Monday night quarterback - more prizes

Monday Night Quarterback

• One who criticizes or passes judgment from a position of hindsight

Identify both players in the pictures and get a prize. Leave it in the comments.

Congratulations to Kindercop, whoever that is for your win last week, being the first person to identify Darren McFadden. Come find me whoever you are to redeem your prize. Same rules apply for this week if you would like a prize.


Happy Monday to everybody as we welcome you into Monday night quarterback, and we will call this MNQ because it's never updated during the morning.

Now out of five games this weekend, we did not pick up a win. In fact we lost four times, and tied once.

And in another first, this will just be a column to give praise to those who improved and highlight those who did well. Of course there is room for improvement but we rehash those so many times throughout the weekend so let's just point out the good.

We'll start with Raymond who scored his first goal ever. Whenever you can score a soccer goal, it is a huge accomplishment and it's something that only a handful of St. Mary's graduates have done.

The feat is so rare that in three and a half years of soccer, less than 10 St. Mary's players have actually scored a goal. So to be on the list is very impressive.

Raymond battles hard and gives it his 100% on the field. You can tell when you watch a soccer game the way he wills himself towards the action, how he is fearless in pursuit of the ball. It's not much of a surprise that sooner or later he would get rewarded with a goal.

On that same note, Brendan Quock played the best game I've seen him play in his 3+ years of soccer. He has a very powerful kick and it showed on Saturday. When he gets into a good position to line up a kick, the ball goes far, and without his play on Saturday, the game would've ended in a loss and not a tie.

Volleyball, good job by Edwena, Fiona and Victoria who all had a tough go last week in their 9 a.m. game. Maybe it was too early for them, but the three girls stepped it up this week and played very well in Saturday's game. Those three are pretty consistent on the serves, as when they step up, more often than not, the ball is going to go over the net.

On the older team, Pamela, Cynthia, Maria and Jocelyn, all so great on the serves. Congratulations to Belin for getting her first serves over as well. Now the other parts of the game need to come together.

Cynthia was in the same boat as Edwena, Fiona and Victoria. Last week, she had a not so good game, but she bounced back strong this week to help her team almost pull off a great comeback.

All in all, thank you to all of the players who are playing. I know it's tough out there, especially with new teammates, and being on a new team - again, but that's how we roll here at St. Mary's. Every year feels like brand new year because we're always trying to scramble to put the pieces together to find teams.

Maybe one day we won't have to do this, but for now, you got to make the best out of this situation.

And a special shout out to all the kids from St. Mary's who continued to play soccer. You all very easily could've picked up your ball and quit, but you didn't. You continued to give it a shot, and the results are right in front of you.

All the games over the weekend, whether it was volleyball or soccer were winnable games. A few things go our way and we would've had an undefeated weekend. Far fetched? A bit, but definitely possible.

These past few years, barring a few exceptions, every soccer and volleyball game was not too competitive.

We've come a long way, as now we are trying to get to the next level where we can expect to win a ballgame and not just compete.

Patience is virtue - the best things in life are worth the wait.

See ya pals.