Saturday, June 06, 2009

Going to sk8 vans in orange then rocking at blue orchid tonite in el segundo. D-land not for me!!!!

Great dinner with Lynn at downtown Disney (really) then drama as Matt was out till 3 am

Friday, June 05, 2009

Fell asleep at the seminar about parenting college students. Why don't they turn the air conditioning on zzzzzz

Back in big USC auditorium. It is pouring rain in LA
.

Financial aid presentation in stuffy auditorium with 500 other parents. Zzzz. Bailed and now watching student walk by

staying in a dorm room again is strange

In Los Angeles, checking in at USC

drive to LA Wed/2 day USC parent orient/Drive to Disneyland Fri nite/Hang/Skate a park (need info)/Ride w BTD >>pyronauts and slacktone!!!

Fun skating until I really tweaked my ankle. Big pain. Ice, ibuprofen, prosecco, beer helped. Went to see UP. Great movie. 9.9/10

Matt's first varsity serve. Confused by all the lines, it was a blatant foot fault. Happily it wasn't a sign of things to come. Matt had far and away the team's best serving percentage in his senior year (96%).
Much to my surprise, I find it can be nerve racking watching your child play, especially when one is exposed as in volleyball.
After playing mostly JV, Matt gets to play significant varsity time when a senior goes down with an ankle injury. Matt steps up big time.
I feel very proud when Brian McCuen's parents remark on how well Matt is playing, and that he really should try club ball.
Harker comes close but cannot beat King's Academy and don't get to the CCS play-offs.
King's Academy gets hammered in the first round.

Beating King's Academy and making the play-offs.
Getting a game off of Homestead in the first round CCS loss. They were the better team, but really arrogant. They were stunned that they didn't crush Harker.
Seeing Matt be accepted by the older players. During his freshman year, they completely ignored him.

Matt grew a bunch! Clearly the tallest player on the team now.
Beating Archbishop Mitty for the first time ever in any sport at the Harker Tournament.
Taking St. Francis to 5 games in the final match of the Harker Tournament. It was during this match that Matt H from St. Francis called a tip on himself during a crucial point. An incredible display of sportsmanship. He is lucky they won, or his teammates might not have forgiven him!
Winning the Aptos Spring Fling Tournament. No one expected us to do that. Barely beating Aptos in the final match, despite Brian McCuen getting ejected right at the end for a really inoffensive and just silly remark.
Watching Brian dominate all season. His approach and takeoff for back row kills were something to watch.
Watching Joey serve when he was "on".
Seeing the interactions between Matt, Brian, and Joey. Joey would always have this dopey smile on his face, walk up next to Matt at the net, say something to him, pat him on the butt, and Matt would struggle not to burst out laughing.

My low point was after the CCS semi-final loss. It wasn't really the loss at all, it was the realization that I would probably never see Matt play a competitive team sport again. I loved seeing him develop along side his team mates. It is such a joy to see kids who can run, jump, pound the bejesus out of the ball, and dive on the floor. Especially, now I find it so hard to do anything of the kind. I wasn't prepared for it to come to an end so suddenly.
Loosing the last 3 games against Homestead after winning the first two. And then getting shellacked by Los Gatos 3-0.

Coming back against Mountain View behind Eugene's great serving
Seeing Matt play outside for the first time and watching him "dome" some poor kid trying to block.
Beating three teams at the start of the Los Gatos tournament when we had all the juniors out for SATs except Chad. I arrived in the middle of one match and felt like my cheering made a difference, which is ridiculous and not at all true, but that's how it felt! Matt played outside for the second time and just played great.
Seeing the support (finally) from Harker students for the last 3 home games.
Climbing the rope in the wrestling room. Using a tie-tack as a pierced ear ring, much to every one's surprise. Seeing Kevin Foo dunk the volleyball like a beast, and finally getting to see Matt dunk.
Beating Los Gatos 3-0. This was their first and only league loss.
Beating Homestead 3-1 in the last game of the season on Senior Night. Capped off by Daniel Tien's ridiculous 1 handed block for the final winning point. Harker was undefeated on our home floor for the entire season.
Shouting "FOOOOOOOOOOO" at the top of my voice along with the rest of the Harker crowd, whenever Kevin Foo would make a great play.
Shouting "W000000000000T" at the top of my voice whenever Matt would make a good play. And he made a bunch of them!
Seeing Matt get to play the entire rotation at the end of the season and doing a good job in the back row.

Eagles will kick some ass! In a very respectful way.