We are the mundane
Supercategory to hold miscellaneous subject categories
It’s Friday night, the kids are watching Superman II, we’re waiting for pizza, and it’s raining for the 8th day in a row. Just remembered a picture I’ve been meaning to put up here in hopes of stimulating some conversation. Ron, you can contribute, too.
Just to let you know that all my time isn’t spent at sporting events. Last night, after the State College High School girls soccer game I went to a memorial concert to benefit the Kevin Dare Scholarship Fund.
Kevin was a PSU pole vaulter (and former Tavern employee) who tragically died in a vaulting accident at the 2002 Big Ten Track and Field Championships. His family has established the Dare Foundation which is dedicated to making pole vaulting a safer sport.
Kevin was a wonderful young man who truly has not died in vain. In just a few short years his father’s dedication has resulted in significant technology advances in pole vaulting safety. The next step is to get these technology advances adopted by the vaulting community. Toby Stevenson won an Olympic Silver Medal wearing one of the Dare helmets but in general most vaulters haven’t yet embraced them.
The technology of the KDMax helmet is also extending to other fields. The Penn State football team among others is now using helmets cushioned by the same material as pole vaulting helmet. It appears that Kevin’s tragic death will have a far reaching positive effect on the safety of others.
Greetings. Here in Utah the soccer playoffs have begun. The Judge Memorial Bulldogs face a difficult task of returning to the State Championship game. Last year we were runner-ups to Park City (who are currently ranked number 12 in the country). We were State Champs in 2002 and 2003. Park City are the heavy favorites this year, they are led by a midfielder who is on the U-19 national team.
This year has been rougher than the last few. Three starters have gone down with season ending ACL injuries. Our second leading scorer broke her arm last week, and her doctor’s say she’s done for the year. Natalie has been plattooned at center mid, forward or outside mid…and it’s been difficult for her to win a starting spot despite the injuries. The head coach has started a youth movement, the freshman and sophomores are in many cases as good or better than the upper classmen. Last night Nats played about half the game…where her great passing skills were on display in our first round victory (5 to 1 over Millard). But this weekend we travel five hours to St. George for our quarterfinal matchup against an unbeated Dixie squad. Two more wins and we make it to the finals, which would mean a likely rematch with the hated Park City team.
We’ll keep you posted.
By request, a photo from last night’s White Out.
The White Out concept was introduced last year for the Purdue game.
Here’s a shot from that game.
Another photo, this one a vidcap from a guy in the west stands.
Found a collection of photos, click here to view
It was a very very Happy Valley this weekend. The huge Penn State win over Ohio State in football, more on that later, was bracketed by several other athletic competitions.
The weekend started out with a doubleheader soccer match featuring Penn State and Northwestern in men’s soccer followed by Penn State and Illinois in women’s soccer at PSU’s Jeffrey Field. In the men’s match, the Nits defeated the Wildcats 4-1 to run their league record to 2-0 and keep them in first place in the Big Ten. UncleLar nephew David Gray scored his first career goal with a header off a free kick (David is a defender who doesn’t normally get scoring opportunities but because he is one of the taller players on the team he moves up front on free and corner kicks to attempt headers – this one worked perfectly).
In the women’s match, the Nits defeated the Illini 3-1 to run their league record to 5-0 and 13-0 overall. The women are the #2 ranked team in the country and, like the men, sit atop the league standings (they are actually shooting for their eighth consecutive league championship). UncleLar doesn’t have any nieces playing soccer for PSU this year (my last PSU soccer niece was Joanna Lohman, who graduated as an three time All-American and the Hermann Award runner-up, soccer’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy). PSU does have one huge star this year though. Tiffany Wiemer scored in her 13th straight game which puts her just two short of Brandi Chastain’s NCAA record 15 straight.
Also on Friday, the PSU women’s volleyball team traveled to Evanston to meet Northwestern in a league match. The 4th ranked women defeated the Wildcats 3-0 keeping them undefeated and atop the B10 standings at 5-0. UncleLar niece and senior setter Sam Tortorello dished out 37 assists and UncleLar niece and senior libero Kaleena Walters led all players with 12 digs.
So Friday ended with victories by three of our teams all of whom remained in first place in the Big Ten.
Saturday opened up with the 4th ranked women’s field hockey team meeting Iowa in Iowa City. Niece Natalie Berrena scored two goals to lead the women to a 4-0 victory over the Hawkeyes. The win was the team’s 13th straight win and kept them unbeaten in league play and atop the Big Ten at 3-0. Natalie and the rest of the team hopped a flight back to State College in time for Natalie to join her “JR and Natalie” bandmates performing Saturday night at the Cafe 210 in State College (which is where UncleLar wound up celebrating the football victory).
Early Saturday evening, the women’s volleyball team continued their weekend roadtrip with a match against #6 ranked Wisconsin in Madison. The ladies came away with a 3-0 sweep of the Badgers who had been undefeated in league play up until Saturday night. UncleLar niece Sam Tortorello continued her quest to repeat as a first team All American with 40 assists. Niece Kaleena Walters came up with 18 digs to come within 3 of becoming PSU’s alltime leader. With the win Penn State became the sole undefeated team in the conference.
Later Saturday night, the football team posted their 17-10 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes. The win put the Nits undefeated and alone atop the Big Ten standings (notice a familiar theme here – three teams play, three teams win and all three end the day undefeated in conference and atop the Big Ten).
Sunday saw our soccer teams back on Jeffery Field for another doubleheader. This time the ladies went first, up against B10 foe Northwestern. This time it was a romp as they rolled over the Wildcats 8-0. Tiffany Wiemer scored again to draw within one game of Brandi Chastain’s record. Her goal was the 80th of her career putting her within two goals of PSU’s Christie Welsh’s Big Ten record for career goals. Wiemer will be a shoo in All American and one of the leader’s for the Hermann Award.
In the second half of the doubleheader, the men took on Wisconsin. The had nowhere near as easy a time of it as the women did. The men were extended into overtime before they managed to score a Golden Goal and pull out a 1-0 win over the Badgers. That win allowed the men to keep pace with the ladies undefeated and atop the B10 conference.
So for the weekend, we had five teams take the field (football, field hockey, women’s volleyball, men’s soccer and women’s soccer) for eight contests. We won all eight and each team remained undefeated and in first place in the Big Ten conference. It was a very very successful weekend for PSU sports.
Well Larry, let’s hope you have something to write about after today’s game. No recurrance of whooping cough is keeping you away I hope.
Must be the biggest Nittany Lion game in what a decade??? Expecting midnight photos of you and partying nieces at the Tavern.
ARE THERE ANY WHITE SOX FANS OUT THERE?
Kenny
Congrats to White Sox fans!! Thanks a bunch.
The Red Sox are out, now the Yanks need to take care of their own problems.
If Yanks and Sox play, can we have a friendly wager?
Anybody want to come out to a game?
Was at miserable Yankees game last night, here’s the view from my seat. Actually left a playoff game early for the first time in my life. Looks doubtful the game will be played today.
Time to watch some Nittany Lion football.
As some of you know, Eric is running on his school’s cross country team. This is his second year on the team. Last year he went out for the team just so that he would be in better shape for his soccer club team, but he really ended up loving it.
This year has been a lot of fun again. Their first meet was at Fox River Grove, who were the state champions last year. Eric surprised everyone and won that race. He told us one of his goals for the year was to win a race, so he made it the first one. After that, he took several third places. At a big invitational meet, he took 15th out of over a hundred runners. The first 20 runners receive ribbons. No one at his school had ever qualified for a ribbon until Eric did it last year.
For a few weeks, Eric wasn’t feeling well, so he didn’t do as well as normal at a few meets. Once he started feeling better, the coach told him to take it easy for one more race, just to be sure.
Another one of Eric’s goals is to qualify for the state tournament. Yesterday was the conference meet and he finished in 8th place with a 2 mile time of 12:33. That qualified him for sectionals which are Saturday morning. We figure he’ll have to finish somewhere in the top 25 or so to make it to state. The top 3 teams get to send 7 runners, and the next top 10 or so runners also qualify.
So we’ll see how he does and look for another posting on Saturday.
Sam Tortorello, one of my Penn State surrogate nieces (when my real nieces and nephews are so far away, someone has to fill in) was named college volleyball’s National Player of the Week by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Sam is the girl immediately on my right in this photo that I use for my Blogger Profile.
Sam is only the second PSU VB player ever to be named the national POTW. The first was Syndie Nadeau, another niece and directly above me in the photo.
I like this photo so much that I actually use it for my Facebook profile too. Unfortunately, since Facebook is targeted for the college crowd, Elliot is the only extended Fall Family member who can actually see it (Chris – once you get to ISU, you will be able to join Facebook too – I’m looking forward to having you as one of my Facebook friends).
Day One in Munchen. At that time Larry, one was proud to wear a Utah Football shirt.
Earlier at the Paris Airport, just after the NBA finals.
