Laxville Wins First Tournament

Adam tried out for a new Lacrosse team in Louisville that was attempting to collect players from many different schools. The team is called Laxville because of its mission to grow Lacrosse in Louisville.

Evan Wright and Matthew Parker heard about the team and Adam decided he wanted to play too. I was concerned about the time it would take to practice in Louisville, but after all three players made the team, sharing the driving duty has made that not as much of an issue for the parents. It's still a pretty big part of ten days of summer for the boys.

I knew at the tryouts that this would be a special team. The coaches all worked together very well to run excellent drills that kept the boys moving for two hours with virtually no down time. Adam was one of several boys that was leaning on his stick in the heat.

The Lax-n-nati tournament was the first time that I got to see the team play together and it was a beautiful thing to watch. Crisp passes and rapid ball movement change the game completely from what I am accustom to watching.

It was a great tournament. Six games in two days at Clear Creek Park on the East side of Cincinnati. The weather was gorgeous and the competition was great.

They played teams from Georgia, Ohio and Indiana on Saturday and went undefeated. They lost to a great team from Cincinnati on Sunday morning and had to beat a tough well matched team from Franklin, TN in a very close game to earn a rematch for the championship.

I really enjoyed getting to talk with parents from all the the other states and meeting all the parents from Lax-ville. It wasn't until dinner on Saturday that I knew the origin of the team was so recent.

For as much fun and as much development as the team has made in so short of a time, it was no surprise that people were talking about looking for additional tournaments.

Carmen graduates from Tates Creek High School

The ceremony at Rupp Arena was very professionally done and well executed. It seemed so short, much like High School. To watch Carmen parade through one of the lines that received a diploma and a handshake from superintendent Stu Silberman looked more like a synchronized choreography than the graduations that I have witnessed in the past. Did I mention it was short?

In the past few months and years and really my whole career, I have been obsessively focused on objectives that I have set for myself and I have always considered myself very blessed to have a family that is not dependent on my daily direction or re-direction. As this graduation ceremony was executed in a few fleeting moments, I couldn't help comparing it to the four years of high school that went by so quickly.

It seems like just yesterday that Carmen started her freshman year of volleyball and then wrestled with a decision to pursue an aggressive objective of an International Baccalaureate Diploma.

The arena was also roomy. We sat with a group of 11 family members. You can see us at the top of the photograph on the right. Second row: Shirley, Vickie, Buddy, Bud, Becca, Keith. First row: Adam, Peter, Stephanie, Jackie and I.

Matt and Kim were there as well, but we didn't even know it until we saw them afterward. For the 360 or so Tates Creek Graduates and those there to witness it, there was plenty of room and plenty of comfort in an arena built to place 22,000 fans around a game of basketball.

On the right, Carmen's family looks down as her principal approaches the stage and podium. At the bottom, the NCAA Championship banners hang over her, waiting to witness the next four years of her life. I hope those banners know how much they have to look forward to with Carmen. I know that Tates Creek has prepared her well for the next set of four very short years.