It was a full week of activity for the Crims and the scoreboard didn't show a successful week. I would be depressed about that except I saw a lot of good stuff that would never be indicated on a scoreboard.
Cross country went to the huge Cibola Invitational at Cocopah Resort. There were a lot of teams there from all over. We had two really good performers who received medals for their efforts. Out of ten teams (I just made that number up) we had a top 15 runner for boys and girls. Miguel Gonzalez and Jazmin Ortiz ran hard and made up for the fact that we only had 9 (I just made that number up) runners total for all four teams. Cross country is a tough sport that requires a lot of ganas from the runners and right now we are looking for runners. Plenty of ganas, not a lot of runners. Seems to be a constant across the board in a lot of sports.
Miguel Gonzalez goes for a PR as he leads the boys team.
Jose Lopez takes a look at either the competition or the camera.
And then the unexpected happened... I met a Criminal. Capital C. Criminal. What I would hope that everyone of my athletes would be. Enter Jazmin Ortiz. Senior. Aggressive. Athletic. AP classes. Medal finisher at a huge invitational. What impressed me most about this young runner is that after she finished a great race, she went out and cheered everybody in. Everybody. Boys. Girls. JV. Varsity. Everybody.
Favorite lines from Ortiz: "com'on holmes, you can do it!", "Ruby if you walk I'm gonna smack you!", and the best line of the day: "Uh, uh, San Luis, you better not be walking. You better at least do a slow jog!" Note that these were guys she was yelling at and you better believe they started running again. She had a way of motivating everyone which shows the camaraderie that runners share. Why didn't I know about this athlete before? Don't know. I can only say that it's awesome to see athletes like this. If we had more like her we would be competing against ANYONE in state.
If you're still with me let's move on to football...
We had a battle with Gila Ridge on Friday. Mostly resulted in the Gila Ridge fans yelling a lot and Yuma fans groaning. I hear that Gila Ridge is pretty good this year in football but it didn't seem to matter to me. It hurt my soul. The final score isn't important (at least to Yuma fans) but it did leave the question: when are we going to get it going like we know we can? "GR played their best game of the year" was the quote of some people that I talked to. Again, didn't care. I just want our boys to play to their potential. I saw a lot of players working hard and I have many good kids that play in class, but I want the whole thing to start jelling and have the Criminal football team start to role. We'll give them a battle when we see them again for homecoming. Blah, blah, blah, let's see some pictures and get to the bright spot.
We have the best band in the city. I might be biased. They are large, march well, and sound fantastic. Kudos to Mrs. Dallabetta and the Criminal marching band. Carlos German stands at parade rest after a solo.
Anthony Jackson fields a kickoff in the first half with the sun setting in the background.
Kyler Dorries protects quarterback Makeala Chun as Yuma looks to air it out.
Yuma has a tough battle with pre-season favorite Cibola coming to Doan Field. All I want to see is a team playing together with everything they have. Is that too much?
And if you're still reading...
You've won an ipod. Good luck collecting.
The volleyball team took on the Havasu Knights on Thursday. This is the first season with new head coach, Emily Dyke. She's got big shoes to fill as Coach Garcia lead the Criminals to a couple region titles until he decided to finally retire for some well needed rest. We have a new setter this year in Michelle Watson who is only a sophomore and shows great improvement every time out. Let's get crazy and go to the pictures without the tome of writing this time.
Sophomore Baylee Franklin gets a hand on a ball. Close that block!
Senior outside hitter Brooke Schlamann attacks the Havasu defense.
Criminals celebrate an Ace. Let's hope that they hit the floor for every ball this year.
There you have it. It looks like I'll need to do separate posts from now on for each sport. This is what happens when you leave it until after the weekend. Let me know what you think of this weeks post.
Until next time,
Bleed Blue
Jurgens
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