New Seasons

It is officially softball season in the college world. Pacific had it's first outdoor softball game at home on Feb. 11. Yep, never would have happened in Iowa!

I am the softball contact, which is kind of exciting. It's the first sport that I know well and can use correct lingo the entire season! Also last season Pacific was one of the best offensive teams in the nation hitting 44 home runs as a team and being ranked in the top 5 in the nation for home runs and top 15 in several other offensive categories. I am excited to see how their season goes, especially after they hit 5 home runs in the first doubleheader which was just two 5-inning games! For the spring, I will also be covering tennis and golf.

Last weekend, the softball team had another game scheduled for home. It snowed in the morning and proceeded to rain the rest of the afternoon. It was lousy weather for a game, but the coaches held out on cancelling it and they got one of the two games in after a 1.5 rain delay. I didn't fully enjoy having to be in the press box during the delay because it was cold! (Side note, cold to me when I am in Oregon means in the 30s. Also this coldness happened when Iowa was in the 50s!!) However, we played softball and got another win. After writing the release after the game I headed to Seattle for the President's Day tournament. Just a nice little 3 hour jaunt up I-5 at 9 p.m., luckily one of the Pacific volleyball players and also an Athena coach decided to ride with me so I didn't have to go alone. We got to the hotel around midnight and then I had to write a tennis release before heading to bed.

The tournament was a three day affair, with my 14s team playing in the AM session, which was 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. everyday. We didn't win a lot, but they were started to show more competitiveness by the end of the weekend and were actually diving on the court for the ball and communicating 75.26% better than our last tournament. I was proud of the effort they put out, especially after one of the middles sprained her ankle and we had to put an outside hitter in to finish the match. It was definitely an interesting weekend to see how a team of 13 and 14-year olds react to staying in a hotel and playing three days in a row. I also had a very interesting question asked to me by one of my players. We are getting ready to scorekeep a game and she turns to me and says, 'hey sara, do guys get periods?' After evaluating her quickly to see if she was serious (she was), I responded with a nope.

The weekend in Seattle could have been a weekend in Vegas with the 18s, but I chose early in January to head north. My co-coach for the 14s has not been around much in the past month, so I wanted to make sure the 14s had a consistent coach and saw it important that I go to Seattle rather than tag-a-long to Vegas as an assistant coach. While in Seattle, I decided being in Washington during President's Day was more fitting than Neveda! :)

Book Review: Handle With Care

Jodi Picoult has reappeared on my book list. And I can finally say I have completed it, after reading it here and there while studying for the GMAT. As soon as I finished the test, I blazed through the final 1/3 of the book. As a Jodi Picoult book usually does, there was an interesting twist towards the end of the book and the book also had a time in court.

In this story, parents Charlotte and Sean have a daughter who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, which means she has fragile bones that break often and cause large medical expenses. After a vacation incident, the parents hear the term 'wrongful birth' for the first time. They decide to file a wrongful birth lawsuit against their doctor, who is actually Charlotte's best friend, for not letting them know about the disease earlier to allow them to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy.

As the lawsuit pursues, the family is ripped apart with different problems and values of the suit. With many twists and additions to financial expenses the book keeps you turning the pages (and maybe shedding some tears).

GMAT Is Over

After a month a studying, the test is over and I have met my goal. Thank goodness, because paying to retake it was not an option and that would have cause too much stress!

Anyway, I headed into Beaverton on Wednesday morning for the exam. Once at the test center you have to wait in line to have your palms scanned, picture taken and sign electronically. Then prove your pockets and hood are empty, you can't wear a watch or anything on your wrists and you have to show that nothing is written on your arms. Then to enter the computer/test area you must scan your palm and show you ID. Then you can finally sit down for the test.

I was assigned to 12B, a.k.a 13, but evidently they avoid the 'unlucky' number at the test centers because the locker was also labeled 12B. I don't know what idiot wouldn't realize they are actually at 13, but if it makes them feel better to think of it as 12B, then so be it.

The test involves two essays in the beginning and then a quantitative section and a verbal section. Between the each of the three sections you get a five minute break. I made it through the essays and quantitative section before taking my break. Which to leave I had to scan my palm and then to get back in I had to do it again! I then sat for the verbal section and finished in about 3 hours, for what could be a 4 hour test.

As I left, I had to scan my palm yet again (the process, kind of annoyed me), and I was given an unofficial test score of 600. Exactly my goal for the test and either at average or above average for the schools I am looking at. I was very happy with the results, but surprised my verbal section was higher than my quantitative. Being a math teachers daughter has always helped my math, but I guess studying the verbal section more actually helped a lot.

To celebrate I hit up Panera for lunch, then headed back home to relax before a celebration dinner with my roommates and a few friends and of course a dessert of a new flavor of Tillamook ice cream.

I am now moving on to filling out graduate school applications, which may take a bit because I am not too excited to write the personal statements. Oh well. The position that I was hoping for at ISU has hit a wall, I was utterly disappointed when I was called last week to be told it was going to be opened this year. But I focused on the test and I am searching for a new options. I know it will work out.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Last week was the start of the Chinese New Year and the year of the rabbit. And with my first Saturday off since getting back, I took my uncle's invitation to come into the city and visit the Chinese Gardens for their New Year's celebration.

The Chinese New Year goes on for a 2 week period, so the garden was decked out in red Chinese lanterns and had different stations for typical Chinese events, including calligraphy writing, story telling, and making of simple Chinese lanterns. On Saturday, they also had lion dances every hour.

So after a long train ride into the city, I made it to the Chinese Garden in time to walk around and see everything before the lion dance. The lion dance was pretty neat, they are constantly moving and the back people never stand upright. That takes a lot of endurance!

After exploring the garden and Chinatown a bit, Doug and I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant of course! It was nice to have time to spend with my uncle and to have a day off to visit something new!

Life as a Club Coach

After graduating I thought I had one career choice eliminated, coaching. Well it seems to me, that once I decide to eliminate an option it circles back around and I jump on the train again.

I honestly didn't think I had the knowledge to coach, but to stay involved (if I were in Iowa) I was planning of getting my officiating license. Well, I moved to Oregon and let that part go as well to focus on sports information. Well approximately 2 weeks after getting here, I started going to Pacific practices to play or help. I fully enjoyed being in the gym and after the season missed it. After thinking a bit I realized I could coach, I understand the game and with some guidance would easily be able to teach it. So I brought it up to Lena, the coach at Pacific. Little did I know she ran a large club program out here, Athena and asked if I would be willing to coach. I jumped on and am now co-coaching a 14s team and assisting with an 18s team, which means practice for 4 hours on Tuesday and Thursdays and 2 hours on Wednesdays in Beaverton.

I am not going to lie I was nervous about the 14s, they would take more patience and more energy to teach. But as time goes I love working with them because you can see the change in their playing more vividly and the lightbulb moments of understanding are awesome! Last weekend, I was flying solo as the coach for the 14s are our power league qualifier. The idea of the power league is you are ranked at a certain number and you want to work your way up the entire season by taking the ranking of the team you beat if they are higher. We started the day at 122.

Our first match we lost in three sets, with the final set going into extra points and ending 19-21. It was a heartbreaker, but my girls fought until the very last point. We bounced back winning the next two matches to finish 2nd in our pool. Leaving pool play we were up to 106 in the rankings. However, in the first match of crossover play we didn't serve receive well and lost momentum and dropped to 110. The last match of the day was by far the best, girls, who I was sure haven't been listening in practices, broke out of their shells and played awesome! We finished the day at 110, with a 3-2 record. I was proud of the effort they put in all day, because 5 matches over a 10 hour day takes a lot of stamina.

Along with their improvement on the court, they were complimented by CEVA (our volleyball region) officials on how well they ran the court when scorekeeping and officiating. In club volleyball, one of the teams that isn't playing has to do the scorebook, libero tracker, officiate and line judge. As the coach, I have to be the upper official, so the girls have to do everything else without my guidance. One of our matches was run very poorly and there were many delays that ruin the flow of the game. We followed by running the next match very smoothly, and an official and parent from another team thanked us!

I was proud of the girls all around, for everything they did that day! The represented Athena well and improved as individuals and a team!