03-04-06
DeMarcus is having to be in a jump off today. I think it totally sucks. It appears that there weren't enough people in the conferences to clear 7'2, so they are at Iowa state today for the jump off and he needs to clear 7'4 now to go to the National meet... if I understood him correctly. It really sucks for him because he cleared 7'2 last year as a high school senior to win the Texas State 4A High Jump Championship, but because he wasn't really challenged this year since the first couple of meets he has to do this. Anyway, the National Meet will be at Arkansas State and I'm gonna go, but if he doesn't get to go for some reason, we're going to go to Oklahoma and see him next week. I need to see my boy!!!
He sounded fine last night when I talked to him, but at the same time I think he felt pressure that he hadn't felt before. He knows what he is capable of, but when someone comes out of the blue and tells you that plans have changed and you have three days (including travel time) to do something, it can mess with your head.
When we talked last night, we talked about "his story" and I asked him if he was going to be ready to share it with other kids soon. I told him that there were kids out there who had lost hope, and maybe even some who haven't even realized that they've given up, and if they knew even a fraction of his life and what he'd gone through... trust me when I tell you, think of life on the streets... he's been there. HE didn't do anything bad, he was just a small child, but his mother... lets just say she's still out there. They need to know there's hope. One day, I'm going to have him log on to my blog and just type whatever he wants. I know alot but I'm willing to bet there are billions of things I can't even guess about.
Anyway, I'm about to chew through my desk waiting to hear the results. On the other hand... Ryan called and she took the bronze in her track meet. She won her meet two weeks ago, and all of her meets last year. But the difference this time is that she got a personal best of 5'2 today. She ALMOST cleared 5'4 but nicked the bar with her heel, and she said she was really tired by the time she got to 5'4. She's been battling shin splints the last week so she hasn't been working out to hard and I guess it's showing, but that's just how it's gonna be. It wouldn't have mattered too much anyway because she said the girl that won it jumped 5'6 and she's only a FRESHMAN!!!! Ryan's a sophomore and she said this girl was just really pretty to watch, her form was just great. I think Ryan's showing some maturity there by complimenting the girl who beat her instead of putting her down. I am glad to see that.
Tomorrow it's back to the basketball workouts. Her regular summer team will start working out in the next week or so. The coach and his daughters are with their highschool (Waxahachie) in the Texas High School State Championship game today, so we couldn't start working out until they were done. But Ryan has been asked to go to play with the Adidas National Champs in North Carolina in April and a couple of other tournaments. They are trying to convince us to come play with them for good, but we've given our word to Vance and I won't go back on that. Plus, Vance is one of the VERY FEW select coaches who allow his players to play with other teams during our inactive weekends, and his daughters even play with this same team alot so I don't want to do that. BUT... this team DID sign 10 out of 10 players on both their junior and senior teams to colleges the past two years that they've been in business, and the owner of team's daughter is a VERY well known two time All American player at the University of Texas. Very tempting, but no dice.
All right. I gotta go back to waiting. I'm gonna go for a drive and wait for my call! Later!