mandy has been playing at the last few tournaments. He thinks maybe she should have been on the top 14-year-old gold team (the one her team beat at their last scrimmage). He said she is really a strong player. She is so happy and feels so good about what all her hard work has accomplished. It makes my heart so happy to see her proud of her accomplishments and have people compliment her on them, especially the coaches. It does her confidence a world of good to see her hard work pay off.

Granted, all her hard work may not pay off when it comes to her basketball team. She may still have a great game, but she probably won’t be able to prevent them from losing by 20 points. The coach has 10 players, so he splits each quarter with one set of five girls, and then the other set of five. It’s hard to sit on the bench when you want to go in and help your friends. But at least she comes home cheerfully chirping about her awesome baskets, or how she blocked some girl’s shot, or how she remembered which basket she should be shooting at the whole game. I’m not sure she still knows what it means to post up, sorry Rick.

Unfortunately her basketball team will have to play without her this weekend. We are headed to the three-day President’s Day Classic at the Qwest Center in Omaha. Three days of volleyball versus elite gold teams. There will be 90-some courts of volleyball being played all at one time. We will probably burn through a lot of gas this weekend getting Mandy to all her games, taking Joe to his games, and attending my niece’s baptism.

Rick and I are looking forward to watching lots of volleyball. Joe is looking forward to another Spirit game Sunday to see if he can score any more points or rip the ball out of anybody’s hands. Mandy is looking forward to having a lot of time hanging out with her friends, and to possibly catching a glimpse of a few boys at State Wrestling Saturday at the Qwest Center. Teenage boys in unitards. Like I said, she isn’t completely immune.

Miss This

Well, I hate to say I was right again, but I when you are right you are right. My sister did give me a mug for my birthday that says, “I’m not perfect, but I’m so close it scares me.”

This month I was right about jeans. (I’m right about once a month.) I told my sister Carrie that she needed some new jeans. The jeans she has been wearing just hang off her backside and drag on the ground so that the cuffs are all frayed. I tell her that she should get new jeans and that she will look nice. She refuses because she claims she doesn’t want anyone looking at her butt.

OK, so there probably are a lot of creepers downtown at the Bennett Martin library, but they are going to look at your butt if you are wearing nice jeans or not. So you might as well allow them to enjoy the scenery.

Old junky jeans have their place. Everybody owns several pairs of these. However, a person needs more than just old junky jeans. They need a few “going out” party jeans. Especially if they have a new BOYFRIEND. Am I wrong here? I don’t think so.

So where do you go if you want going out jeans? I’m thinking The Buckle.

Carrie does not love The Buckle. She enjoys shopping in the mens’ department of most stores or at Scheels. She thinks the sales people at The Buckle are a little uppity. I’m fine with that, as long as they bring me a dozen different pairs of jeans to try on that look good on me.

Carrie jokes about The Buckle game that her and her friends used to play. They would try to walk through the store, touch the back wall, and make it back to the door without a salesperson asking if they could help them with something. She says she doesn’t think anyone ever won.

Mandy and I love The Buckle. Last year I bought Mandy several pairs of jeans from Maurices, but then she went and lost about 10 pounds and needed some new pairs that didn’t fall off of her. I suggested The Buckle, because I have fond memories of buying jeans at The Buckle. I remember when we used to scoff at the $40 or $50 jeans when I was in high school. Now the jeans can be more than double that amount. Yikes.

So last year Mandy found several pairs that she just loved, plus a pair of cowboy boots. Yes, she does own a couple pair of Miss Me jeans. I think the Miss Me brand name is a real misnomer. They put so much bling on your backside that there is no way anyone could miss it. It could be Can’t Miss Me jeans, but evidently an M looks better on your back pocket than a C.

And the salesgirls were ever so helpful; they even suggested a few pairs of jeans that I might like while I was there. I thought, oh well, I’ve got nothing better to do. And then I was hooked. There is something about paying for a nice pair of jeans that are cut to fit nice and don’t fall down. So I bought a couple of pairs of jeans for myself and got several compliments. So now I have a pair or two of Miss Me jeans.

Before you make any judgments, you should know I am not the only mom out there with jeans from The Buckle. Now that I know what to look for, I see moms all over the place with jeans from The Buckle. If I’m going to plunk down a wad of money, I might as well get some benefit out of it too. And I guess I am not alone.

So I told Carrie I was taking her to The Buckle to get fitted and find her some nice jeans. She fights tooth and nail, but eventually gives in. She will not, and she repeats will not, get any sparkle-butt jeans. And so she buys three pairs. One has lots of extra sequins and sparkles. I’m sure her “special friend” will be bedazzled by her backside.

While I am on a roll, I talk her into shopping for a few new shirts. On our way through the open-air SouthPointe mall, Mandy makes us hurry up. Evidently she is so cold her sparkles are freezing off. You can take that statement however you want to take it.

After our evening of shopping, we head to a family outing with the boyfriend. I think the majority of the family is stunned when Carrie shows up with her sparkle-butt jeans. Then Sunday Carrie texted me to say she got six compliments on her new shirt at work. When you are right, you are right.

My next mountain to climb is finding makeup she will wear. I am contriving plans on how to accomplish this endeavor. Foundation, powder, blush, and mascara are a necessity. Eye liner and lipstick are never going to happen. I have to be realistic.

Then I just need to marry her off and my work here will be done. I know, I know. Baby steps, people, baby steps. But I wonder if Miss Me makes wedding apparel. It can’t hurt to ask.