Reggie's football highlights

Reggie's 10th grade season was a busy one.  It started out with the Royal Maker.  The Royal Maker was a 12-hour-long day of intense physical activity and competition.  They were divided into schoolyard-picked teams of six, and at any time during the day if they wanted to quit, they would have to ring a bell.  No one quit, and Reggie's team won! Their prize was going out for a steak dinner with one of the coaches.

Reggie played wide receiver on offense and safety and outside linebacker on defense. Reggie was on the dress list for both the 10th grade team (#18) and the varsity team (#19). That meant two games a week for the parents, too. There are rules about how much a high-schooler can play in a week - I think it is 6 quarters.  He was 2nd or 3rd in the depth chart on varsity so he would play the full 10th grade game and sometimes barely see the field in varsity games.  Toward the end of the season, there were so many injuries on the 10th grade team and JV team that they combined the two teams.  Then, Reggie only played varsity and got a little more playing time.

 

For the last couple of years, we have played against our big rival, East Ridge, at TCO Stadium - the Vikings' practice field.  This year was very fun because we won. 😉At the end of the night, the teams came together in the middle of the field, and there was a student-led prayer.

The Royals were co-section champs and lost to Moorhead in the quarterfinals of the postseason. Moorhead went on to play in the state championship game and fall to Edina.

Happy 16th Birthday Reggie!

 

I looked at the update I sent the adoption agency for his 16th birthday. I wrote this about Reggie: "Reggie is high energy and motivated, but also loyal and thoughtful. He has matured in his faith and ...he holds the respect of his friends and within his community."

I also found what I wrote when he turned five and think it's funny: "I love and hate Reggie’s sense of adventure. He will boldly take on any challenge, pick up any critter, and jump without looking, and do it all with a smile on his face and a contagious gut laugh.  It nudges me to live life so carefree.  It also terrifies me..." Still true.

Reggie's birthday was a good day for a trip to Valleyfair, so I paid for him and his friend while the others had to pay their own way.  I think we made cupcakes, but I have no proof. I'm getting so lazy! 

Reggie's Freshman Baseball Season

The bats start crackin' in about a month, so it's time to wrap this up!  This is the last sports highlight post before I post pictures from summer trips! 

Reggie's baseball season was interrupted by a hip flexor injury. He sat on the bench for half of the season.  The injury happened from his off-season football workouts and was probably related to a stress fracture in his femur that was discovered in an x-ray after it had healed on it's own. Yeah, you read that right. He broke his leg at some point last fall or winter and wrestled through it. This kid won't stop.

There wasn't much footage from the Freshman season.  So, I included a full uncut at-bat in it.  Reggie operates under the mantra "Get on base, any way!" One of his baseball skills is driving up the pitch count and rattling the pitcher.  In this particular at-bat, he drew it out 7 pitches for a walk, then managed to turn that walk into a run.  Another skill he has is leaning a little into the pitch and taking the hit.  So when you're coming off injury, the swing's a little rusty, and you're running a little slow, use what you've got!

One fun hightlight was Reggie played against a friend he has had since preschool!  They play in a backyard wiffleball league in the summer!  

Here is a link to his highlight video.

Reggie's wrestling highlights

Reggie had a full wrestling season as a varsity alternate.  He was sitting behind Brad, who ultimately placed 2nd at State and will be wrestling for St. Cloud State next year.  He had many shining moments...and a few disappointing ones...both on the JV mat and on the Varsity mat.

Still alive on Day 2 of Rumble on the Red.  His bracket had over 70 wrestlers and he was eliminated when there were 12 remaining. One more win and he would have medaled! It's a tradition that anyone who is eliminated on the first day has to climb all the stairs in the Fargodome.

Three 9th graders qualified for 9th Grade State.

Reggie won his bracket at the JV SEC.

There was room for Reggie in the varsity lineup at team sections and he pinned both of his opponents.  The Royals placed 2nd.

To receive the All-Academic Award, you must be in the varsity lineup and have a cumulative gpa above 3.5.

Reggie placed 4th at Team Sections.  1st and 2nd advance to State.

Reggie won his "Last Chance" bracket at the Christmas Tournament.  

Stats and highlights from Reggie's freshman wrestling season: Wrestled 160

JV Record: 19-5 9th Grade State Entrant JV SEC Champ Day 2 of Rumble on the Red Varsity Record: 10-9 Varsity Pins: 6 All-Academic Award Team voted "Hardest Worker"

Reggie's Football Highlights

I'm still working my way through the fall sports, so here are Reggie's football highlights.

This is Reggie's first year of playing football through the school.  Our highschool is in Class AAAAAA, which is largely based on enrollment.  6A is mostly the biggest and most competitive schools in the state, and while Woodbury is big (around 2000 students), it is not particularly a powerhouse when it comes to any sports.  Similar to volleyball, football has 5 teams: Varsity, JV, 10th grade, 9A and 9B). But unlike volleyball, there can be movement among the rosters throughout the season, and there are no cuts.

Reggie played almost exclusively on the 9A team.  On offense, he played as a receiver/tight end and on defense he played outside linebacker.  In the white jerseys he was #6 and in the blue jerseys he was #24. His team had a tough schedule and went 3-5 with wins to Roseville, Mounds View, and East Ridge and losses to Stillwater, White Bear Lake, Forest Lake, Prior Lake, and Eden Prairie.  In the post-season, the varsity could add to their roster, and Reggie was called up to their practice squad.  He got to dress for their game (they only had one 😉) but didn't get to play.

Reggie received the 9th grade Leadership and Attitude Award and the Defensive Player of the Year Award (voted by his team). While there are enough good players who can catch and run the ball, no one on the team tackles with as much power and reckless abandon as Reggie.  I attribute that to his innate personality - and wrestling! He was invited to the varsity off-season workouts, and he has been told they will have a spot for him in the starting lineup next fall if he can put on 15 or 20 pounds.

Ironically, he is currently trying very hard to stay at his current weight for the varsity wrestling lineup, so the weight-gaining efforts are on pause!

Here is the link to the highlight video.

Back to school

We have everyone at the same school for the first time since Reggie was in first grade! 

(Brett started homeschool when he was in 4th grade.)

This probably wouldn't seem so exeptional if our kids weren't so close in age.  It's pretty normal to have 3 kids, but not as normal to have three in high school all at once.

 

Reggie transitioned into high school with ease.  He knew his way around since he's been a high school wrestler for two years already.  He knew plenty of staff and had his friends from middle school and football, and advice from his brother and sister.  But even with all those advantages, the work load caught him a bit off guard.  Despite our warning, he is taking Honors English (both teachers show no mercy and it is not weighted).  He is also taking Spanish, AP Human Geography, Band, Honors Earth and Space Science, and Algebra 2.  With lifts, workouts, and practice, he is usually at school from 6am to 5:30pm.  Between sports and homework, he has no time for any clubs.  But he works hard at all of it and rarely needs any support from us to keep up with the demands.

I still can't believe Brett is already a Junior!  He likes school, is involved in many activities, and has a good group of friends.  He takes a mix of special education and general education classes with supports and accommodations.  Even though the graduation requirement is one trimester of physical education, he has taken gym all eight trimesters so far, and the gym teachers all know him well!  We are starting to prepare him for the possibility that he might not be able to fit gym into his schedule senior year!  He is also taking woodworking and a baking class.  Chemistry turned out to be more math than he was prepared for, but he pushed through one trimester and passed.  Now he is registered in more practical science course.  For extracurriculars, he plays on the district's adapted sports team, and attends activities through the Black Student Union, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Royal Connections.

I can never remember how many "O's" are in sophomore, and get it right about half of the time!  The big news that Lydia got before school even started was that she made the B-squad for the volleyball team.  A lot of sophomores got cut, so we were very happy she got to continue her high school volleyball life!  Building on success from her freshman year, she chose the most rigorous courseload she could.  She had two math classes for the first tri: AP Pre-Calc and Trigonometry.  She is also taking AP Biology, AP World History, Honors English, and American Sign Language.  For the second trimester, she is happy to be done with trig and taking online gym.  This has made a noticable difference in the homework load.  We realized last spring she would need some more clubs on her application for National Honor Society, so she diligently added a couple this year.  She was already in Key Club, but not very consistent, so she is making sure she logs her volunteer hours this year!  She also joined HOSA and the Red Cross club - which was a surprise to me.  Maybe it has to do with her friend group or maybe she's interested in a healthcare career.  Time will tell!

I also went back for a second year as a support staff at the neighborhood elementary school.  I provide academic and behavior support for general education kids.  Some days are hard.  Some days are more than hard.  But I love the convenience of working in my community and being on the same schedule as my kids. So it works for now!

We love that all of our kids are so involved and active in school.  I know a lot of parents wish their kids would join a club or a sport or crack open a book outside of school.  Our days are full of trips to the high school (or across town to another high school) for this or that , and we are content with it being that way.

Happy 15th Birthday, Reggie!

 

Reggie's birthday landed on the Tuesday after our annual trip to Green Bay, so he got to celebrate with his friends that day.  He invited half a dozen buddies to go bowling/arcade and then hang out at our house for food and cheesecake!  

I don't miss making complicated birthday cakes.

Reggie's Baseball Highlights

Reggie had a good season of playing on the WAA 14AAA team.  His team was mostly the same players as his 13AAA team, and it was the same coaches.  They won their bracket in the post season tournament and participated in two state tournaments.

Reggie is a center fielder and also played right field.  I believe one of the Reggie's greatest baseball skills is his patience when he is at bat.  While a lot of 14 year old boys feel they must slug anything near the strike zone, Reggie is perfectly content with wearing the pitcher down. He brings the pitch count up by letting balls go by him and fouling off pitches he doesn't like.  He also takes to heart that the goal is to get on base and is not afraid of leaning into a pitch on occasion.  He racked up 6 hit-by-pitches over the season!

At the close of the video, you will see their last game of the seaon got rained out and they had a little fun playing football in the outfield as it rained. The last frame shows this was his sunset season for travel ball, but he's not quite ready to hang up his cleats.  He's planning to tryout for the highschool team in just a couple months!

Reggie's wrestling highlights

Reggie spent the first two months of wrestling season in a cast and then doing physical therapy.  From the start, we had January 27th circled on the calendar: 9th grade individual sections.  Reggie's goal was to wrestle that day.  Reggie did all his PT homework, and I manipulated the schedule to get him into his post-op appointment a week early. He was cleared to wrestle on the 24th!  

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31

Of course his stamina and strength would be lagging behind a lot of the competition; even being on the mat at all was a win.  Reggie went 3-2 and finished 4th.  The top two wrestlers move on to 9th grade state.  He's got one more year to qualify.

The next opportunity to wrestle was a team quad.  Someone didn't make weight, so Reggie unexpectedly got called up to the varsity mat.  Reggie got a varsity win only 101 days after his surgery!

The next day, Reggie wrestled in the JV SEC individual tournament. He went 3-1 to finish 2nd.  Reggie wrestled a total of 11 matches this season, with a record of 7-4!

As an 8th grader, this was the last year Reggie would be eligible to wrestle in the youth tournaments advancing to NYWA State, which he has competed in every year since 2nd grade (except 2020 and 2021 due to Covid).  But by February we had learned Reggie would need a second ankle surgery.  In order to have the best outcome and a shot at playing baseball, we decided to schedule the surgery right after the high school wrestling season.

Reggie's football reel

"Reel" instead of "Highlights" due the big lowlight that has already been shared on the blog. That footage is included in the video. It's not graphic. But I put off putting this video together because I was avoiding the trauma of watching it.

About a month ago Reggie underwent a second surgery.  When his fractured ankle healed, the growth plate filled in, but the other three (left and right ankle) were expected to continue to grow.  This uneven growth was likely to create problems in the future, so the solution was to have surgery on both ankles to stop his growth at those growth plates.  As a result, he will be about a centimeter shorter than he would have been had he not fractured his ankle!

The surgery went well overall.  It was a more specialized procedure so it was at the children's hospital.  We are so fortunate to be only twenty minutes away from this kind of medical care!  I warned every person I talked to that Reggie comes out of anesthesia a bit crazy and with the strength of a grown man.  No one took me very seriously.  When the doctor came to update us on how surgery went, a couple of nurses came through the waiting room saying, "That was wild."  Later, we were informed that Reggie woke up "a little wild" so they sedated him again and he slept it off.  Unfortunately he remembers being pushed/held down, and then going back to sleep. Yet he had to be kept safe so I don't know how it could have been avoided.

We were told Reggie would walk out of surgery and technically he did, but the first week of having both ankles disrupted was very difficult. He is feeling almost better now.  We are hoping for good news at his post-op next week so he can return to sports. He really needs to return to sports!

Here are the highlights.  Football is what Reggie loves the most, no hesitation.  He played both linebacker and tight end, and he is dynamic to watch.  I think as he plays more, he will be driven toward being a defensive player.  But until then, it is so fun to watch him make the big catch and run into the endzone! He scored 10 touchdowns, made 4 interceptions, and so many tackles.  The team ended the season 9-2.

In the video, you will see some of my standard videography skills, and some clips Reggie wanted to include from his team footage.  Those clips are marked by the little play symbol as he screenshotted it from the app.