Mary played basketball, softball, and baseball – and while not overly competitive, she enjoyed playing the games and strived to do well. Typically she did do pretty well and played JV softball in 7th & 8th grade. She opted to not play varsity ball after witnessing from the safe distance of the JV field, the (shall we say) zeal of the varsity coach. When Timmy’s Babe Ruth League baseball team needed bodies, she switched to baseball – platooning at first base and batting cleanup by the end of the year. Coach DiCarlo STILL brags about her.
Tim played one year of soccer (didn’t particularly care for it) and played Little League, Babe Ruth League, and JV baseball. Timmy loved playing and would practice in the yard as often as possible. He had deceptive ability – he looked nonchalant and did not run gracefully, but he could catch, throw (even threw some knuckleballs in Babe Ruth), and had a knack for clutch hitting (with power). He hit a key home run (bounced off the outfielders head and over the fence) in a Little League game, and hit the longest triple I’ve ever seen in JV ball (OK, so it would have been an easy home run for anyone else). In the end, he quit playing baseball at school for much the same reason as Mary. Why do some coaches think that louder & meaner = better?
Corey is the most intensely competitive of the Blauss children. From eight years old, he knew the playing rules and the rules of competition. He knew when to cover the base or play the ball, knew he could tag and score on a caught pop-foul ball. Like Tim, his talent wasn’t obvious – you had to watch the little thing he did right and realize his understanding of the game. His natural physical abilities were not such that he instilled confidence in his coaches. Most of his coaches didn’t rate him as a “player”, and despite all the pre-season coach speeches about hard work in practice determining playing time Corey was keenly aware of the injustice of how the prima dona players could screw up and screw off and still start every game and play the key positions. All Corey ever did was throw strikes (one game with 16 strikeouts despite no fastball), hit in the clutch (sure he could look bad when the bases were empty, but had a knack for starting a rally when one was needed) and make heads up base running plays (6 years later coach Johnson STILL talks about the tag&score on the foul ball play). To this day Corey remembers being on the bench for four innings in a minor league game, coaches who promised he would play certain positions but reneged, and the JV coach who chewed him out for stealing third base (uncontested) in a game they were losing by 19 runs (and he then proceeded to score his teams only run). When Corey realized that no matter what he did, the Varsity Coach was not going to give him any playing time (if indeed he made the team), he switched to cross country. He knew every runner he needed to beat, worked hard and even made league all-stars. Yes, Corey got the Blauss competitive gene for certain. A personality conflict with the CC coach and a collapsed lung made him decide to not run cross country in his senior year.
Julie could care less about sports. What good is softball or basketball going to do for her as an artist & Egyptologist? Because as parents we promote physical activity and sportsmanship, Julie was coaxed into playing baseball/softball and basketball. Oh how the basketball coaches drooled when the nearly 6 foot 6th grader walked onto the court. Oh how they cringed when they realized she didn’t know how to play, and quite honestly didn’t care that much. Although she did have a huge game against the leagues best scorer (shut her down for only 6 points, and scored 10 herself along with key steels and blocks) to win the championship – she would still tell people she played because her parents made her (not accusingly, just matter of fact). At Corey’s insistence, Julie ran cross country freshman year. Although she ran the 3 miles about 10 minutes slower than the top runners, she willingly plugged along. When asked how she liked cross country she replied “I like talking with the other girls on the bus rides, but the running part isn’t much fun” (I never knew cross country had a part besides running). She was happy knowing that if she never crossed the finish line, the times of her much faster team-mates would not count at all – so as slow as she was, she was as equally important a member as her undefeated team-mate. In the spring she switched from running to throwing (it seemed like less work, while still filling the parental request for participating in a physical activity). She tried the shot put and discus. The disc was bad (only around 50 feet) but the shot was worse – so she gave up on the shot put. With only one event, she could get her throws done in about ten minutes and spend the rest of the meet reading or drawing. So now it’s spring of sophomore year and she is competing in her one event again. Strangely enough, she is improving. She started by throwing in the “60’s”, then improved into the “70’s” and quickly into the 80 foot range. When she threw 87+ feet, she qualified for statewide competition. Granted she never expects to throw the improbable distance of her team-mate Kayla (110 feet) but she was quite excitedly anticipating throwing a “90” and then she proudly accomplished it. It also seemed to please her that she was out-throwing some of the “athletes” who were on the track & Field squad with her. Now she discusses the advantages of different techniques (she does better with the style that assistant coach “Jocko” showed her than with what head coach “Frac” prefers). Because of her throw of over 87 feet, she was invited to the State Class Meet where she threw against all of the other qualifying girls from all of the Division 4 teams across the state. She came in third place with a throw of 104+. This means she goes next Saturday to compete against all of the top 4 throwers from each division (I believe there are 5 divisions) which means (while only a sophmore) she is one of the top 20 female discus throwers in the state of Massachusetts. Julie is taking great pride in her accomplishments (which she should) and is excited about her next challenge. And although I don’t know how it is going to help her be a better artist or Egyptologist, I am totally proud of her and happy for her.
Each child has enjoyed the bragging right of having been on a championship team at some point in time.
Funny how the one who cared the least about excelling in sports, has suffered the least amount of disillusionment and has progressed further than any of them.
GO JUJUBEE-AMAZON!!!!!
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