Season Nine, Game Seven: Tournament Finals

Top Row from left: head coach Tyler Rhynes, Ian Wrublewski, Colton Scull, Canaan Weddle, Fetinet O'Neal, Logan Wells, Dexter Ellliott, Ben Smith, and assistant coach Jason O'Neal. Front row, from left to right: Carlos Morales, Trevor Sellars, Sam Rhynes, Angel Velazquez, and Emi.

I got home from Arkansas after noon on Sunday, and not long after, Mari, Nina, Pablo and I left for Midwest City to catch Emilio's championship game.Emilio, and his teammates Angel and Carlos spent the day with Coach Tyler's family Before the game, I took the team photo at the top of this post.

Emi starts the game at right midfield. Playing with a strong wind at our back, we fell behind 0-1, scored to tie it up, and then fell behind 1-2 at halftime.

Emilio starts the second half as the center defender. Playing against the wind, we score to tie the game 2-2, and in the final second ALMOST get one by their goalie.

Co-champs?

Nope: we'll play two five-minute overtimes with a golden goal provision. The first to score wins.

We start the first overtime with the wind in our face and maintain the tie.


In the second half of overtime, Emi does some aggressive sweeping.

But in the end, the tournament champs sneak one by us, and we content ourselves with pushing them to the utter limit. Our record is now: 4-2-1.

Zoo!

With eight-and-a-half hours between the tournament semi-final and the final, the Rhynes offered to keep Emilio, Angel, and Carlos, while Mari accompanied Aunt Carolyn, Nina, and Pablo back to Aunt Caroolyn's vehicle in Ada. The Rhynes took boys to eat at a little Irish restaurant, and then they headed to the zoo. Afterwards, we got this report on Facebook from Amanda:"These boys have spent all day with us, and not ONE time did we have to get onto them!! They shared seats and were courteous and kind to one another! I am proud and amazed by them!!"

Season Nine, Game Six: Tournament Semi-Finals

After spending the night in a hotel with Mari, Aunt Carolyn, Nina and Pablo, Emilio reported for what was, in effect, the Tournament semi-final. The Energy enter the game with one more point than their opponent, so if we tie, we advance.
We tie 3-3 and advance. The final is at 5:30, Sunday afternoon.

And They Taste Like Strawberries

As the silent thousands who read this blog on a regular basis well know, it was not very long ago that Emilio's feet got to know Emilio's hands. Since then, they've spent a lot of time together. Today, however, for the first time that María José and I know of, Emilio's toes became acquainted with Emilio's mouth. And thanks to his mother's quick dash for the camera, the moment has now been recorded for posterity.

It was, clearly, a momentous day in Emilio's world.

It was also a momentous day for Emilio's parents, who went on an Evanston movie date together for the first time since the night of November 9th, 2005. Somehow we managed to talk los abuelos into babysitting (you can see from the photo below how much they dreaded the prospect).

Before the movie started, Mari and I were able to get in a sushi picnic (for the record: sushi underwhelms me). Meanwhile, back in the 'hood, los abuelos and a sleeping Emilio enjoyed a long stroller ride through residential Andersonville; engaged in brave and unequal combat with the family remote controls; sought elsewhere for news of Barca's momentous match with Racing Santander; napped; laundered; and marvelled at the amazing green-ness of some people's feces. I am told that Emilio worked on his pacifier aiming skills.