8-17-08

Mira Costa beat Long Beach Wilson in 3. So they are the champs. Final standings:

1st - Mira Costa

2nd -Long Beach Wilson

3rd- Newport Harbor

4th - CDM

Overall, this trip was a complete blast, wonderful competition, and the girls will leave the islands with a new confidence about their team. And everybody got to play so that was great. This is going to be a really good CDM team and exciting to watch.

If you get a chance to come to this tournament, take advantage as it is so well run and the people are so nice. Plus the food at the snack bar is great. Our whole family had just the best time.

So, as they say in Hawaii, "Aloha, Dano." Or, in my case, "Aloha, Donno."

Over and out.

8-16-08

10:30 pm

We just ran into the Heenans from Harbor. They lost to LB Wilson in two. Got clobbered in the first game. So it is playing out with Wilson v Mira Costa for the championship. Again, if Costa loses, I want a recount.

Cheese Burgers in Paradise. Weak.

7:30 pm

I just saw the Harbor girls leaving Duke's so that makes me think they got dropped by Wilson. So, I am surmising, it is Wilson and Costa in the finals. From this peanut gallery, no contest. And Harbor is now going to have to worry about us in the Battle of the Bay. Get your tickets early.

High school volleyball. It is the greatest. And I present the CDM-Los Al game today as Exhibit A. That was completely insane. Ted told me that was the most exciting girls sporting event he had ever seen.

By the way, has there ever been a tournament where the losers get to go to the beach, jump into the ocean, and go surfing while the winners have to sweat it out in a hot gym?

Did I tell you we had a blast here in the great state of Hawaii? If I didn't, we did. This whole deal was awesome.

I know, I already told you but I wanted to rub it in one more time.

And, if I could add one more thing, good for this group of parents. We are all interested in our particular kid but these parents, to a man and a woman, cheered for everybody. And I mean they cheered for the kid first off the bench and the kid last off the bench.

One other thing, Sean D, thanks for following along. You are THE MAN.

4:30 pm

The Hawaiian volleyball adventure has come to a close. We just lost to Long Beach Wilson in two. I left the scores in the car so I am just guessing that they were 15s each. We did not play very well in that one.

So we finish 4th in the tournament. Three teams left: Mira Costa, Newport, and Long Beach Wilson.

Mira Costa just clobbered Newport in two. So Wilson and Harbor play again to see who gets (has) to play Mira Costa and the giant for the championship. If Costa does not win this tournament, there should be an FBI investigation.

2:00 pm

CDM just beat Los Al in 3, 25-20, 20-25, and 15-13! Los Al goes home. The girls all play really, really well and the match was tremendously exciting. Long Beach Wilson took out Redondo and they go home. So four teams are left standing: CDM, Newport, Long Beach Wilson and Mira Costa.

11:00 am

Six teams left: CDM, Harbor, Los Al, Long Beach Wilson, Redondo and Mira Costa. I am pretty sure they are all D-1 teams except us. We play Los Al at 12:30.

8-15-08

11:30 pm

First the bare facts.

1. Mira Costa beat CDM in two: 20-25 and 17-25

2. CDM beat Harvard Westlake in three: 18-25, 25-23, and 15-9

Here is what actually happened.

Mira Costa has the best girl volleyball player I personally have ever seen. A monster who bangs as hard as a guy. She had a back row attack that hit the 10 foot line. They also had several good blockers. That is a true D-1 VB team. I would not have given CDM much of a chance pre game.

And CDM went out and almost beat Costa in game one. We were ahead 19-18 when the wheels fell off. Game two was kind of deer-in-the-headlights time, but not really. Our girls kept playing hard but that big kid is intimidating.

If we get another shot at Costa, things will change. I don't think they want to see us again.

In match two, CDM proceeded to shock Harvard Westlake. We actually could have won in two games but kind of yakked it in game one. No nerves in game two and we completely waxed them in game three.

New nicknames from Scott et al: The Franchise, Syd, Ckipp or CMoney, and the JMart.

If those 4 girls keep playing like that, this team can win it all this year. They hammered the ball in games 2 and 3 against HW, were loose, and played with a purpose. And Catherine (no nickname as of yet) passed dimes. And Madie (nickname reserved) was making some ridiculous digs, passes, and (oh, by the way) sets. But we don't think she falls to the court too gracefully. She just hurls herself around.

Oh, and forget all the nice new rules I explained earlier. The tournament threw out the clock on Wednesday and went back to normal scoring and time keeping. Not sure why but at least we all understood what was going on.

And a big high five to the CDM crowd tonight. Everybody was really into the games and I think it helped the girls. I did partially bite off my tongue when the ref called the ball out in the second game against HW (no way) and made the 5 second call against Syd. But, according to the instructions delivered, we all said nothing.

We were in the lower air conditioned game for match one and the upper gym for game two. As the sun had gone down and there was a nice breeze out, it was much cooler in the upper gym.

Harbor is playing Los Al this morning and Mira Costa is playing Wilson. If I understand the format, we will play one of the losers. I will bet that it is Los Al and Wilson who go down this morning so we should see one of them.

And happy birthday, Coach D. He is 39 again. Actually 40, but who is counting? Same age as me.

6:00 pm

I added the flag as a partial tribute to our rental car, the "Hawaiian Caddy." Awesome machine. Driving it around town, I feel like we are starring in Hawaii 5-0. Or maybe Magnum PI. Ok, maybe we look like Dog the Bounty Hunter. But it is still really cool.

One problem is the Caddy is now completely filled with sand. We arrive at the hotel, the door is opened, and half of Sandy Beach pours out. These kids are KILLING my image as a really cool Hawaiian tourist. I am going to have to find another group to travel with.

Anyway, we are off to the Mira Costa game.

If you go by the stat sheet, we lose. 1 vs 8. No way. But these CDM kids are pretty dang good players. So don't count them out. If we can get a block up on their "giant," we can throw them off. Nobody should mail this in.

New food recommendation from the parents manning the tables at Iolani School. "Kua Aina Sandwiches" in Ward Center. Gail and I went there today and it was really good. I am going to take the boys back tomorrow for hamburgers.

The report on the round the island tour: "So sick."

9:00 am

Another beautiful day in Hawaii.

With the late game this evening, the girls are free today to swim and shop but no baking in the sun. The boys got up early, hit the breakfast buffet, and are on their round-the-island body surfing tour.

The paper printed the standings for our pool this morning. Los Al was 7-1, CDM was 5-3, Sacred Hearts was 4-4, Pearl City was 3-5, and Kakuku was 1-7. So our last match split with Los Al and Pearl City's last match split with Sacred Hearts got us into the championship round.

The championship quarter and semi-final round rules are a little different according to the program. It is two games out of three to 25, win by 1 in games 1 and 2, win by 2 in game 3 with a cap of 27. The most interesting feature is that the games are on a 15 minute clock with stop time in the last 2 minutes. It is double elimination. Whew. This is going to be confusing.

Here is a nice article that appeared on the ESPN web site.

8/14/08

10:50 pm

We lost game one to Los Al 16-25 and won game two 25-17. So we are seeded last in the 8 team championship bracket and play the first seed, Mira Costa, tomorrow night at 7:30 pm. Big congratulations to the CDM girls. That was a tough day and you came through when you had to. Good for you guys.

8:15 pm

Just got a text that we split with Los Al. Hurray, hurray!!!!! That is big. So we recovered from the unexpected loss to Pearl City and we get into the championship round for tomorrow!! Scores and match ups to follow.

4:30 pm

Sorry, 4 matches today instead of 3. We have played 3 and have 1 to go. In fact we played all three back-to-back-to-back. The school, Iolani, is located right across the canal from Waikiki. It is a beautiful school. They are running a snack bar and the hamburgers and hot dogs are really great. They even have a 4 story parking structure. It was founded in 1863 and the tournament is named after a teacher, Ann Kang, who died in 2003. She was also the girls volleyball coach.

Match One

The first was against Sacred Hearts. They had two girls who banged pretty well.

In the first game we were up early, got down, and then came back big and caught them at 22. They got to game point when Hailey put a cross court away to get us even at 24 and then we got two more to win 26-24.

In game two, it was tight early. We then went way down but caught up with them again. Morgan had some beautiful serves in the run. We were tied at 23, they served up two tough ones, and we lost 23-25.

Match Two

Match one was played in the lower gym which is beautiful and air conditioned. But we have had to move to the upper gym for matches two, three, and four which is the older gym without air conditioning. A sweatbox.

Match two was against Kahuku which looked to be a pretty tough team. But we beat them 17 and 18. Amanda and Sydney both hit really well. Our blocking showed up big. Jenny and Conley crushed a couple.

Match Three

Match three was against Pearl City. We lost game one 23-25. That was one we should have won. We got down early and could not close fast enough to put them away. A lot of weird things happened. We won game two 25-18. Both Catherine and Amanda went on long serving runs. If I remember correctly, Amanda had two serving runs of 6 and 5 today and Catherine had a run of 6 as well. Sydney finished it off with a big hit from the left.

Madie set most of the way today with Megan coming in twice to spell her. Catherine was solid at libero and Kaytelyn played very well in relief. So far pretty darn good, lots of fun to watch, and I will guess that we have moved up to 2nd in our pool at 4-2.

The last match is against the top seed, Los Al at 6:10 pm. They look like a professional team and are pretty big.

Match Four

Well, match four against Los Al got off to a rather explosive start. I was up in the upper gym talking to a guy who works for the Outrigger Hotel chain when "the one who is dear to me on the team" ran in and barfed right in front of me. She then ran out of the gym and proceeded to barf 3 more times on the stairs down to the courtyard and launched one grand finale right in front of the snack bar. I would say 50 or so Hawaiians got to know more than they wanted to know about CDM and its eating habits. So we headed back to the hotel to commiserate with Sarah who is suffering the same malady. I tried to blame the whole thing on the food at the Outrigger but the guy who works there was not buying any of it.

Daddy Smith said he would give me the results from the Los Al match and I will post them when delivered.

11:00 am

So here we go with what we came for. I almost forgot about volleyball. Three matches today, the first at 12:30 pm vs Sacred Hearts. I will keep you posted.

The boys are back at Sandy Beach and who should walk up and jump in? None other than Barack Obama. He was traveling light as he had only one other guy with him on the beach. Ted is sick that he didn't have his camera and water housing with him. A picture of Barack barrelled at Sandy Beach would have been a keeper and maybe paid for the rest of college. He says that everyone just left Barack alone and he is a pretty good body surfer.

Update, there was only one guy with Barack on the beach but there were Secret Service in the parking lot and on a jet ski outside. That makes more sense.

It rained twice this morning and the humidity has arrived.

8-13-08

10:00 pm

We went to Senor Frog's with the boys mentioned above plus Tommy Folks and Cindy Baker. OK, that was so much fun it was ridiculous. The Long Beach Wilson girls' team sat at the next table. The MC, or whatever he was, came after the boys and girls and it was on. A complete blast. Details cannot be put into print. I have to protect the innocent. But there were not too many of those.

The girls were carted off to the Kahala Hotel (the late Kahala Hilton) for a team dinner. All I can say is that one of the girls (not Kate) told me that each day just gets better and better and is more fun than the last. They are having a blast together.

Tonight the team gathered around a guy named Bob who hangs out across the street from the hotel, is dressed from head to foot in silver, and tries to collect money on the street. The girls surrounded him, started singing, and gathered a big crowd. Jacqueline, who is reputed to be the Shecky Green of the team, decided to try to get the big crowd to give him some money. So she yelled out that the first person who put some money into the hat could give Madie Smith a kiss. An 80 year old lady tossed a buck into the hat. OUCH. So much for that plan. Where was the much admired handsome deckhand on the yellow catamaran?

6:00 pm

According to Kate the trip today was fantastic. They first headed up to a waterfall where they swam. Then off to Waimea Bay for diving off the rocks. Amanda did a back flip into the bay which got huge props. Then to the Pali to see where King Kamehamea pitched everyone to their deaths.

Meanwhile, the parents were mostly sitting on the beach at Waikiki trying to pitch themselves to death off their chaise lounge. Tough duty.

All I can say is this beats the heck out of the basketball tournament in Gillette, Wyoming (Coach Curry, no offense as that was a lot of fun but sightseeing the mine pit right outside town was not quite as interesting as the beach at Waikiki).

Pictures have been promised and I will post them when available.

The girls are all off to a team dinner. They looked fantastic.

So for all you poor slob dads working away to pay for this adventure, it is worth it. It is an experience of a lifetime and that is before a single game. I cannot imagine that these kids will forget this trip anytime soon.

Off to dinner at Senor Frog's.

11:00 am

Another beautiful day in Paradise. Sunny and bright.

This is an off day for the girls (I could get used to this schedule). The girls all met down at Dukes for breakfast and then Coach D loaded them up in the vans and they are off for an undisclosed adventure. The boys are headed back to Sandy for more body surfing. Everyone will be back by 3:30 as Brent has arranged for a trip back to the Outrigger Canoe Club store to buy t-shirts, etc.

A nice article about the tournament appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser today. Click here for a copy. Conley and Madie are both mentioned in the players to watch section.

W & M Bar-B-Q Burger up on Waiale Ave. Very, very good burgers. 4 stars on the Tedometer. Also, the Moana beachside Mai-Tais, 5 stars on the Alchometer. Man, those things are wicked.

8-12-08

9:45 pm

Small world.

We walked down to the Halekulani for a Mai-Tai and some Hawaiian music. We met a young Japanese couple who both spoke amazing English. We then headed to Ruth's Chris Steak House for dinner and were told that we had a 2 hour wait. So we checked with the Yard House right below and were in there in about 45 minutes. And who should be right behind us, none other than Coach Terry Sullivan of CDM basketball fame. He had arrived in Honolulu on the Lowe's jet and was leaving for Alaska tomorrow. It was great to see him again. He told us about Jennifer and the two boys and their new pontoon boat, all in his typical good humor. He did lord over us the Celtics win but had nothing to say about the Patriot's loss in the Super Bowl. We were all thrilled to see him again. He is such a really good guy.

Returning to the hotel room, we found 4 of the girls (Kate, Claire, Carley, and Sarah) all watching TV. They said that the scrimmage was a lot of fun, they won, the BBQ was awesome, and they almost all drowned off some rocks they were supposed to jump off into the ocean when a swell arrived. So that is all I know. They wanted to watch their show so I was kicked out of the room rather unceremoniously.

I know I am repeating myself, but Waikiki is a blast.

By the way, there are two people next to us who are from somewhere like Bulgaria who keep yelling at each other. Not exactly sure what the problem might be but she is really hacked about something. I banged on the wall this morning but it only worked for a few minutes. They are back at it. I wish I had a translator. It could be good.

5:45 pm

The girls won the scrimmage. Details to follow.

3:28 pm

The girls are off to Word of Life Academy for the scrimmage. They then have a BBQ with the girls from the other team.

We just returned from Sandy Beach, which was breaking better than Makapu. We can say goodbye to the boys. They are going to be body surfing the rest of this trip.

On the way back, Scott (who never eats anywhere but Togo's and Gallo's) suggested we try to find a local sandwich shop. It took us an hour but we ended up at Andy's near UH. It was a tiny place with one choice of bread (wheat) and one choice of cheese (Swiss). But the food was really good and Andy himself came out from the kitchen and talked volleyball with us. He knew absolutely everything about UH volleyball. His wife even gave us cookies to take back to the hotel. A great little adventure. Here is their web site so you can see what their little place looks like: http://www.andyssandwiches.com

Waikiki is so much better now than it was the last time I was here. There are more Coach stores than 7-11s, but there is still an ABC store on every corner and some in between. We are having a blast and the prices are not bad at all. The kids are wild about it. All the girls say the same thing, "this is sooooooo much fun."

10:00 am

The girls are all at the beach for the morning.

We are off to Makapu Beach with the various brothers and friends who tagged along. Ted, Scott, Connor Bannan, Dillon Flynn, Danny Baker, and Stevie Kipp. We will be ready if a volleyball game breaks out.

I will no doubt file the next report from the Honolulu Burn Center being treated for 3rd degree sunburn.

8:00 am

Dinner last night at the Outrigger Canoe Club was absolutely fantastic. Brent Ogden had arranged for 5 or 6 tables right on the balcony overlooking the ocean and Waikiki. A typically amazing sunset. The girls were all decked out with the seniors wearing black dresses for their senior picture. Everybody else took pictures of anything that was moving, even a lizard that happened to run by.

We may not have the best girls' volleyball team in America but it absolutely is the best looking girls' volleyball team in America. But I am biased.

There is a scrimmage today with the Word of Life Academy. The last academy I remember playing was Ren Academy. That was the school with 60 students and 8 great basketball players. Hmm...

Gail is forcing me to go to the gym each morning. So I am on the treadmill for 30 minutes and the calorie counter says I used up 17 calories. Wow. Instead of doing that again, I decided to just skip eating one peanut. A lot less time involved.

8-10-08

Off to the airport for the 5:10 pm AA flight to Honolulu.

This is my first experience traveling with a girls team. It will be interesting to see what the differences are between the girls and boys as far as how they travel. For example, I remember two of the boys having a kick boxing contest in the Rapid City airport while we were waiting for our flight, Stefan hitting Ted in the head with a snowball at the rest stop on the way to Gillette, the doors slamming at the Golden Nugget Hotel in Reno with Coach having to yell at them to go to bed, and the loud card games at the "Place to Be."

I have a feeling this will be different but I will keep my eyes open for snowballs and kick boxing.