While I have been absent from this for quite a while I have not been absent from the sporting events. Since I have written last I have been to one women's cross country race, one women's soccer match, two ice hockey games, one football game, and one field hockey game.
While I have more to say about he second half of those (the ones I attended this weekend.) I will only talk about the first two tonight.
Last Friday, I ditched work early and drove to Dexter for the EMU fall classic. Michigan only participated in the Women's race. I know what most people say, "How can you just watch running?" I guess the only real way to do it is to admire how hard they are pushing themselves. I suppose, also you can try to understand their aptitudes and their drive by their form. That is about all you get. Since running is more of a mental sport than anything else, it's really hard to appreciate it from the outside, especially when you only see flashes of people. I'm glad the races are short because I would have gotten majorly bored. I didn't necessarily cheer for anyone as I did not know anybody's name. Actually, I have mixed feelings about directly cheering for a person when they are in the middle of doing something. I think it goes back to my own neurotic time in cross country. I half hated it mainly because I hate pushing myself. Anyway, sometimes I was not in a good mood on race day, and encouragement had a negative impart on me. Even when I was doing well, encouragement didn't mean much to me. I'm like, "Don't tell me I'm doing well, or I can keep it up. I know how I am doing." It was very annoying. For me cheering is all about uplifting the person's mood and getting them focused. What I needed during the event was just a wall of positive noise. I needed to know that people were behind me. I didn't need to think that people were weighing things on me specifically, but that they supported my team. After the event is when I needed the individual encouragement, to help me recover mentally, and/or enjoy the fruits of it all.
I take that into what kind of a fan I am. At races, I just want to clap for people. They are pushing themselves as hard as they can, and that is all they can think about. They need some energy behind them to keep them going. It is after the events that I dish out the "good jobs." then they start to think and reflect. It is then that you go to remind them that the effort was worth it.
In case you were wondering. It was an non-scoring race, but if it had been, a handful of random girls would have gotten the individual prizes. Michigan State would have been first. Michigan would have been second followed by EMU. Poor Concordia would have been dead last.
I will have one more cross country match of the year when I head to the NCAA regionals in Toledo on the 12th of November.
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I put these beliefs into effect for the women's soccer match-up against Penn State. I only caught the second half because it was Sunday and I was listening to a sermon. On to the match. Once again, our student section was a disappointment. Maybe, they sat over by the parents.
To be honest, Penn State was the more entertaining team. Why were they so good? Maybe it was because their bench did co-ordinates cheers. Maybe because when they shouted stuff at each other on the field they actually enunciate things. To be honest, I don't know the secret of their success, but they were good. They had amazing ball control and played it in the air when most people would let it drop. They were also fast and had a great ability to collapse on a player. It means that the only way we were going to move the ball, was to pass, let them collapse and free up someone, then pass again. It kind of worked, but we never really got anything going. It was a tough end to a tough season, especially when being shutout by Ohio State two days prior. We have a very young team, so I believe that we will get better, but in order to get better they have to want to keep playing. It was obviously their spirits were quite low at the end of the game. As they did their final jog across the field I did all I could do as a fan. I stood next to the two other students, and the two parents who made it a point to get down the field-level, and I cheered for them anyway. Sometimes you need to be reminded that people care about an appreciated you regardless of the outcome. I think it was one of those times.
The highlight of the game was being nearly taken out by number 8, Tori McCombs. She sped for a ball heading out of bounds and managed to deflect it off a PSU player, before running into the stands. While it was less that she came very close to hitting me as it was that I was just the nearest person to her as her momentum carried her up into the bleachers. (Like I said, we had a disappointing turnout). She was fine and stayed on her feet.
My next update will be tomorrow.
It will include the following items
Old school and slightly formal Yost,
Football bounceback, or so we hope,
And the field hockey final against one of my favorite schools
Next week we start with some new sports,
Rowing, and Men's and Women's swimming and diving.
We will also continue with More ice hockey.
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