A Season to Remember

It's already done...  We didn't know if we would even have a season, and it has turned into a pretty memorable summer so far.  I mentioned before that we signed up Gracie for everything at the beginning because we didn't know which leagues/teams would actually get games in.  Turns out that they all did, so we had quite a busy softball season.  It is always so bittersweet at the end, though.  Especially this year.

The Corona Season

The last two weeks of league, the City of Columbia passed a mask mandate.  Our girls, coaches, spectators had to wear a mask at the games, except for on the playing field, where they could maintain 6 feet of physical distance.

This is the Galaxy 07 team during their mismatch corona mask game.

Six feet apart

It's pretty hard to enforce this with any kids.

Brynn and Gracie....These two have been so fun to watch since they started playing together almost 4 years ago.  They have had 7 seasons together and I think are the only girls left on this team that are were part of the originals.  Gracie joined the team after their initial Fall 2016 season in 10u.

I have a lot of pictures of them together, but it has been awesome to watch them grow and improve together.  Brynn will be joining a different team starting this fall and her mom, Robyn, has decided to discontinue coaching.  They have both been so great and Gracie looks up to Brynn so much.  We have decided to stay with the Galaxy Program for at least one more year and Nick will continue to coach.  He definitely has a huge spot to fill for his counterpart.  Robyn was amazing!

Gracie and Brynn during their first season together.  Gracie was 8 years old and Brynn was 10 at this time.  They were both so little!

Here they are after their last game together.  Brynn is now 13 and Gracie is 11.

I do hope we get to see them play together again someday.

Yes, I took a lot of pictures during their last game.  I have a lot of videos, too.

There were a lot of tears from all of the players and coaches after the game. Brynn's pitching performance was phenomenal that night and I know Gracie loves catching for her.

Getting ready to do their thing

Team meeting n the mound

Brynn pitching, Gracie catching

View from behind the plate.  I should have taken pics from this seat all summer.

One final team picture.  There are a few missing though.  The girls stayed after the game for well over a half hour, just spending time together.  As I mentioned before, the 6 feet of distance was a bit hard to enforce, as was the mask wearing.

Raegan, Finley, Gracie, Brynn, Kenadie, Jacei, Casey, Emersyn

missing: Kinley, Bella, Montana

Last team huddle.  Yep, tears from all the girls and coaches.

It has been such a fun season.  The team was undefeated in their league and only lost 1 game at the 12u level.  They entered one 14u tournament and went 2-2 at that level.  So, they only lost 3 games during their Spring 2020 Corona season.

Gracie had an extraordinary season, as well.  During her regular season, she did not strikeout once, she hit 2 homeruns, and rarely had a game that she didn't have at least one hit.  I don't know the stats for her season, but they were pretty good.  I think going into 14U next season will pose more challenges, but this will be great for helping her improve.

Owen is done with baseball and moving on to football next week.  He is excited to start and hopefully we'll have a good season of flag football.

His team tried to do a Corona picture, but they do not distance themselves from each other either.

It wasn't super competitive, but I think they had fun this season.

Boating Fun with the Family!

Annie and Chad came down for a long weekend and we got to spend a day on the boat with them.  We had a lot of fun just floating in the water.  Some of our friends brought their ski boat down, too, and Gracie and Owen learned to ski!  What a great day!

Annie and River floating.

Mom and Annie floating.

River and Owen Swimming

Gracie getting ready to paddle around in the kayak.

Owen and River in the ski boat

Nick and Adam showing Owen what he needs to do.

Owen getting ready to ski!

It only took Owen 2 tries to get up and stay up.  He had so much fun.  He even learned to go outside the wake.  I think they both could have skied all day if they had been allowed.

Owen "jumping" the wake - mouth open of course.

Look at that smile!

Gracie also loved skiing, however, I only recorded videos of her.  It took her a couple more tries than it did Owen, but she got the hang of it and had a lot of fun.  I'm glad they both take after their father and were able to get out of the water.

Cuddling with Grandpa Tom

Gracie and River

More cuddles from Owen and Kaia

Summer School

Gracie and Owen did summer school the first two full weeks in July and then were given assignments to complete at home during the next 2 weeks.  Gracie got to go on a field trip and went fishing with her class.  She was quite proud that she caught something.  I am so glad that Southern Boone figured out a way to have summer school this year.  I hope this can continue into the fall with success!  We still have over a month left before they actually start school, though.

Gracie with her huge fish

What a weekend!

This past weekend, Gracie was invited to play with the Texas Glory MO '05 team in Kansas City at the ASA 14A Northern National Tournament.  Nick and Gracie headed that way on Friday morning and I left a little bit after noon for her 2pm game.  They played 3 games Friday, 3 games Saturday, and then 4 games Sunday, with rain delays.  It was a crazy weekend.  I had intentions to drive back and forth so I could take care of animals, but thank goodness one of our friends called and said they would take care of everything on Saturday evening and Sunday.  I did drive home with Owen on Friday night and missed the first two games on Saturday.  Owen is such a trooper and we spend a lot of time watching games together.  I think he is actually starting to get into it and enjoys watching the good games.  They were 6-0 going into the games on Sunday.  

However, they lost the first game on Sunday at noon, so had to battle back and win three more games before they could call themselves champions.  They had to beat the 2nd place team twice, and they pulled it off.  This is the best softball I have seen in a long time.  Most of the girls on the team Gracie played for will be sophomores next year.  I believe they will all move up to 16U except one player.  Gracie did pretty well and played in 8 of the 10 games.  She has more to learn and she will keep getting better.  She had her first (and second) strikeouts of the whole summer this weekend against pretty good pitchers.  There were a few mental errors, but all around she hung pretty well with the older girls.

Her friend Brynn was also there, playing for a different team.  They found each other. :)  They never ended up playing against each other, though.  That would have been interesting.

Brynn and Gracie in different uniforms.

Gracie hitting

Her coach had her bunt more than she ever has before.  She only had one that was not successful.

Some time catching

She also played a couple of games in left field.  She did pretty well there and didn't miss any plays.  However, I believe catching is her niche.

On third after she hit a triple.

Batting again.

She almost hit one out again.  I wasn't there, but Nick said it hit the fence about a foot short of going over.  He said the girls were yelling at her to hit the weight room.

I'm so glad that they were accepting of her and included her with everything.  They were a bunch of great girls and really good ball players.  One of their girls hit 5 homeruns over the course of the tournament.  They are so good.  I think Gracie had a blast playing at this level.

Gracie holding the trophy they earned.

The Texas Glory MO "05 team

I stole this pic from instagram, so it's a little blurry.

They had a rain delay and didn't resume the first championship game until 8pm.  They ended up winning that, so had to play that team again right after.  Since the games were so delayed, they limited the last game to 75 minutes.  So, the last game started around 9:20pm and was done at 10:35.  Every game played against that team was a 1-run ballgame.  Those are fun games to watch.  I can't wait to see more!

Next up is representing Southern Boone in softball.  They start practice on August 17!