How We Spend Our Time

Since the high school swim season wrapped up on February 4th, you would think things would have settled down just a bit around here. But after having just 2 days off, the high school water polo season started up on February 6th. So since then Shawn (and Jonas) have spent every Monday through Friday evening at water polo practice or games.

The bad news is that 6:00 to 8:30 is a horrible time for Shawn to be gone every night, but the good news is I think watching water polo is great fun, AND Jonas gets to play JV and I think he even likes it. (I sure hope that's true because he is not particularly interested in sports. He gave up soccer and never wanted to play basketball or baseball, and complained so much about swimming that I could scream (and perhaps I did - just a little.) So, the fact that he can play and seems to enjoy it, is a huge win for us around here. And for some added fun, his cousin Robbie is playing, too.
Jonas is definitely aware that he is the youngest, smallest and least experienced player(along with Robbie) on the team and he HATES wearing a speedo (but really, can you blame him for that?) but we keep telling him how nice it will be for him to have started playing as a 7th grader, so that by the time he is in high school, he will understand the game so much better and be that much better than if he hadn't start playing until then.

The fun thing (and the frustrating thing) about water polo is the apparent lack of rules. Don't get me wrong, there are rules, but there is so much going on under the water that if it isn't seen, doesn't get called. It's amazing what some of these guys can get away with. Occasionally, you will see some one move backwards, because an opponent has grabbed onto their suit and pulled them. (Hence, the need for speedos - or the least amount of anything for an opponent to hold onto.)

And if you watch the player who is "in the hole", you may assume his opponent is going to successfully drown him before the ball changes hands. It sounds horrible, but is really fun and interesting to watch. (And games are not that long either. Although tournaments will take up your ENTIRE weekend.)

These players need to be in good shape to be able to keep sprinting up and down the pool. (Even Jonas is admitting that being in better swimming shape would be helpful. Not that we haven't tried to convince him of that for at least 2 years.)

It's always fun to watch Shawn coaching, too. He watches the game very closely, keeping track of every move the players make (good or bad).

Shawn and the other coaches, Mike and Brian, talking to the team during a timeout.

It keeps us busy, but we're having fun, too.