Lately...

It's been busy over here. Like, REALLY BUSY. After school, the girls race to finish their homework before we have to run to somebody's practice. Marika's been playing RBY softball and Los Gauchos (travel) soccer, while Mika has been practicing with three different sports teams - RBY softball, the GU10 Extra soccer team, and for the past couple of weeks... Team Easton (travel) softball. Marika's already clinched a berth on her soccer team, but Mika is currently trying out for both the soccer and travel softball team.

 

I looked over at her over the weekend and gasped in astonishment - where did my little Mika go? She's now 10 years old and look! She sure doesn't look "little" anymore! Skinny as all heck, but thankfully, she's going to be a few inches taller than me. Yay!

Look at that beautiful slide! And the ball isn't even there yet... :)

At Mika's last game, her team was short a few players, so Marika got called up to play, even though she just turned 8 in March. She was WAY SHORTER than anybody else but Marika held her own - she walked three times (didn't strike out!) and made a great stop in the outfield... she even almost threw that runner out at first! Mika had a great day hitting (she struggled with her pitching, though), blasting a triple at her first at-bat and then a single later (she was walked for her third at-bat). It was an interesting game, because both teams were missing their #1 pitcher and both had to call up two 8U players. As things turned out, the game ended in a tie, 13-13. Not bad, considering the other team was ranked #1!

We've been really happy with how Mika has progressed and matured this year. She cries less during games and has really held it together during pitching (which is really stressful). In this past game, as I mentioned, she really struggled - it killed me to see her taking deep breaths, fighting off tears and wiping the sweat off her brow, as she tried to calm herself down and throw strikes. She did not flip out, freak out, or fall apart - I was very proud!

So... in June, Mika will have to make the first really big decision of her young life - will she pick travel softball or club soccer? We feel she is much better at softball, but she has claimed she likes soccer better. As of the past couple of weeks, she says she's leaning towards softball. I'm not sure if it's because softball is more lucrative (she is rewarded for her good performances in hitting/pitching) or because she is taking pride in doing well. It's been a frustrating season at RBY, since her coaches are... different... and the season isn't going particularly well. However, she really seems to enjoy practicing with other girls (with Team Easton) that are GOOD - and her former coach from last summer is far from the scene. Finally - we might have escaped Daddyball!!! For those of you who don't know what that means... it's when the coach favors his daughter at all costs and regardless of performance. The result? Low team morale and kids that despise you because you aren't playing fair and rewarding good performance.

Within a couple of weeks, RBY softball will finally be over. We doubt either girl will be selected for All Stars this year (Mika for political reasons, Marika mostly for talent reasons [but probably some politics, too]) so we already made a command decision to just not even think about it anymore. If they're asked, then we'll politely decline. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A RELAXING SUMMER THIS YEAR!!! At the end of last summer, if you'll recall, the minute Mika stepped off the field from her last All Stars game, she vehemently snapped, "I don't ever want to play All Stars again!" She absolutely hated it. It was no fun. We almost couldn't convince her to play softball again this spring.

But now look at her! Team Easton won't have their tryouts until June (probably), but one of the main coaches seems to really like her, so I'm cautiously optimistic about her chances - she's really fast compared to the others (thank heavens she has been practicing with the soccer team 2x a week!) and that makes them want to utilize her speed with specialized hitting (slap hitting). Some of their speedy Team Easton girls can get on base 8-9 times out of ten! I think that's so cool! Mika just doesn't have the mass for be a home run hitter, but she's perfectly capable of making contact regularly. I absolutely love to watch her play softball - she just looks so comfortable, like she's in her element.

I know she seems young, having to pick one sport, but it is so difficult trying to get these two kids to so many different places. Plus, we think she'll get even better at the one sport, because she'll have more time to focus on it (DaddyDude has bought extra equipment to work with both girls on their pitching and batting in the garage during the evenings). Marika will get to do one more year of RBY softball... if she's not a star pitcher next year (really, the talent pool is pretty lackluster there for next year when she's an older girl in the division), then she's done and will focus on soccer. Marika, especially, seems more likely to improve if she has one sport to focus on.