I wonder sometimes if things are different for other people than us but the more I look around the more realize Im not special Im “just another brick in the wall” to quote Pink Floyd. Life is hard for everyone and the struggle is real. I start this way just to say there are people out there wishing to have your problems and you look at others and wish to have theirs. So life is just one battle after another so enjoy the battles and look forward to the war.

The direction I am actually going is toward my children and the battles of 2025 that we won and lost together as parent and child.

Zoey started off the year hitting up the Huntsville Swim Meet I wrote about 11 months ago. I would have to go back and read the exact times she put down a year ago. She missed out on Short Course State Championships down on the Gulf Coast which we really wanted to go to because it was a new pool and looked like fun.

She dove head long into long course starting in March and pushed herself pretty hard. The good news is I dont remember having to travel at all in the long course season besides to the home pool because everything seemed to be perfectly setup for us to stay home for the summer. She still missed out on State Championships that were also at our home pool and we got to attend and work those events to see what it was like.

Her times kept dropping throughout the summer and even larger during the beginning of this short course season culminating in her dropping 6 different times that were all just barely over the state qualifying times. This year has been good for her.

What I have learned with her this year is times dont matter. What I mean is to begin the year we almost quit swimming because she wasnt making qualifying times and had not made a single final heat ever. I had to learn to calm down about times and focus on the fun of a sport. I had to realize that at 11 and 12 years old just like any other sport nobody cares if you made zones or states or even qualified for a final. What matters is having fun and enjoying the produce of daily work at practice. What is awesome is visiting a new pool and competing with friends and the hours between races talking and chilling with her friends. Its the evenings spent combing a card shop in a new town because we have the ability to do so. Its exploring a new city and trying a new food. Times are cool and show your improving and she has improved every single meet and when we get to states we hope to make it a fun time swimming with her team and enjoying the atmosphere of the pool for now until its time to get serious and swimming becomes a job and every dive and turn matter for grades and scholarships and spots on national teams.

ELYSIA is a different case all together she is a little weird when it comes to sports. She not what you would call athletic or physically gifted but she has heart. More heart than all the rest of her siblings. I used to look at her hiding under the bench or running to mommy crying when I benched her as weakness. In truth its a strength of how much she cares. I realized in spring of this year that she just needed a job on the team she can call her own and I taught her corner kicks and penalty kicks. She got so good at corner kicks that we scored 4 goals in the spring off her corners. She was great at it. She even scored twice from penalty kicks to. That team had win it all written all over it and fell by 1 goal to the team who won it all in the end. She was not a weak link to that team and showed promise and had us believing she could make it at the travel level after spring.

Going into fall I built the team around her specifically in the draft. I wanted people she could play around and even got Zoey back to play defense. Plan was in place and the team was ready to go and it just fell apart. Whether it was Zoeys broken toe to open the year or the two games Ellie played sick in the season was hit or miss we beat good teams and lost together poor ones. I couldnt read the team or keep it motivated but Ellie stayed ready to go. It wasnt a season to.remember stat wise but she found herself at points that fall season. Started moving the ball and had multiple assists throughout the season by good timed and placed passes.

In the end she started playing soccer at a higher level and was actually paying attention to the field. Next year we arent sure what she will do yet she wants to try softball but we are also looking into an all girls league for her age that is still recreational level and not travel. We will make that decision later.

With Ellie I learned that sometimes its not the game its not the talent its not the drive. Its the fact sometimes you just need a place to feel wanted and needed. When she started being seen as a vital member of the team as a corner kicker, she started producing more and having more confidence. We just had to find her a place to call her own.

TIMOTHY decided to go and get good at sports this year. He started off playing soccer at the 6U level. It was funny he would walk into some games, take them over score 3 and call it a game and then in other games he would just sit back and play defense the whole game and look bored. It was bad enough at the end of that season we decided to move him up to 8U in the fall.

Also in the spring he started playing baseball. It was awesome watching him fall in love with the game and be good at it quickly. He did well enough he made the All-Star team (Even if I was the coach and nominated him, I still felt he was the second best player on the team and nominated two).

During the summer months he played the All-Star tournament and did well for being the youngest out there he was 5 playing with mostly 7 year olds. I watched him fall even more in love with game and worked daily to get better and better. He hit his first (in the field) home run during the tournament and had many hits to finish out a 4th place standing out of 30 some teams which is pretty good for a team put together a couple weeks before the tournament.

For the fall he moved up to 8U for soccer and we got to watch as he played goalie for the first time. He went most of the season not letting a goal in and actually only let 2 in all year. He also would go out for a quarter here and there and play offense and scored a few times. Actually we won 1 game 1 to 0  because Timmy scored in the 3rd and kept the goal clean the other 3 quarters. We had another game he scored 2 in less than a minute and then went back and kept the goal closed the rest of the game for a 3 to 0 win. Even in the playoffs they lost in penalty kicks in a 0 to 0 game. He scored his penalty kick but wasnt able to keep all the other team kicks out. It was a great season for the team being built around 6 year olds.

For fall baseball we stayed 6U so we could learn a bit more before moving up to 7U. The fall season was one for the ages as he was almost perfect at the plate he had one strikeout all season and wasnt caught on the bases once. More impressive was his giant leap in defense. I got to watch his team learn to play defense and throw the ball around the diamond. It was a grear season and he learned so much.

My main takeaway as a dad and as a coach for Timmy is that he is 6 years old. There were times I got mad at him for not playing correctly but he is 6 and hasn’t seen everything yet. He doesnt seem to make the same mistakes twice and wants to be the best so I have learned patience is more important than 1 run or 1 hit or 1 goal.

I named this one battle at after another because it seems like we as a family are always fighting the next battle. Finding a way to make it through the next game, practice, and meet. We seem to always be in a war with laziness, nutrition, and hydration. We never stop, it Decemeber and Zoey is getting ready for Huntsville, Timmy is hitting in the garage daily and Ellie is working softball and some soccer deciding which way to go in the spring. Best part is Aurora is only a year and some change away from her first soccer team and her first teeball team. We cant wait to do it again with her, while fighting 3 other kids battles too.