St. Mary's Soccer/Volleyball Mid-Season Review: 8th Grade Girls

First, I wanted to thank all the kids and parents who have come out and supported our two newest sports, volleyball and soccer. It was a goal from the beginning to implement new and exciting activities and I think collectively we have all done a wonderful job in making this dream of sorts come true.

Below are some thoughts about the individual teams, the good and bad, half-way through the season. For the next few days, we will focus on one team each day.

8th Grade Girls Volleyball

I think far and away this is the most athletic girls class in the last several years at St. Mary's. This is no knock on any other classes, but clearly, we have athletes in this class, capable of doing some great things in the athletic field.

I remember reffing a CYO girls basketball game with this team at Holy Name, before I became Athletic Director and I said to myself that this will be a class that will compete for years to come. The coach at the time did something I will never forget. I overheard him say in the huddle to give the ball to his daughter, and pretty much everyone get out of the way. He even mentioned specific names of girls on the team to NOT touch the ball. And this was probably in the 4th or 5th grade?

But back to the current girls. The other day they won a set in volleyball. I don't know if anybody realizes what an accomplishment this is. I don't think I am blowing it out of proportion. Here you have a team that has probably played since 3rd grade, and for sure a few years at least. Then you have us, who started playing about 5 weeks ago. If you ask their coach and even girls on the team, they probably would tell you they should've and could've won that game.

From the beginning, Iris just seemed like she had a knack for volleyball. She transferred into the school last year and I didn't expect her to want to play. Good thing she did, because she was simply amazing on Saturday. She can serve, return, and it would not shock me if she played volleyball in high school. Iris does a great job of taking command and having confidence in herself, something that may be lacking with some of the players on the team. Have faith in yourself...see ball...hit ball. It's all mental.

One other person I want to point out is Katlyn. The first game I saw her play, I felt she had trouble picking it up. She was unable to serve it over and had trouble getting to the ball. 3 games later, she served with ease and even served it too hard on set point. Her turnaround from game 1 to 4 was pretty astounding.

The only knock I have on this team is how serious they take playing. On one hand, there's no reason to get bent out of shape and have a stupid game make you emo. But sometimes I don't know if there is enough care. Last year, after a basketball game they should've won, they all seemed to brush it off. If that was my team, I would've gone nuts (See me tossing scarf at St. Monica's a few years ago). With a little more focus, I think they could be even better than they are right now.

I'd love to touch on everyone, but we just don't have enough time. Just know that
I'm very proud of all you girls and keep fighting, because you're almost there.

Soccer Practice Moved to Tuesday for 3rd/4th Grade

Soccer practice for the 3rd/4th grade will be moved to Tuesday this week. Sorry for the inconvenience.

8th grade Girls Win Set!!! History in the making...

It was unbelievable, historic, incredible...etc. Not enough adjectives to describe what the 8th grade girls did today. Should've been there folks...

They actually won a set, and were this close from winning the game.

11-25, (W) 25-19, and 15-9.

A few serves that would've went over could've made the different. Just an amazing performance by the 9 girls in 8th grade.

More on this game later tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

SOCCER RESULTS

3rd/4th Grade- L 3-0
6th/7th Grade- L 7-0

The 6th/7th Grade played their best game, even though the score doesn't show it. They had several shots on goal and kept the opposition, another soccer powerhouse, scoreless in the first quarter.

6th/7th Grade Results

Quick score from the volleyball game that ended about half-an-hour ago.

25-17, 25-6.

Great first set, the best played this year by the team.

More insight and analysis to follow later this weekend.

SOCCER AND VOLLEYBALL TOMORROW

3rd/4th Grade- West Sunset @ 1 p.m.

6th/7th Grade- Polo Fields @ 2 p.m.

VOLLEYBALL

2:30 @ Mission Dolores

Trivia Question for this week

Who was the last Raiders head coach to have a winning record?

This one is a bit tougher...

Newsletter/Rainout???/Earthquakes and Stanford

Sorry, but the newsletter will be out tomorrow (Friday) this week. Had a little delay in getting it there, plus there was more breaking news.

It's possible games can be rained out according to the CBS5 Pinpoint forecast. If that happens, check the blog right away as it will be updated on an hour to hour, if not minute to minute basis.

Please turn in forms for the soccer game for the Earthquakes and the Stanford volleyball game as soon as possible.

Tomorrow night, 5:45 at Mission Dolores. 6th/7th Grade Volleyball game. Please be there...check it out.

Poor Volleyballs

When I buy new balls, whether it be volleyball, soccer or baseball, there will bound to be some that get lost or disappear for no other reason. It's kind of like using a pen or pencil. Think about how many you go through in a school year. Same principle.

So far to my knowledge, we have lost 3 balls. One soccer ball was lost somehow, but the story isn't that interesting, so we won't talk about it.

But the first volleyball that got lost, fantastic story.

An 8th grade girl which will remain anonymous was practicing at Helen Wills. She hit the ball so hard it went over the fence onto the street. Then seconds later, a speeding car ran over it, and the ball is disfigured. I will upload a picture in the next few days, but you can't really tell it got run over. But this girl who hit it--very strong.

The second volleyball that got lost, I don't even know the full story. But a 7th grader did it. So perhaps someone in the 7th grade can email me and tell me the story a little bit better and I will post it on the blog.

TRIVIA QUESTION FOR LAST WEEK


The U.S. Women's Soccer Goalie that won the gold medal was Hope Solo. Patricia from the 7th grade is this week's winner.