Wrapping up the Herrick Soccer regular season

Morgan's Herrick soccer team had four games this past week. They won all their games! It rained on us on Monday and Thursday nights. We even got a double rainbow on Thursday night!

This was the only picture I took all week at the games. Ugh. I am slacking!

Next week they have the conference tournament.

Lots of Soccer

Herrick played against Westview Hills on Tuesday and won 6-3. Morgan scored a goal!

Herrick played again on Thursday against Lakeview and won 4-2!

Roadrunners also played on Thursday night vs Palatine Celtics and won 7-0! In the second half of the game, the coach moved everyone around into different positions. Morgan (and Sydney) played defense. And then, with about four minutes left in the game, our goalie caught the ball outside of the box and ended up getting a red card! The ref said it was DOGSO, but our goalie didn't think she stepped outside the box and it didn't really look like the girl had an obvious goal, but nevertheless the ref called it and kicked our goalie out of the game. So, Morgan then got to play goalie for a little bit.

This was a good way to kick off the weekend as the girls were heading to St. Louis for the Lou Fusz tournament!

Sporty

The girls both had a busy sports week with lots of practices - soccer, dance, track!

Avery had her first (and second) track meets this week. She ran the 400M on Wednesday and the 200M on Thursday. She was really nervous!

On Thursday night, the track meet was in Lisle. Another beautiful night for a track meet!

Then, we went to Morgan's soccer game in Schaumburg. They ended up losing 5-2, which was disappointing. At the end of the game, Morgan made a great play, but got trucked by the defense and twisted her back when she landed on the ground. The ref apologized to her for not seeing it and calling a foul.

More Herrick Soccer vs Eisenhower

Herrick had another game on Thursday night against Eisenhower (Lynnea's team). It was a big win for the girls - 10 to 2!

Then, we had to head out to Schaumburg for a Roadrunners game at 8:30PM vs LG Celtics. Morgan's team won 2-1 in that game, so it was a good night overall!

Herrick Soccer vs Lisle (and Wendy's Free Dunk special)

The Herrick soccer team played on Tuesday night in their first game of the season against Lisle. It was freezing cold! A girl on the Lisle team has played with Morgan on Roadrunners before (Bosco). Morgan's team lost 1-0 (with a goal from Bosco for Lisle).

After the game, we stopped off at Wendy's to pick up our free fries and Frosty for their "Free Dunk" special - if there was a dunk in the NCAA championship game, you get a free dunk (fries in the Frosty!)

We brought some home for Avery as well.

Herrick Soccer

Herrick soccer tryouts were this week. We really tried to sway Morgan from trying out for the team, mainly because it's a new program and we haven't heard many positive things about it. And Morgan is already busy with travel soccer and travel basketball. But, Morgan really wanted to be on the team.

We had asked her to put together the pros and cons of trying out for the team so we could discuss it with her. She was pretty honest about them! I love that she put "waste of time (kinda)"! :) 

Tryouts were on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There were 34 girls that tried out (the team is a combo 7th/8th grade girls team). The coach said she would keep 17 girls. She made the first cut after Wednesday's tryout and kept 22 girls. Then, she announced the final team tonight. Morgan made the team... she was so excited!

Last cheer game of 7th grade

Avery cheered for the final boys basketball home game on Friday night. The 8th grade boys played in their championship game for the SDEAA tournament (and won!) I wasn't able to be there as Morgan also had a soccer game and Matt and I had to split up duties. But, he took a few pics for me. She had a lot of fun cheering this season and did a great job! :)

Catching up...

Avery has been keeping busy with cheer, piano and dance. Morgan has been keeping busy with basketball and soccer. Matt and I are just the chauffeurs in all of this! :)

We've also had a little fun with Avery's hair! She wanted to dye her hair pink for a "peek-a-boo" style. The first round all washed out, so we did it again and it turned out really cute!

We got the girls' passports in the mail, so we are all set for our trip to Costa Rica for Spring Break! Let the countdown begin!

More Team MC games for Morgan.

Pre-game team chat

We went to watch Hunter and Beckett play basketball at SMG. Aunt Erin fish-tail braided the girls' hair!

Avery's cheer team got to try some stunts out at their recent games. Here are some videos of her cheering:

It's been brutally cold here lately! The girls even had an e-learning day because it was below -25 degrees outside. Milo was a frequent star on their zoom calls with their classes. He got to spend quite a bit of time upstairs, which we don't normally do. Of course, that backfired as he threw up a SOCK on Saturday morning! That dog is nuts! He somehow found a sock under one of the beds and ate it. Ugh.

Cheerleader

Avery has cheered a few times for the boys basketball games. She's having a lot of fun with the girls and doing a great job! :)

Here's the Victory cheer they do after a win:

Here is the halftime dance:

Let's celebrate the winning season!

The girls basketball team got together for a pizza party to celebrate their success and 4th place finish in the state tournament.

State Finals

Morgan's team played in the consolation bracket on Thursday night for 3rd and 4th place. They let the girls out of school early at 2:30, so we could get on the road. The last 30 minutes of our drive was in snow! My Dad was able to come to the game because he was heading up to Downers Grove for the weekend to help Ross out with the boys while Erin was in Rochester.

I didn't get many pictures, but here are the girls warming up before the game.

In the second half, Morgan got taken out by a girl on the other team. She hit the ground hard! The refs called it a flagrant foul and Morgan got to shoot two free throws by herself. She was able to shake it off and move on with the game.

The girls couldn't pull off a win, but finished in 4th place in the state for 4A 7th grade. Such a great accomplishment and so proud of how hard these girls worked! A lot of these girls have played together before on their travel teams, but this was the first time Morgan has played with most of them.

The drive home was a little dicey! For most of the way, it was snowing hard straight at us and there was snow on the highways! It had snowed the whole time we were in the gym. We made it back to Downers Grove, where it hadn't even snowed at all. Go figure!

State Championship - Round #1

As I mentioned, the Herrick 7th grade girls basketball team made it to the State Championship this year! We are in division 4A. IESA Sectionals (7-4A) The top 8 teams played on Saturday, December 6th. We drove down in the morning (a little over 2 hours) and grabbed a quick lunch at Panera before heading to the Morton Junior High School gym. My parents drove up from Rochester to watch the games.

Even Twinkle Toes was cheering for Morgan! :)

Herrick played against Mahomet-Seymour at 1:00 for their first game. The girls were really nervous!  They were making silly mistakes and rushing things. This was their first truly tough game and it took them a little time to adjust. Morgan ended up playing almost all of the game, except for the last 45 seconds. She was tired! They ended up winning 20-13, so they got to move on to the next round.

We watched a little of the game after theirs because that determined who they would play next. Then, we met up with the rest of the team at a nearby place called Season's Gastropub for some food.

Herrick's second game was at 6:30 that same day. They played against Washington Central. Morgan got to be a team captain for this game! :)

This was a really tough game and the girls just could not pull ahead. They started off really bad and got down 21-7 at halftime. This is by far the hardest team they have played all year. They did manage to get back within 5 points (26-21), but that was short-lived. They lost 38-26. It was disappointing.

Morgan loved that Grandma and Grandpa could come to the games!

They made these plaques for the girls to have as a souvenir.

We head back to Morton on Thursday night for the 3rd place game against Mt. Zion. Good luck girls!

(Oh and they are wearing the old Herrick uniforms that have the numbers centered on the front, so no technical foul this game - yay!)

Spartans team picture

 

Clap out for the Spartans!

The school had a clap out for the girls basketball team to wish them luck at the state championship! Morgan said it was really embarrassing - ha! They walked around the school at the end of the day on Friday and the students came out in the hallways and cheered them on!

Uniform Issues

We got this email from the principal of the middle school before the first state basketball game. Who knew they were going to be so particular!?! Basically, the numbers on the front of the girls' uniform tops are not centered, so they don't meet the IESA standards. So, Herrick will start each game with a team technical foul. The other team will get 2 free throws and then will get the ball to start the game. No jump ball. Seems like they are punishing the girls for something out of their control. (I later learned that once your team gets a technical foul, your coach has to sit on the bench and can't stand and coach - double bummer!) 

Sectional Champs!

Morgan's team had their sectional game on Wednesday night against Summit Heritage Middle School. Morgan's team showed up super early and were just sitting around waiting for the other team! They aren't allowed to warm up until the other team shows up and the 15:00 minute timer starts.

I really didn't take many videos or pictures, but I did get this one of Morgan shooting a free throw!

Final score - 46-14! Herrick wins and moves on to state!

We celebrated with dinner out at DJ's! (And Morgan got a Dr. Pepper!)

Avery's first game cheering!

Avery was super excited for the first home boys basketball game and her cheer debut! :)

Here's the video of their halftime routine: