Sennet and I got up early and went for a hike with the dogs to Twin Falls this morning. It’s about 35 minutes east of Seattle, near North Bend. Part of the trail runs right along the Snoqualmie River. We got to the trailhead at about 7:45, to escape the crowds that were sure to show up later in the morning. It’s a quick, easy hike – perfect for today because we had yard work to do later.
This is also the same hike that I took Sennet on for his very first hike, way back in July 2011… just two years and a month old!
Prospect United had their first scrimmage of the year on Sunday. They played MVP (Maple Valley Pony) at Tahoma High School in Maple Valley (about 45 min SE of Seattle). Sennet had a great game, and Stacie got a ton of great pictures.
Sennet started in centerfield, didn’t see any action.
After starting the game in center, Sennet pitched the second inning – and was really good. He did give up a couple hits, but they got no runs and he struck out two batters. (Of all their pitchers today, he was the only one not to give up any runs.)
In the third inning he played shortstop, and had a nice play where it was a squib hit sort of in front of the baserunner on second, and Sennet had to go around the runner, get the ball, and turn and fire it to first to get the out. Tough play, well executed.
The rest of the game he played catcher, and had a good, solid game back there.
At the plate, he only got up to bat twice. First time up he was really nervous and didn’t make a big effort and struck out. Next time up he worked the count full and then hit a sharp grounder that the second baseman scooped up to throw him out at first. He’s had a bit of a block on batting for a while, so to see him have a quality at bat and hit the ball into the field was a great stride forward.
You can see the difference in his confidence, poise, and balance between warm up batting practice (this pic),and batting in the game (this pic).
Prospect ended up losing, but it was good to see the kids get out on the field and play some ball, even a scrimmage, after months of just practice.
Sennet’s new select baseball team, Prospect United, have been having practice three times a week since October. He loves it. They usually work for an hour on baseball fundamentals (fielding, hitting, pitching, catching, etc.) and then spend about a half hour on strength and conditioning. He really likes that he’s getting stronger, and can feel it.
Winter Training Roundup
They played in an exhibition (for them) tournament in Las Vegas at the end of October. Their first real tournament will be March 23-24th, down in Tacoma.
Sennet’s flag football team, the Dawgs, finished out their season today at the Jamboree and the Championship game. They went through the season undefeated, and held that course through the Championship game too. Which sounds a lot more impressive until you hear that his age division only had two teams. That’s right, the Dawgs played the Chilipeppers every game this season, and beat them every time.
But Sennet had a blast and really, really enjoyed the season. He had missed the last two games because of the Las Vegas baseball tournament, and then strep throat. He finished this last game strong, had three touchdowns, including one on an interception that he ran back to the end zone.
Here is his last touchdown. It was on a fourth down play and he sprinted past the defense and his good school-friend Gavin threw a bomb to him. Then it was a footrace to the end zone – which Sennet won.
Oh, and he’s wearing baseball pants because we had to go right to Prospect U practice straight from the game.
Every year Sennet’s school has their “balloon drop.” The kids are given a small balloon and told that they have to fill it with water and then build some kind of holder or nest or vehicle for it. Then they bring the balloon back to school and the staff take them up to the fourth floor roof and toss them off. The idea being that you don’t want your water balloon to break when it hits the playground asphalt. The kids can only use recycled material for their vehicle, so everything can just be tossed in recycling when finished. I think Sennet is 4 for 4 so far with not having his balloon break (kindergarten through third grade – but perhaps one year it broke – I can’t remember exactly).
This year we asked him what he wanted to do for balloon drop and his immediate response was, “a taco.”
Stacie and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. Then we figured, “why not?”
So he built a taco. (He actually had a little help from dad and a little more help from mom, because he didn’t give us the balloon or instructions until THE NIGHT BEFORE it was due – takes after his father there…)
Folded a big piece of cardboard, built a cradle for the balloon, then filled it up with a nice cushion of shredded green and yellow paper (lettuce and cheese), and butcher paper (meat/beans) – bit of red paper in there too (salsa).
When the teachers held it up over the ledge for the drop, the whole school (who is down below on the playground) started chanting, “Taco! Taco! Taco!”
They tossed it off, and once again his balloon survived the ordeal. Apparently the kids all went bananas tearing it apart to see if the balloon lived. Shredded paper everywhere. Sennet had to clean it all up – ha! Worth it. (Our friend Kelly took these last shots of the aftermath…)
Sennet had another weekend of flag football, soccer, and baseball games. All went well.
Flag football was on Saturday morning. Sennet had a really good game. He had some tenacious defense, getting quite a few players down behind the line of scrimmage.
He also had a sweet touchdown – his friend Gavin was quarterback and threw a bomb over everyone and Sennet ran under it and caught, and then no one could touch him as he sprinted to the endzone. Wish I’d been filming at that moment!
Soccer was Saturday afternoon. Soccer has been rough his year. He’s not very thrilled with his coaches, and the team has not been good and hasn’t won a game. So his spirits are not into it. The last couple games have been a bit better, as some players that couldn’t play the first few games were now available and they are quite good. They’ve gotten closer to a victory every game. Saturday was their most complete game. Sennet played goalie (which he loves) the first half, and was a brick wall. The opposing team had a ton of shots on goal and he stopped them all. The only goal he gave up was a penalty kick.
The second half he played halfback and really got in the mix. At the end of the game the team was down 2-3 and we kept pressing and kept pressing. Finally we had a sharp shot on goal that the goalie deflected up and it came down next to him right into the hands of his teammate – who caught it – with one foot in the goal. Goal. Tie game. At restart there was one kick and the ref blew full time. One of those times that a tie felt like a win.
Then today, Sunday, was baseball. Fall ball is a whole different animal from spring baseball and a world away from select baseball. Fall baseball is for good players to just keep their muscle memory going, but mostly it’s for new players to learn the game with a lot less pressure. Which means it’s really boring for the most part, for Sennet and the kids he usually plays with. We won’t do it again next year. But today Sennet had a pretty good game so he was happy with it. He played outfield, first base, and catcher (his favorite) for two innings. He also had a good day at the plate. His first time up he hit a sharp grounder towards the third baseman. Unfortunately there were runners on first and second, so he just stepped on third for the force out. His next time up he hit a line drive into the outfield. He ended up scoring that inning. They don’t really keep score in fall ball, but Sennet’s team won handily.
