Parents and Players-
What a week. Last Sunday, I began making our Senior Features for Social Media. It was a hard task to do that for all our Seniors as most of us have been together for 4 years now. Last year getting cancelled was rough, too, as we were unable to have a season, a banquet or a Senior Night. Here's a recap of some big things we did this past week.
First, prior to Tuesday's game, we invited our Kindergarteners through 4th graders to come before our game for a pic and to stand with us for the National Anthem. Afterwards, we sent them to the stands with a hot dog, bag of chips, a cookie and drink and told them they'd see some excellent lacrosse. And they did! On Thursday, we did it again, just this time with our 5th and 6th grade boys and 3rd and 4th grade girls. On Friday, we repeated it yet again for our 7/8 boys and girls. Since 4 of my children are playing in the youth and Coach Larsen's daughter is also playing in the youth, we were able to see the impact of these events. Our K/1 team tied in their game, but they scored 11 goals. ALL other teams in our feeder WON and there were a few games where they were down by 4-7 goals. They came back and fought to a "W". It was awesome to see it. They saw how the boys battled this week and they did likewise. I know this because a few of the boys on my 2/3 and 3/4 teams told me: "I want to be good enough to play at the high school, too, and help them win!"
Second, SENIOR VIDEOS. The videos I made for Seniors were created with two different apps and they are ones I use all the time:
Third, Macaden's Moment. Macaden is one of our managers. As an uncle of a few special needs nieces, having cousins with special needs, and always being one who has valued inclusivity throughout my life, I wanted Macaden to be a part of our team. On Friday, before our game: HE WAS. He got his FIRST GOAL. We are one of the sports teams at Westlake that promotes inclusivity. The video of Macaden scoring and then having BOTH benches clear to go celebrate Macaden is absolutely STUNNING. To have witnessed it in person was even more remarkable. It was my proudest moment in coaching and one of the most impactful moments of my life. It created an "EMP" that this world needs more of: ENERGY, MAGIC & POWER. We can all agree we need so much more of that.
Fourth, SENIOR NIGHT. Senior Night's are one of the harder nights to execute under NORMAL conditions. Under the conditions we experienced with the wind, the speaker system going in and out, and scheduling conflicts that our youth ran into, I must say I am VERY PROUD of our Booster and Youth Board for executing what they did under those circumstances. The Youth Board was able to gather MANY gift cards for our Seniors to go out for a treat, the Booster covered the cost of one of the coveted Westlake blankets (they are extremely nice and high quality!) and the coaches were able to cover the banners for all the Seniors that have been hanging at every home game and Senior Night BEFORE the winds had other plans. I am grateful to all who helped pull it all off to create some magic for our Seniors. I apologize for any mishaps or communications throughout it all. Everyone did the best they could under those conditions and we hope all Seniors felt the love and support of our entire program.
Finally, our games! We played some extraordinary and beautiful lacrosse this week. While we couldn't quite close that 1 goal gap with AF and LP, we competed extraordinarily well with both of them. We had an incredible showing. With Timpanogos, they are rebuilding as they lost a number of players to newer programs (Orem and Mountain View) and we scored many goals out of designed sets we've been working on all season. We wrapped up our season with an 8-7 record and we patiently await the results of other games to see where we will finish in the RPI. On Wednesday @ 9AM, they will release the playoff seedings and brackets and we are excited to see who we will be paired up with in the first round of our the playoffs. Information will be IMMEDIATELY published to the team chat once it becomes available. We hope to see EVERYONE there cheering on the boys as they enter playoffs and aim to make a 4-0 run and hoist a B-State trophy.
What a week. Last Sunday, I began making our Senior Features for Social Media. It was a hard task to do that for all our Seniors as most of us have been together for 4 years now. Last year getting cancelled was rough, too, as we were unable to have a season, a banquet or a Senior Night. Here's a recap of some big things we did this past week.
First, prior to Tuesday's game, we invited our Kindergarteners through 4th graders to come before our game for a pic and to stand with us for the National Anthem. Afterwards, we sent them to the stands with a hot dog, bag of chips, a cookie and drink and told them they'd see some excellent lacrosse. And they did! On Thursday, we did it again, just this time with our 5th and 6th grade boys and 3rd and 4th grade girls. On Friday, we repeated it yet again for our 7/8 boys and girls. Since 4 of my children are playing in the youth and Coach Larsen's daughter is also playing in the youth, we were able to see the impact of these events. Our K/1 team tied in their game, but they scored 11 goals. ALL other teams in our feeder WON and there were a few games where they were down by 4-7 goals. They came back and fought to a "W". It was awesome to see it. They saw how the boys battled this week and they did likewise. I know this because a few of the boys on my 2/3 and 3/4 teams told me: "I want to be good enough to play at the high school, too, and help them win!"
Second, SENIOR VIDEOS. The videos I made for Seniors were created with two different apps and they are ones I use all the time:
- Mematic
- Motionleap
Third, Macaden's Moment. Macaden is one of our managers. As an uncle of a few special needs nieces, having cousins with special needs, and always being one who has valued inclusivity throughout my life, I wanted Macaden to be a part of our team. On Friday, before our game: HE WAS. He got his FIRST GOAL. We are one of the sports teams at Westlake that promotes inclusivity. The video of Macaden scoring and then having BOTH benches clear to go celebrate Macaden is absolutely STUNNING. To have witnessed it in person was even more remarkable. It was my proudest moment in coaching and one of the most impactful moments of my life. It created an "EMP" that this world needs more of: ENERGY, MAGIC & POWER. We can all agree we need so much more of that.
Fourth, SENIOR NIGHT. Senior Night's are one of the harder nights to execute under NORMAL conditions. Under the conditions we experienced with the wind, the speaker system going in and out, and scheduling conflicts that our youth ran into, I must say I am VERY PROUD of our Booster and Youth Board for executing what they did under those circumstances. The Youth Board was able to gather MANY gift cards for our Seniors to go out for a treat, the Booster covered the cost of one of the coveted Westlake blankets (they are extremely nice and high quality!) and the coaches were able to cover the banners for all the Seniors that have been hanging at every home game and Senior Night BEFORE the winds had other plans. I am grateful to all who helped pull it all off to create some magic for our Seniors. I apologize for any mishaps or communications throughout it all. Everyone did the best they could under those conditions and we hope all Seniors felt the love and support of our entire program.
Finally, our games! We played some extraordinary and beautiful lacrosse this week. While we couldn't quite close that 1 goal gap with AF and LP, we competed extraordinarily well with both of them. We had an incredible showing. With Timpanogos, they are rebuilding as they lost a number of players to newer programs (Orem and Mountain View) and we scored many goals out of designed sets we've been working on all season. We wrapped up our season with an 8-7 record and we patiently await the results of other games to see where we will finish in the RPI. On Wednesday @ 9AM, they will release the playoff seedings and brackets and we are excited to see who we will be paired up with in the first round of our the playoffs. Information will be IMMEDIATELY published to the team chat once it becomes available. We hope to see EVERYONE there cheering on the boys as they enter playoffs and aim to make a 4-0 run and hoist a B-State trophy.
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