Reflection

As I wrap up this blogging project, the last post on this blog will be about how I've changed over the course of the last year. I've changed a bit in the last year. I've become more proactive in the last year. Before I would always procrastinate everything. I was really lazy, if I could wait to do something, I would wait until the last possible minute to do it. Now I've done a better job with my time management and getting stuff done on time. Now I have more free time than I did before and the quality of what I do has improved. Also the amount of effort I put into things has increased. Before I would do things halfway and then just give up a lot. I wouldn't really finish things that I started. Also in sports I wouldn't put in as much effort as I could and now I've been putting more effort into what I do.

Image courtesy of The Shot Doctor

I've gotten bigger, faster, stronger over the course of the last year. I've started going to the gym and have been training a lot harder. Last year I couldn't last an entire game. If we were playing a good team I would be done by the half. Now I've been able to last longer. Not the entire game yet, but I can swim harder, longer and that has made me a better player. I've also developed a lot of my skills. My overall fitness level has increased as well as my health. This blogging project has also given me a new perspective on writing and I've learned a lot about this type of writing. Blogging isn't the same as writing an essay. It's a completely different style and requires a lot more creativity to write. I found that it can actually be kind of fun. 

Comeback Kids

Last week, we had a scrimmage against a team that we hadn't played in over a year. We had no idea how good they were. We didn't know what to expect. We they showed up, we found out that they were big, really big. We started the game and we scored the first goal. They couldn't swim very well so our counters worked well on them, but we weren't able to make any shots. At the end of the first quarter, we were tied 1 to 1. The second quarter didn't go very well for us. We couldn't really do anything. Our offense wasn't happening. We couldn't even get shots off. It was bad. They scored 2 more goals to make it 3 to 1 in the middle of the second quarter. The rest of the second quarter was pretty uneventful. No one scored and we still couldn't do anything.

Image courtesy of BBC

The third quarter started badly for us. They scored and went up 4 to 1. At then end of the third quarter, we started our comeback. With 30 seconds left we scored. Then we made a last second shot. I had the ball in the corner and the guy guarding me fouled me with 2 seconds left. I threw it up to someone in the middle and it was the worst shot I've ever seen, but somehow the goalie didn't block it and it went in. I have no idea how. It was such a weak shot and it just skipped right over the goalie's arm. We were back in the game. At the end of the third the score was 3 to 4. The fourth quarter started and we were feeling like we could comeback and win the game. We scored a quick goal to tie it up at 4. We started playing a lot better and our defense also improved a lot. Halfway through the fourth I got a wide open shot from around 8 meters and drilled it. We were up 5 to 4. No one could score for the rest of the game and at the end, the score stayed the same at 5 to 4. We had one. We came back from being down 1 to 4. 

3rd Place Game

Later that day we played in the third place game. We weren't able to compete in the final, because we let the last team score more that 5 points. That's really stupid, because we didn't lose a game. We had the same record as the team that got into the finals. It was the team that we tied too. Anyway, the team we played for 3rd place was a team we had already played before. The last time we played them, we beat them by a lot. Our coach said that they had some people that didn't play when we first played them, so we really didn't know what to expect. The game started and about 30 seconds in they scored. Then about another 30 seconds later they scored again. We were down 2 to 0. It wasn't a good start. Then we started getting it back together and we answered their 2 goals to tie the game up. Then we kept scoring. Our lead grew and we were up 4 to 2 at the end of the first. The second quarter started and we kept scoring. We went up 5 to 2. Then they scored 1 and it was 5 to 3. With about 20 seconds left in the half, we scored another goal to make it 6 to 3.

Image courtesy of Dalje

The third quarter went surprisingly well. We got out to a big lead and were up 10 to 6 by the end of. In the middle of the third, coach started to sub in most of the second team so they could play a bit. We were still able to do pretty well even though some of our starters weren't playing. the fourth quarter also went really well and the game ended with us scoring 14 and the other team scoring 9. It was a really good game for me. I scored 5 goals and had lots of assists. It was a good day, and a good tournament.

Bad Game

Our next game was Saturday morning and by morning, I mean morning. Like 7 am. I had to wake up at 6 and it sucked. It was a weekend and I had to wake up that early. One kid showered before the game and showed up with his hair perfectly made, while the rest of us looked like we just woke up, which we did. We all looked at him like, wtf are you doing. Why did you shower. He showered at like 6 am and then got into a pool with chlorine an hour later. I really don't understand what he was thinking. We were all super confused. Anyway, the game started and they scored the first goal. This wasn't good, because we had to keep them under 5 points to make the finals. We had to do this, because we tied to the team we played the first day and the way they decided who made finals was goals against. It was supposed to be an easy game, but it went really badly for us. We were able to tie it up at 1 and then scored again to go up 2 to 1. Then we scored again right before the end of the quarter to get a 2 point lead. The second quarter went ok and we got up 4 to 2. Then we scored another 2 to and they scored one more and we were up 6 to 3 again. I don't know why, but whenever we were up 6 to 3 things just started to bad. Every time and this was no exception. They started to score. The kid I was guarding would never go play defense. You would think that would be an easy goal, but no. While we were getting the ball down whoever had the ball would get it stolen and then that guy would be sitting on the other side of the pool all alone. It got really annoying and half the time I couldn't go play offense, because he would just be sitting back. They scored a few goals becuase of this, and at the half the score was 6 to 5.

Image courtesy of  The National

The third quarter did go to well either. We both scored 1 goal and it was still a one point game 7 to 6. We had so many opportunities to score, but we just couldn't convert. Their goalie wasn't even good, our shots were just so off. The fourth quarter started and we knew that we had to start playing a lot better. We should have killed this team. They scored a goal to tie up the game and we responed with another goal to go up by 1. Then with about a minute left they scored to tie the game up at 8. Our coach called a time out so we could talk it over and draw up a play. We set up and were able to score with about 20 seconds left. Then their coach called a time out and we knew that if we stopped them here, we would win the game. They set up and pass the ball around for a bit, then were able to make a shot and tie the game up again. The game ended in a tie, but this team we were going to play overtime. We played terrible in overtime. We had so many missed opportunities. It was sudden death, so the first team to score wins. I choked one goal when I had the ball and it was me and the goalie with one guy trail. It hit the top post. It was terrible. Finally we were able to score a goal after 3 minutes of missed shots and just bad playing. We won, but it didn't feel like a win.

Really Close Game

Our second game was on Friday. The game started out pretty well and we had an early lead. We were playing well and were able to shut down their offense. With about 5 seconds left in the first quarter our goalie had the ball and he shot it from our goal and made the full court shot. It was crazy. Everyone started screaming. At the end of the quarter we were up 4 to 3. It was a close game, but we were playing well. About half way through the second quarter, we got up 6 to 3, and again like last time, things started to go downhill after that. They scored 2 quick goals and it was back to a one point game. With 10 seconds left in the half they scored another goal to tie it up 6 to 6. After the goal, we lined up and I got the ball. The clock started to tick down. When there were 4 seconds left, I shot the ball from half court, and it went in. The crowd went wild. We went into half time with the lead up 7 to 6.

Image courtesy of FINA

The third quarter was a back and forth. We would score, then right after they would score. No one could pull out a lead. It was a very even game and at the end of the third quarter the score was 8 to 8. The fourth quarter began and in the first 2 minutes, we were up 9 to 8. Then they came back and tied it up. The game continued on until there were about 2 and a half minutes left in the game. We scored to pull ahead 10 to 9, but then a minute later they scored again to tie it up. Our coach called a time out and drew up a play with around 45 seconds left. We were able to score and there was only about 20 seconds left in the game. They called a time out. All we had to do was stop them, and we would win the game. We set up and did a really good job on defense. We stopped their shot and our goalie was holding the ball. We thought that was it, but then one of their guys steals it from our goalie. He passed it to another guy who was on the other side of the cage and had a wide open shot. I thought we were going to tie again, but one of my teammates came from behind and stopped him from shooting. The game was over and we won 11 to 10.

Tied Game

Last weekend there was a tournament that last 3 days. It was from Thursday to Saturday. Our first game was Thursday night. We had never played the team before and we really didn't know what to expect. We had played their JV team last year, and they were really bad, but they could have had some really good kids on their varsity team. They didn't have anyone good, and the first quarter went really well for us. We were up 3 to 0 and we thought that we had the game in the bag. The second quarter went pretty well. We kept our 3 point lead, but they had also scored 3. The score going into the half was 6 to 3. We were still fairly confident that we could hold on to our lead.

Image courtesy of FINA

The third quarter did not go well. We didn't score any goals and they had caught up to us. The score was 6 to 6 and now we started to get worried. Our defense had fallen apart and our offense had come to a stand still. I don't really know what happen, but we just couldn't play. The fourth quarter started and we were all really nervous. We didn't want to end up losing this game. About a minute into the quarter, we scored and we were up 7 to 6. But they came back and scored and it was all tied up again. With just over a minute left in the game we were able to score and take the lead. We stopped their next  possession, but were not able to score on our next one. They called a time out with around 30 seconds left in the game. All we had to do was stop them and we would win the game. We failed and they scored with 10 seconds to go. We tried to get a quick shot off, but missed and that was the end of the game. There was no over time, so the game ended in a tie.

First Game of The Season

Last week, we had our first game of the season. The team we played was really bad, and after the first quarter we were up 9 to 0. I scored 3 of those 9 and after the first quarter he took out everyone that was starting and put the newer kids in. It was a good opportunity for them to get some game time against a team that wasn't very good. They did a really good job, and at half time the score was 16 to 1. I played for most of the third quarter, but I didn't play for any of the fourth. The final score of the game was 23 to 9. The same guy scored all of the other teams 9 points. He wasn't even good. I played defense on him in the first half and he would try to shoot from 7 meters and I stuffed him almost every time. He would also try to kick me in the face every time we were swimming down. After a while it got really annoying, and I wanted to straight up hit him in the face. He never actually hit me, so I wasn't that mad about it, but it was still getting on my nerves.  

Image courtesy of RTS

Overall, the game went really well and it was a good way to start out the season. Lots of the newer players got game time and we stomped the other team. They shouldn't of scored 9 goals. They really shouldn't of scored at all. We lots of games coming up and I can't wait to see how good we are going to get this season. 

Practice Again

Water Polo practice finally started agian and I am really excited about the upcoming season. High School swimming ended and we had the State swim meet. We won the meet by a lot. The other teams weren't even close and it was a good way to end my first year of high school swimming. Now I can switch to my main focus, which is water polo. We've had practice for a week now, and it feels great to get back into the swing of things. So far we've only been going over the basics, but I can't wait until we get into some new stuff. Our first game is this week and it'll be interesting how well we do. We have some knew people and our coach isn't very good at explaining things, so I don't know if they actually understand anying.

Image courtesy of Water Polo Planet

We have a lot of games this week, and many more to come. I think that we have at least one every week and somethimes even 2. This will go on all the way to May. That is when state championships are. I'm just really happy that swimming finaly ended and water polo started. I'm ready to see all the people I hated in the fall again and beat them. I'm not gonna lost to Pork Chop again.

New Years

So this post is a little off topic and a little late, but I want to talk about new years and all the great things upcoming in 2015. The first thing I want to talk about though, isn't so great. Its about all the people that when you show up to school again after the new year and they say, "I haven't seen you since last year". It is actually the most annoying thing and I want to punch the kid in the face when they say that. Its just like "stop". We all get it. Its a new year, but it doesn't mean you have to get even more annoying. The next thing is that I'm still gonna be writing 14 on all my papers for the next 4 months until I finally get it right. I just got used to writing the year, and now it changes. Also my sleep schedule is so messed up. I've been staying up untill 2 am all break and sleeping till 10. Now I have to wake up at 6 and on the first day back, it was the hardest thing. I'm so tired right now.

Image courtesy of water polo world

Swim practice over the break was also a lot better. There were only about 10 people that showed up, so almost everyone got their own lane, which was really nice. I hate it when there are a lot of people in the lane. It's just too crowded and you can't swim the way you want too. Now that normal high school practice is back, there are at least 7 people in each lane, and in many there are more. It is so much better when you have your own lane. On a positive note, the water polo season starts in about a month and a half and I am so excited for it to start. We are a 3A school so at state we don't play any of the really good teams that have destroyed us in the past, so we have a shot at winning state this year. It would be awesome to win state and I'm just ready to play water polo agian. Swimmings fun, but Its just not the same.

Another Game

So last weekend we had 2 games against kearns. We hadn't practiced in over 2 months so no one expected to do very well, but it was more just for fun. The first game we played was the JV game. It went a lot better than I thought it would. There was some kid that played with us who was visiting Park City, and he helped out a lot. He was pretty good. I had a good game, especially for not playing the past 2 months. I scored 3 goals and one of them was the 2nd best goal I have ever scored. I swam down the middle of the pool and my defender was on my feet. There was also one to my left and one more behind the person chasing me. I got the ball, turned around doged the person behind me. Then the two other people came at me and I went right between them and shot it. It looked a lot more epic then it sounds. Trust me, you had to be there. In the end we won the game by one point. It was a really close game and really fun to play in.

Image courtesy of  water polo world

The second game didn't go as well. It was a varsity game and we were playing the team that one state 16-2. Some of their starters weren't there, but still. They are a really good team. The first quarter wasn't too bad, we were only down by 3. The second quarter however was a total slaughter. They just destroyed us. They were up by 6 at the end of the half. Our excuse was that we haven't played in 2 months, but it was a really bad quarter. The second half went better. We both scored 6 points in the second half, but I think it was more because they stopped trying than us actually playing better. They had some really big guys on that team. Some were definatly double my body wieght. It wasn't that good of a game, but it was just fun to be playing water polo agian. The seasons starts up agian in February and I am so excited for that.

Swim Meet

So Today, I am going to get a little off topic and talk about a swim meet I went to last weekend. It was a prelims/finals meet, which means that qualifying is in the morning and finals are at night. I swam the 100 free, 50 free, and 100 back. My morning sucked. I did really bad. My 100 free was really slow. I went a 57 when my best time was a 54. When I went to talk to my coach after the race, I said that it was really bad, and he said, "Yeah. I had to watch it". He said it was aweful and I knew it was. My 50 was a little better. He told me to go a 24. I went a 24 ... .97. I said to him, "Hey, It was a 24". The 100 back was also pretty bad. I went around my best time. The top 8 from each event go to finals at night. I qualified 7th in the 100 free, 3rd in the 50, and 8th in the 100 back. I was really close to not making it back. I told people, "Yeah I meant to do that. I just wanted to go fast enough to make it back", but actually I tried to go fast. I went home in between the sessions and I was just thinking to myself, "How I am gonna go fast at night". My dad kept telling me that I went really slow, and I said that I was gonna go a lot faster at finals.

Image courtesy of Summer Games

I showed up to finals that day really nervous, but also excited. Warm-up was a bit of a struggle, because the water was so hot. It was like a hot tub. I don't understand why they would pay so much money to keep it that hot. Honestly I would've like it to be really cold than really hot. I tried to keep my mind off how hot the pool was and on how I was going to swim. My first race that night was the 100 free. I went really slow in the morning and knew that I had to redeem myself that night. I was behined the blocks and was really nervous, but in my head all I was saying was, "Lets kick some ass" over and over again. It sounds really dumb, but it worked, because I dropped 5 secounds from the morning. I went a 52. I looked up at the scoreboard and then saw the time I went and I thought, "No way". I didn't think that I could go that fast, but apperently I did. I look over at my coach and there were a bunch of my teameates there and they looked as confused as I did. I was really happy with that. My next 2 races also went really well and it was very good meet for me.

Championships

So we had water polo finals a while back and it went pretty well. For the varsity game however, we lost by 1 point. We played against porkchops team, but he didn't play. I have no idea where he was, but everyone else from that team was there. We started off with the lead and I thought that we could actually win the game, but our third quarter was one of the worst quarters we have ever played. All of us just sucked. We couldn't play defence or offence. I had a really bad game. I couldn't make a single shot. Something was really off with my shot. I should've scored 2 to 3 more goals. There were six on fives where I had a wide open shot from around 4 meters and I just missed the shot. I don't know what was happening. It was probably one of the worst shooting performances I have ever had. In the end it was a pretty good game for the whole team, but the third quarter just killed us. They came back and took the lead from us, and we just couldn't get it back. Our first half was amazing and probably was the best water polo that we had ever played, but the third quarter was just really bad. We almost won, but almost winning isn't winning.

Image courtesy of  Exposure

The JV game went better than the varsity game. We won and got third place in the entire tornement. My shooting was a little bit better than the varsity game, but that was probably because the goalie was a lot worse in the JV game. I scored 4 goals in that game and we ended up winning by 1 point. We had the lead with 40 seconds left in the game, but I thought that there was less time and that I could just hold the ball for the rest of the game. I was wrong. The shot clock was gonna run out before the game ended. I was just swimming around with the ball trying to waste time, when I looked up at the clock and realized that I wouldn't make it to the end, I thought, "O crap, what am I gonna do". The shot clock ran out and there was 5 seconds left in the game. The other team got the ball and started swimming down the pool. Luckily I was all the way down on the otherside so they would have to go the enitre length of the pool to score. At about half way the person with the ball shot it and luckily our goalie blocked it. If that went in, everyone would've gotten pissed at me and I wouldn't have heard the end of it. It was an ok game for us and we got third which was really good. It was a fun season and now I really don't know what to do with my life. Water polo doesn't start again until February and I don't know how I am going to make it through all that time. It's gonna be a struggle.

Finals

We don't have any games for the next two weeks, and that is the last week this season. It is the finals and for JV we are playing for 3 against Kearns A, B, or C. We lost to all of them during the season. I know what you're thinking. How did you lose to a C team? Well... Half the team was gone. There was a swim meet and there was no one at the game. We only lost by 1. I was carrying, but I missed the last second shot to tie the game. I just barely hit the cross bar with 2 seconds to go. We also lost to the B team, but I'd rather not talk about that one. It was kind of sad how we lost. There was one super aggresive kid on the C team that really pissed me off. When I was guarding him he would shove his head into mine. I have no idea what he was doing. I was so confused.

Image courtesy of Boston.com

For the Varsity we are playing for 6th place. We lost our first 3 games, then tied one, and won the last 3. We ended off the regular season looking really strong. We finally got it together and won some games. Hopefully we can win against whoever we are playing against for 6th. We probalby should have done better than 6th, but at the start of the season we weren't really playing at our best. We have won the last 3 games we played and we should carry the momentum into the last weekend. I have no idea who we are playing, but I hope that we can beat them. There haven't been many people that I have hated in the varsity games lately. We have been winning and it is way more fun when you are winning. I haven't had the urge to hit someone in a varsity game for a while. I guess that's a good thing. Only 2 more weeks until the end of the season. I'm really sad about that and really don't know what I am going to do with my life once the season ends.

Destroying Kids

Last weekend I had another 3 water polo games. 1 of them was a varsity game and the other 2 were JV. The first varsity game we won 12-1. Our defence was amazing and our offence finally started to work. We scored on a lot of counter attacks and we finally were able to score goals when we set up our offence. I didn't even have to play the whole game. Our entire team finally showed up and we had 3 subs. It was the most we've had all season.

Image courtesy of The National

The next game we had was a JV game. There was one really annoying kid on the other team. He was number 2 and I hated him so much. He was chubby and when I was guarding him he tried to be tough and fight me, but he had the weakest puches I've ever seen. He was like tapping me. It was like he thought he was tough, but was to scared to actually hit because I would've kicked his ass. I was really close to destroying him, but I just elbowed him in the ribs once and he got super scared and stopped. When destroyed there team so in the fourth quarter I wasn't playing, and he hit our goalie in the face, with the ball, twice within a minute. I was about to jump in the pool and just wreck him. That kid is lucky that I didn't find him in the locker room after the game.

Image courtesy of Water Polo World

The third game was another JV game. There wasn't anyone that really pissed me off, but we absolutly destroyed the team we were playing. I scored 11 goals and 4 or 5 of them were half court shots. The goalie was really small so basically every shot I took went in. There was one girl that was drowning one kid on my team. He couldn't do anything about it. He was drinking a lot of water when she was guarding him. It was funny watching some girl half his size drowning him. The final score of the game was 15-9. That was the first day all season that we have one every game. It was a good day.