Basketball Sleep Away Camp!

Bree & Hailey

A few months ago, one of Hailey's best friends asked if she wanted to go to a basketball camp this summer. It was a sleep away camp but not far from our house. Now, she's never been one to want to put a lot of effort into a sport, per se. And, after last year's sleep away camp, she said she might do another one...one day. But now, here she was faced with an opportunity that she may have not been ordinarily thrilled by. However, her friend, Bree, told Hailey should would have to go by herself or have a random roommate if Hailey did not go with her. Of course, Hailey being the kind of friend that she is agreed to go with Bree. 

So mid-July, we packed Hailey up and I dropped her off at camp about 20 minutes away from our house. A few days before, she was getting cold feet. So I wouldn't let her bring her phone because I didn't want her be able to contact me because I wanted her to be immersed in her camp experience and enjoy her time there instead of calling me. But Bree had her watch phone so Hailey could still call me. Shoot. 

I had just dropped her off not even 6 hours before when I got the first text that she wasn't feeling well and she wanted to call me. I did accept her call and talked to her. After about 20 minutes of trying to remain positive with her about this experience, I flat out had to tell her, I'm not coming to get you. She then said can I at least call you tomorrow night too? I agreed and told her to make the best of it. 

The next night she called and was a totally different kid. She was yelling hi to girls in the hall, cracking jokes with her roommate, telling me she had to go soon because they ordered pizza. We talked for a short time and she asked if she could call me the next night too. I agreed again. And, the next night was much of the same. She told me she didn't love playing basketball all day long but she really did love the social aspect.

I picked her up on Thursday. She packed up all of her stuff by herself (yeah, I'm impressed too) and didn't lose anything. She showered every day (can I bring her counselors home with me so they can get her to shower every day too?!). She said the food was disgusting - sloppy joe's and meatloaf for dinner two of the nights. I agree with her - who feeds kids that gross food? How about chicken nuggets and mac and cheese?! And, she said she definitely was not interested in going to a sports camp ever again! Ha! So different from Austen but I totally get it too. I went to a soccer camp once after 6th grade, and it wasn't that much fun. Too much work. Regular, old fashioned sleepover camp was more my speed so I'm hoping that she'll try that next summer! 

And, they're off!

The last day - they did it!

Grad Parties Galore

How much fun have we had going to grad parties this season?! It's been really special to celebrate these boys and girls whom we've had the pleasure to get to know whether it's been through travel baseball or travel soccer or something else. 

We missed five parties due to Father's Day (in Michigan) and another two parties due to regionals (soccer) in Kansas City but we more than made up for them the other weekends of the year. I've thoroughly enjoyed these celebrations and seeing all the pictures of him/her growing up. I realized that most of these grad parties were from families we knew through travel sports. Boy, you really get to know each other through traveling together and spending a lot of time together over the years. I realize how incredibly lucky we were to form these kinds of friendships not just in soccer but in baseball too. Of course, soccer was just extra special because of all the years that Austen played travel soccer. We were very fortunate to form great bonds with several parents on his first club team (Wizards) where he started his travel career in the 1st grade and continued through 7th grade. Some of those kids still play soccer today, some don't.- but the parents still get together. (And, Austen's college roommate is from that club team.) I didn't think we'd find those kind of friendships twice but we did. Austen joined Galaxy heading into 8th grade and will finish his club soccer career with them this month at Nationals in Orlando. These families and their boys are an incredibly special group that we were lucky to get to know through travel soccer. Most are graduating this year and some will start their senior year this fall. But you can't help but root for all of them in life. Great kids. Great parents. Looking forward to our last hurrah with them at Nationals soon! 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Austen's graduation party. He did not want a big graduation party in our current house. He only wanted one if we had a nice new "party" house. So while we are moving (that's a whole other blog), it wasn't soon enough for a grad party so we did a family only grad party at our club for him which turned out to be really nice, and wasn't too much work (which I heard parties at home can be. Note: my next two will have their parties at home.)

We ate well (sushi), caught up with family, took lots of pictures and didn't have to worry about the rain that rolled in that evening. It was the perfect family grad party but I have been warned that when our new house is done and he is back from college, Austen will be having a "real" party with his friends to make up for it. I can hardly wait (for him to go to college). 

Grad party festivities!

Soccer besties (the kid next to Austen is 6'6") before/after grad parties

Soccer moms at grad parties

Austen's quilt from all his sports jerseys

The other side of the quilt

Siblings!

Centerpieces

Proud parents!

All of his awards

Red and black set up

Papa in Austen's letterman's jacket

Homerun Hailey!

That's the nickname that Hailey earned among her softball teammates before she even hit her in the park home run during her spring softball season. Aside from the alliteration, I wasn't sure why they called her that except that she could really hit the ball. She wasn't hitting weak grounders either. Her balls sailed high and over the infield most of her times at bat so she collected a number of doubles this season. 

Well Fought 2nd Place Trophy

However, it was during playoffs that she hit her first in the park home run. The pitcher had thrown four balls to her so her coach was allowed to pitch to her. She had the perfect hit right over the first baseman's head and well into the outfield. You'd think that she got lucky but she often hit down the first base line. In fact, in her final game, with a travel player pitching to her she clocked one in the very same spot off that pitcher to record a triple. Her batting was strong. Her fielding was good too. She caught a foul ball running for the fence (from 3rd base) during the playoffs. One of only two players on her team who made foul ball catches all season. She also made a double play from third base (I was out of town for soccer with Austen and Tom was running a Peyton carpool but Papa saw it!). Her team made a great run in the playoffs and ended up in the championship where they lost in the bottom of the last inning 10-9. But they had a great season with great kids and great coaches. They really did quite well for having only one travel girl on their team when many other teams had at least two or three.  

Still she said this was her last season playing softball. It does get harder with all of the travel girls playing now. Their pitches come fast and the almost year-round training gives them a leg up. She's not interested in playing that sport year-round. Heck, I'm not sure she's interested in playing any sport year-round but she does have some talent. You see some flashes of brilliance from her in all sports. It's just whether she really wants to put in the effort to be really good at any of them. Truthfully, I think she'd rather play hockey. Now she wants me to sign her up so she can learn how to skate!

Smiles Despite the Loss in the Championship Game

4th of July 2025! Boom!

We made it to Michigan for the 4th of July! We were able to go up a day or so earlier than our guests so we could do some laundry from Father's Day and clean out some clothes that the kids' have grown out of and needed to replace. We got that all done and were able to enjoy dinner at Captain Lou's on the river (which we only discovered last year but has become a family favorite) and then a nicer dinner at Clearbrook Golf Course the next night followed by fireworks in downtown South Haven. Lots of fun and celebrating! 

Dinner at Clearbrook

Our guests arrived and we sat down and had a few drinks/appetizers before heading over to our friend's house where the other half of our 4th of July party awaited with some smoked brisket. They had just put in a new pool area which was amazing so we had dinner poolside before heading to their beach for a private fireworks show. After the beach, the boys all cooled off in the pool. 

The next day, we had a big breakfast followed by lots of beach time. We got out the lily pad and Austen and Peyton anchored it in the sandbar so after swimming out there, we all could relax on a floating dock. We played lots of "see how many short passes we could get without letting the ball hit the water." Turns out it's easier to do with a smaller group than a group of 10 but we had lots of fun trying. The weather was perfect and while we had dinner plans, we opted for Plan B - which was to stay at the beach longer and cook in. Our guests ran to the store for burgers and hot dogs. Tom grilled them up. We had lots of chips, some leftover fruit, salad and lots to drink. So it was the perfect way to wind down the evening before our friend, Perry, played his ukulele and we all sang along. There was also bags played, cards dealt, board games played and some bocce ball. Austen left halfway through the evening with a neighbor girl. Hmm...but we still had lots of fun without him! 

On Sunday, we had another big breakfast before we all headed into crazy traffic to get home. Took us only 3 hours and 40 minutes (which was the shortest of all of our friends) so we felt lucky even though it was normally two hours without traffic (which really doesn't exist in the summer months). We did make it back in time for Peyton to work her lifeguarding shift at 4:30pm!

Another great 4th of July in Michigan spent with good friends and accompanied by good food and drink. 

4th of July Fireworks - look at that sunset!

SoHa Fireworks from the bluff

Waiting for the fireworks to begin

State Cup Champs - Again

Should have been a three-peat in my opinion because they shouldn't have lost last year in the final. Heck, they should have never even gone to overtime last year. But, I'll chalk that one up to coaching error (which it was). But these guys never gave up. and two out of four of their high school years they earned State Cup honors. Despite lots of adversity. Despite three of those years having coaching changes one month before the start of the State Cup, these guys still persevered. I am so proud of them. 

Austen back row, 4th from left

Did I mention coaching changes? Yes, I haven't talked about it too much but finally - after 6 months of craziness did we get another coaching change this year in May. This one we welcomed. It was a tough and very long 6 months - I'm not going to lie. Kids quit. Others were demoralized. Most lost the love of the game. Kids were happier sitting the bench than playing. All because of the worst coach I've ever seen in any sport. I'm not talking about his choices on the field - which I didn't agree with most of the time - he certainly didn't bring out the best in any players that he coached, I thought, but this went beyond his field antics. This was verbally abusive behavior meant to tear down these boys personally. Let me be clear, he was not verbally abusive to Austen but what he had to witness and what was being said would have had any employee fired from his job. And this was happening to 17 and 18 year old boys. Our kids. And we were still their parents. We still had a responsibility to them. 

This coach wanted these kids to quit. He wanted to build his new team with all of his own recruits (who he played and started even when they didn't come to practice). Austen stepped down from his captain position so a junior going through the recruitment process could wear the armband and lead the team. This coach self-selected one of his favorites to wear that band even though the team did not vote for him and he was not a junior. Favoritism at its finest. After enough evidence; threats of reporting him to U.S. Safe Sport; the boys going to the head of the Club to report him (great lesson for them in do you put your head down and get through it or do you speak up even if it's not happening to you); and many of us parents banding together, he was finally relieved of his coaching duties for our team. It was a great day when that happened. Made even sweeter by this State Cup win (he's the only coach they had over the last three years that they did not win the State Cup under - and actually their record and the way they played was worse under him). 

These boys earned all of this - on their own. In a particularly difficult semifinal game for the State Cup, they had three kids out due to graduation and two kids out with injuries. That left 13 to play (since you had to go by your 18 rostered). The favorite player conveniently had to work (but count him in for the final, he said) and we didn't even know if we'd have one sub because the other recruit never said he was coming (he did end up showing up at the last minute). So we played with 12 in the heat. These boys hung on and ended up winning 4-2. That was the game! The final, they walked away with 3-0. They then went on to Regionals in Kansas City where they beat two teams 5-0 in group play but due to injuries (and our new coach giving everyone playing time) and the fact that the team we were playing had D1 college kids on it, we succumbed 3-1. But Regionals was never the goal as it was just training for Nationals since we had already qualified. 

So this is what it comes down to - one last hurrah. One last time playing together. One last moment to make memories. Hopefully, Austen and his teammates will give it everything they have because this is it. This is all they have left together - USYS Nationals 2025 at the ESPN Complex in Orlando. LFG! 

Austen's fans

State Cup Champs 2025!

Regionals in KC @ 95 degrees