January is finally over
Basketball and wrestling; that's about all we have been doing for the past month. Gracie snuck in a softball camp and a practice in KC one weekend, but that's about it. Mizzou started classes and we are off an running with the semester. The kids finally had a full week of school last week after a lot of winter weather that interfered with everything. so, picking up where we left off mid-January, we had a busy week to start my semester at Mizzou; Two basketball games in St. James, two training sessions with tutors and mentors, Aces practice in KC, Mizzou softball camp, and CWC wrestling tournament in Columbia.
St. James Tourney
Gracie starting
We went 0-2 in this tournament, losing to Fatima and Norwood.
We get another shot at Fatima this week, and they are a pretty good team.
CWC wrestling tournament
I only got a couple pics at this tournament. Owen wrestled really well and had a couple of really good matches. He placed first again and up to that point was 10-0 for the CWC season.
Owen wrestling
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Another win
doing some catching drills
Gracie has more pics from the camp with coaches, but she never sent them to me.
Then this happened the next day...ice.
Of course, on the first full day of tutoring and mentoring for our program we had an ice storm. It was a really long day for me, switching things to virtual sessions. I think I worked from 5am until at least 4pm that day. However, early in the afternoon, I looked outside and saw all the boys on our frozen pond. It made me smile. Gracie was stuck out at Kate's house since they found out the night before that they would not have school on Monday. I think she was ok with that.
Skating on the pond
They were doing relay races and using sticks for batons.
It was pretty entertaining and there were no injuries!
Taking a break
Only two of them had actual ice skates and the rest were just sliding with boots.
Fast forward...
We had another basketball game, Mizzou gymnastics meet vs LSU, and then a fun fundraiser in Ashland for another packed week of activities. Owen had the weekend off from competing, but did a camp in Centralia all day on January 28. I took Gracie to Aces practice in the morning while Nick went with Owen.
A night of fun
First Pitch Baseball Fundraiser
The baseball program has a big fundraiser every winter and they had a great band come in to play songs that all of us old folks know. We went last year and had a great time again this year!
More basketball
My photography vs...
A real photographer.
They had someone else come in again and they do a much better job than me.
Sorry for the watermark... I chose not to actually purchase the photos.
Gracie gets a lot of playing time and rarely comes out of the game, unless she is in foul trouble. It happens sometimes.
Best game so far #35
She had a lot of rebounds this game, too. The coach doesn't release all the stats, though.
We were actually winning by a lot and he let all the non-starters play.
And, wrestling
One last shot at Missouri Nationals in Lebanon. Nick took Owen down on Saturday and I stayed with Gracie for her basketball game. I tried to keep up on trackwrestling, but it wasn't working very well and struggled to update the match scores. Luckily, Bryce's mom was there and was keeping me posted. However, Owen had someone record all of his matches so I could watch them later, which I did.
Owen won his first two matches by fall and then lost by decision in his third match, so went to the consolation side of the bracket to try to get to third place. I think there were 18 in his bracket to start the day. He won the next one to get the consolation finals, but came up a little short. He had a pretty stacked bracket, which is probably what he will see the rest of his season. Fourth place is pretty good at this level, but I know Owen wanted more. He just keeps getting better, too. The kid who beat him in the championship semis ended up winning, and the kid who beat Owen in the consolation finals ended up wrestling back for 2nd. Five matches in 1 day is pretty exhausting. This puts him at 13-2. Not bad so far. Keep it up!
Owen and Bryce with their dad coaches
Bryce won, of course. He is such a beast at 165/175#
I will miss this when this year is done.
Not the youth tournaments, but the friendships Owen has made and we have made with the CWC wrestling family. A year from now they will be competing for their respective high school teams.
The following day, Gracie went to early softball practice again with the mid-mo teams. Her national team was in Kansas for practice the day before, but she had a basketball game. Then she had practice that evening. Owen had Sunday off and we went to the last Mizzou wrestling dual for this year in Columbia, then went to hang out with his friends at Talleys' for a while after. Gracie had another game last night, which we lost, but there is another opportunity tomorrow. Hopefully they get at a couple more wins before the end of the season. I know it's been a frustrating season, but they are still so fun to watch.
So, two more basketball games this week, not sure about wrestling yet, and Gracie and I will be going up to St. Jo for her Aces mini camp Saturday and Sunday. After that, one more week of regular season basketball. We just had the schedule released for April and May Aces softball games, so that will ramp up as soon as basketball ends, I'm sure. Owen could do a couple more tournaments before district wrestling the first weekend in March. Not sure what he and Nick have planned. Nick will have 3 straight weekends of officiating; Girls districts in St. Charles this weekend, Boys districts in Boonville next weekend, and then state high school wrestling starts February 21 here in Columbia. The rest of February will go by quickly, I'm sure.
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