Fall Season 2008

My little athlete of a daughter has started school sports and joined Volleyball and Cross Country. So Monday thru Thursday she stays at school until 4:30-4:45 for practice. I am impressed by her energetic enthusiasm and was very excited to see her "play" for the first time. As a figure skater I watched almost all of her "practices" and this was all new to us. I have not seen her practice and was thrilled to see her in action. Volleyball's first game was Thur night and the team won 1 out of three matches--- I'm not sure of the volleyball terminology . As tall as our Rachel is -she was not the tallest but she was among 8th graders. Bob thinks she needs to toughen up--- she is strong but being a team player is all new to her too. I think she will improve each time. I was pleased to see all the effort she is putting into it and I could see her efforts during the game too. I also new not to cheer for her too loudly because She would not like that.
Cross Country's first meet was this am and I was very excited for it, after all I was a cross country runner myself. At the open house I suggested she join and she did not want to -so that was the end of that, so I thought! Until One day she came running home from school and asked if she could go back to the cross country practice?? The coach invited her to a practice so she could see if she liked it . I said sure why not, thinking Rachel would not like it and that would be the end of that. Well she has been going to practice ever since and today was the first meet. I was informed that she joined cross country because it would be a challenge for her. Rachel challenging herself??? Impressive! I like this way of thinking. She was a bit nervous, totally out of character for her but she handled it well. The whole situation was a bit confusing because this was a huge invitational and there were hundreds of kids and we had no idea where her school was lining up. We found them and all went well. The principal who is super awesome and wonderfully dedicated to our school was there and it was a first time experience for all of us . The whistle blew and kids took off running from the start line and I thought I missed it ....not to worry they were all called back to the line (false start) they needed to wait for the gunshot.....which happened seconds after they returned. I was talking with another parent tyring to figure out where they would be coming in and voooila they were already coming for us . I was able to cheer Rachel on and the 1/4 mile mark and she went "full speed ahead" like I cheered , but there were gates and I couldn't get to the finish line in time. We don't know her time yet but she was 4th from her school. She fainted just after the finish line for a few seconds and I missed it - she was tired. She thought about giving up but she kept going and I was very proud of her. I think this challenge toughened her up already.
The season is short there are only 3 more v-ball games and 3 more cc meets plus playoffs. I can't believe it is Oct in just a few days. I'll try to post the first pictures later- not only are these our first game pictures but the school's first team ever.