Knox Catholic wins TN State Soccer Championship A/AA

Knox Catholic won the Tennessee State Championship for soccer, beating CAK (5 time state champs) 3-0. Good coverage for the game at the following links:

WBIR Coverage.

Knoxnews.com article.

WVLT TV Sports Extra.

Knox Catholic heading to the State Soccer Playoffs

Knox Catholic is heading for the state soccer playoffs this week. Games Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday (as long as they keep winning). I believe that the most serious competition will be CAK out of the loser's bracket. We have to see about another split soccer weekend this weekend!

Good luck Catholic!

A Major Defficiency in Auto Web Sites

I am in the market for a new car, as I have a 16 year old soon-to-be licensed driver. Don't get me started on the insurance costs..... Anyway, with a large family, I have special requirements (at least five seats). As I have scanned and scanned new and used car web sites, I have not found, on a single site, how many can fit in a car. No listing of number of seat belts, no listing of number of passangers, nothing. I have looked in the build section, in the specifications, on the front pages, nothing. I challenge the web site designers and marketers to fix this greivous deficiency.

Mu Alpha Theta for Marty

Marty was inducted into Mu Alpha Theta, high school math honor society, this afternoon. Short but good ceremony for both Mu Alpha Theta and National Honor Society, held at Knox Catholic.

I love rain in the spring

I love the rain in the spring; it means that soccer and baseball are canceled for tomorrow. Sorry to be so happy when sports are canceled, but this will make two saturdays, back to back. It has been months since both my wife and I and all the kids are in town. Last weekend, we built one full rock wall for our landscaping and improved a second one. (pictures hopefully coming tomorrow). Same for this weekend. Only one activity, the district pinewood derby for Charlie!

The wall built (part of 3 tons of stone). The wall improved.

Catholic Soccer 1-0 win over Bearden

Just home from a great soccer game. Crisp spring evening. Knoxville Catholic v. Bearden. Both regional and state power teams. Well played by both teams, and physical. The field was miserable, though, after a long tough weekend of soccer in the Bearden Invitational.

Catholic scored in the 57th minute. Kosta Nassios passed ahead to Tyler Gibson. Gibson laid a perfect inside pass to Ricardo Martinez, who finished very strong in the back net. Both teams had opportunities to score. Catholic built more plays forward, but Bearden's strong and accurate North-South passing worked well to give them opportunities. A very close match and well played and well refereed.

The game was marked by the return of Joey Delarosa, goalkeeper for Catholic, who played very well, though not 100% back.

Life of a goal-keeper parent

The life of a parent of a goal-keeper is too stressful for me to keep up with. My son, Marty, got the nod for starting keeper for our team (Knoxville Catholic) in the local Bearden tournament this weekend, when our starting keeper was sidelined with a foot injury. While I am proud of my son's ability, but would like to have warning next time.

My wife texted me during the first game of the tournament and indicated that our son had started. I immediately blew out of work with a short word with my boss. After three games this weekend, I now have no fingernails left.

One of the other parents summed it up best with "Marty played well. No mistakes." The goal-keeper position is one of the positions where every mistake is clearly visible and usually results in very bad for the team. I need to check into fingernail implants, I guess....... Prayers to our starting keeper for a swift recovery.

March Madness - Again

It is that time of year, March Madness. That time of year which is combination of fan feeding frenzy on basketball, combined with what has to be one of the best long term marketing strategies of all time. Let's address the last point first. The NCAA Basketball Program has done a great job of combining a great game, emotionally connected fans (in the extreme), television, intensity and that most American of things, a single Champion Team! I admit my addiction and revel in it.

Now on to the details re: this family blog. My older sons have whooped me, no doubt about it, for the last "few" years (I have lost count). Each year we fill the brackets and debate. The job gets easier and easier with the availability of electronic brackets available from ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sports, etc. We use Yahoo!, as I have been a Yahoo! user since the beginning of Yahoo!. See our group at this link (may not be visible until Thursday). This year, I am true to my team and have Tennessee going all the way. They had better amp-up the defense, but I have faith and hope that they can do it!

The trick, as most bracketologists know, is to pick the early upsets and the length of the upset runs. We shall see how far we go!