Santa brought Emi a Eurail Map, a backpack for the trip to Europe, a board game ("Paris Connection"), a card game ("The Grizzled"), three books (Estamos en un libro! by Mo Willems, Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood by Nathan Hale, and Timmy Failure: The Book You're Not Supposed to Have by Stephan Pastis), and a complete set of 2015 football cards.
A birthday present for me and Emilio from Mom and Dad: Emilio's first Dallas Cowboys game! The game was originally scheduled to begin at noon, but NBC got to "flex" the game to a 7:30 p.m. start time because national audiences want to see the rookie QB Daz Prescott and rookie RB Ezekiel Elliot and the 11-2 'Boys take on the Jameis Winston-led 8-5 Bucs, who come into the game on a five-game winning streak.
Emi and I stop in Denton to visit Lisa, Melissa, and Norah and then meet Olivia and Brian on a Walmart parking lot in Fort Worth. From there, Brian drives the four of us to a shuttle parking lot. We arrive an hour-and-a-half early, which gives us plenty of time to make our way to our seats and watch the players warm up while we were eating popcorn and nachos. Brian's favorite Cowboy is center Travis Frederick, Olivia's is Dez Bryant, Emi's is Ezekiel Elliott, and mine is the now-benched Tony Romo.
Though we are on the top deck, we feel the heat of the flames that are lit when the Cowboys take the field.
Early in the second quarter, Terrell McLain sacks Winston, causing a fumble, which Maliek Collins recovers at the Tampa Bay 14. Five plays later, Ezekiel Elliott scores on a two-yard-run and subsequently jumps into a giant Salvation Army kettle.
The Bucs go 3 and out on their next drive, and the 'Boys follow with a 64-yard touchdown drive, that culminates with a 2-yard Daz Prescott touchdown to give the 'Boys a 17-3 lead. At halftime, the 'Boys dominate time of possession 20+ minutes to 9+ minutes and the score is 17-6.
The third quarter belongs to the 'Bucs. An eight-play touchdown drive and ten-play touchdown drive, sandwiched around a four-play Cowboy misfire, that ends with a failed end-around exchange between Ezekiel Elliott and Lucky Whitehead, has the 'Boys down 17-20 heading into the fourth quarter.
The 'Boys defense does not allow the Bucs a first down on three consecutive possessions, while the 'Boys offense puts together three field-goal scoring drives--including one that features a 42-yard escape by Ezekiel Elliott, to give us a 26-20 lead. The 'Bucs take possession at their own 11-yard-line with all three time-outs and one-minute and thirty-six seconds to play. One minute later, it's fourth-and-twelve, and I record the video below.
That's an Orlando Scandrick interception to end the game, the Cowboys' 12th of the season. One more win, and we'll have clinched a bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Jason Witten catches 10 passes, which moves him past Terrell Owens into seventh place on the all-time. A week after a deflating 2nd loss to the Giants, Daz completes 32 of 36 passes, the second-highest completion rate in NFL history (minimum 30 passes), and Ezekiel Elliott rushes for a season-high 159 yards. HE leads the league in rushing.
It is rare pleasure to be surrounded by so many people who share your enthusiasms.
The 5th and 6th grade Christmas performance at Willard was held on Friday morning. Each fifth grade period sang three different songs. Emi's group was the third of the three periods to sing. When I picked up Emilio after school in the afternoon, I asked him to record a solo excerpt from each song, which we filmed at different spots on the ECU campus.
On the morning of the Scraps' second game, our assistant coach found out that he would be coaching the game tonight. He also ran our practice on Wednesday after finding out just before practice started that head coach couldn't make it.
He hasn't coached a basketball team before.
If you leave Emilio uncovered, he will drive the lane and dish to the open man.
Repeatedly.
If you throw a soft pass, Emilio will steal it, go the distance and draw a foul.
The ECU Tiger Summer Shooting Clinic free throw champion swishes it.
Shoot it short, and Emi will get the rebound and draw a foul.
If you shoot it long, Emi will get the rebound, cross you over, go baseline and draw a foul.
Intramural season for fifth graders is over, and Boys and Girls Club season for fifth and sixth graders begins. The Boys and Girls Club teams carry over from previous years, but since this is Emilio's first year, he's on the scraps team with other players who are playing for the first time. The Director of the Boys and Girls club has volunteered to coach the team, but he let all the parents know that he has a prior coaching commitment for a team in OK City and will often be unavailable. He ran a great practice on Wednesday, but we think the other teams have had more than one practice. At that first practice, he asked the players to let him know who among them was going to be his ball-handling press breaker. Emi raised his hand, and the job is his.
Emi smells a steal, seizes it, escapes on a break, and draws a shooting foul (not called, alas).
Emi loses his defender, drives, and dishes to the open man (Blake).
The last day of Emi's intramural season--his first as a bballer--featured a double header for the Bananas: one game at 8:30 and another at 9:30. Captain Crossover played half of each game (we had ten players) and had a glorious day, full of highlights. He scored 22 points, including a season-high 14 in his final game as a Banana, which we won 24-19.
The Bananas, from left to right (top row): Warrick, Belen, Coach Marr (Fish's dad), Logan, and Fish(er); (bottom row): Callie, Luke, Case, Emi, Kendon, and Damian.
After the game, Coach Marr asked me if Emilio had told me that he had encouraged him to join their flag football team in the fall. He had. They play games on Monday and Tuesday nights. Coach Marr: "He's a natural athlete." True that.
