Shot to the Heart

Oh the sadness of the end of a great season...our Carroll Eagles fought hard last night but lost by 13 to Wilcox Central High School.  I was, and still am, so sad for our boys.  Again, I layed in bed last night, unable to sleep, thinking about what a great year it has been for us.  We will truly miss our senior boys.  I took comfort in discussing next year's starting line up with A late in to the night.

On a lighter note, our Carroll Lady Eagles will be playing in the Regional tournament Wednesday against Faith Academy.  I will be traveling to Mobile with the cheerleaders and some students on a charter bus to help cheer them to a victory.  They too have had a great season and are most definitely capable of making a run at a championship!

Two more quick notes...my heart is with 2 special young ladies as they deal with a difficult time right now...and with the ZC family as they celebrate the life of a former colleague who went to be with Jesus recently.  I love you all.

Heartbreaker & My Obsession With Carroll Basketball

As most of you have probably heard, we lost Monday night in the area championship.  To make things worse...we lost by 3, in overtime, with 2 seconds to go.  Ouch!  When we got home I asked Allen which is the better case; to be behind the entire game and know you are going to lose, or to have it taken from you in the last seconds???  He couldn't answer me.  Although he did say that he would rather have a chance and lose opposed to knowing he was going to get beat before he walked in the gym....The perk, if there is one, to losing is that tomorrow night we get to travel to Allen's hometown...which he LOVES btw...Camden, AL and face Wilcox Central High School.  Allen is so excited about returning to his hometown as a coach.  We watched their game film from their win over Selma High School Monday night and I have decided that we can beat them.  Period.  Yes they are athletic.  Yes they are fast.  Yes they have 2 guys that can shoot lights out.  BUT...so do we!  I think I have become obsessed with Carroll basketball.  I love it!  After our lose Monday night, I layed in bed until well past midnight replaying the game in my head.  I just don't want the season to end.  I teach 3 of the basketball players and have really gotten to know the others as well.  I love them.  And I love watching my husband help shape their lives.  Nothing makes me happier than to see them run to Coach Maness after a win for a sweaty hug.  I have washed many of stinky dress shirts after ballgames this season....and that's been quite all right with me.

Update to follow on tomorrow night's victory!  :)

We're Going to the Ship...We're Going to the Ship

The area championship that is!  Carroll Eagles over Charles Henderson Trojans...42-33!  When I blogged earlier today that I wanted CHHS to play a good game...I wasn't expecting the nail biter that was played tonight.  The score was a lot closer than a 9 point deficit most of the game.  However, we (Carroll) pulled it out!  We will be playing Rehobeth in the championship game Monday night and man, I want to beat them.  We only lost to them by 3 the last time we played and tonight they had to go in to overtime with the number 4 seed in the area.  They are definitely beatable!  And by the way...I have ZERO connections to RHS so I want to beat the tar out of them!

Update to follow Monday night.  For now, I'll leave you with my favorite cheer the Carroll cheerleaders do:

Boda Getta, Boda Getta, Boda Getta Bah, Rah, Rah, Rah, Sis Boom Bah, Wegl, Wegl, Waaaar Eagle, Kick 'Em In The Head Big Red, HEY!

What's Love Got To Do With It?

Tonight I will be pulling against my alma mater for the 4th time this basketball season.  What's love got to do with it?  EVERYTHING!

Allen's basketball team finished the regular season 2nd in the area.  My alma mater, Charles Henderson High School, finished 3rd.  That means we are scheduled to play each other for the 4th time tonight in the first round of the area tournament.  The first time we met this season we (Carroll)...although other than when Charles Henderson is playing mine and my husband's school, WE also means CHHS...beat them (CHHS) 59-47 in the Ozark Holiday Shootout Classic Christmas Tournament in the championship game.  The very next week we faced them for regular season play and beat them 44-32.  The second time we faced them in the regular season we got SMOKED.  (Well...technically not "we" since I do belong to both teams.)  They ended up beating us 28-64.  And I must say...I can see why people don't like people from Troy...man our (CHHS) fans are very proud of their (our) teams!  And boy do we have some home-grown officials!  However, we (Carroll) can take the majority of the credit for the lose.  We played horrible!  So, this brings us to tonight...If we (Carroll) can pull out a 3rd win against them (CHHS) then we will get a chance to go to the playoffs for the first time in Allen's basketball coaching career.  To make things even more exciting...there's a chance we could go to Allen's hometown, Camden, AL, to take on Wilcox Central High School.  Wish us (Carroll) luck!

Disclaimer:  If my husband didn't have a vested interest in a win over my alma mater I would NEVER EVER EVER pull against Charles Henderson.  Once a CHHS cheerleader, always a CHHS cheerleader!  I hope my Trojans play a great game tonight...I just hope our Eagles play a better game.  Results to follow later tonight...

Chinese Food and Cowboys

Two very interesting and fun things happened in my life this weekend.  One, I discovered that I am totally in love with Chinese food!  Allen has been trying to get me to try it the entire time we have been together because it’s one of his favorites and I have been my normal stubborn self and completely rejected the idea.  You see, texture is a huge deal to me when it comes to food and everything I had tried that was Chinese was “gooy”.  However, the past couple of times that Allen has gotten a plate from the Chinese restaurant in town it has totally perked up my nostrils and made my mouth water.  So…Friday afternoon when Allen decided he wanted Chinese after a long day in the doctor’s office, I reluctantly agreed.  I must say that I have been really missing out!  And boy was Allen surprised when I made the suggestion that we eat it again for lunch today!  Am I the coolest wife or what!?!

Second, my husband took me on the most wonderful date last night.  For those of you that did not see my Facebook post, we went to D’Monico’s in downtown Dothan.  I wasn’t in love with the dinner that I chose but the atmosphere was great!  And Allen really liked his food.  I can’t remember what his was called but it was thin slices of filet wrapped around pieces of sweet ham.  Yum!  For desert I had an espresso ice cream pie!  It doesn’t get better than that!  We will definitely be making another trip to D’Monico’s and might I recommend that you take your significant other there if you want to impress!  As much fun as we had at dinner, the second half of the date was definitely better!  I have been telling Allen for months now that I wanted to go dancing.  Well, we found this country dance club outside of Dothan and had a blast dancing the night away to Shane Owens and the Bottom of the Fifth band!  It’s been awhile since I’ve danced but I must say…I’ve still got it!  J  It was so much fun swinging and swaying in my husband’s arms.  We were surrounded by complete strangers but I swear at times it felt like we were the only ones on the dance floor…oh wait…we were.  I loved every minute of it too!  It’s great to have moments like that that remind you of how it felt during the first couple of weeks in a relationship!  I am the luckiest girl in the world! 

My challenge for you this Valentine season is to recreate the moments for your significant other that made them fall in love with you!  Love never fails!

I’ve Gotten Myself Into It Again

It’s official.  I will be a full-fledged cheer coach at Carroll High School…starting…NOW!  Well, not right at this very moment; but try-outs are April 1^st and I’ll be making my debut with open gyms for a couple of days a week in March and clinic is the last week in March.  All my former cheerleaders better get the numbers of the Carroll girls and give them a heads up…Mrs. Maness doesn’t play.  J  Fortunately, I’ve kind of got my foot in the door with some of the girls.  I choreographed their competition routine this year, and might I add, it was AWESOME!  I was very disappointed that they decided to only participate in one competition.  There is a lot of cheer talent at Carroll and I am super excited about jumping in head first very soon!  I have lots of big plans for my new girls!  We will have 3 squads…varsity spirit (football and basketball-grades 10-12), freshman spirit (football and basketball-grade 9), and competition (grades 9-12).  My goals for us this year…raise some major funds and take home a state championship in 5A!  That’s right; I’m going for the gold the first year!  And they’re very capable!  I hope to take at least 16 for the competition squad!  Standing back-hand-spring required of course.  Let’s see…off the top of my head we’ve already got 5 standing back-hand-spring-tucks, lots of back-hand-spring “rows” (as they call them…that’s a row of back-hand-springs…I thought it was weird at first, but I like it now J), 5 or 6 rows with a tuck at the end, at least 3 layouts, 2 X-outs (although none are as high as a former squad member of mine…Fran Renfroe Holmes could tuck or X-out over a full grown man in her day!), and a full twist.  They are a choreographers dream!  And the best part…I love them all!

Now, I can’t brag about my future without bragging about my past as well!  My first experience as a cheer coach was at Zion Chapel in 2007.  I walked in to a situation that needed some mending.  In the end, my very first squad taught me a lot.  I had to, as they say, “rule with an iron fist”, but I loved each one of those girls!  Each year after that, my girls started meaning more and more to me!  I would go home some nights and want to pull my hair out but the next day something would happen to remind me why I love the sport and my Zion girls so much!  They went from being “rah-rah” girls to competitive cheerleaders.  By the time I left, the Zion girls had become the squad to beat at summer camp and the Pea River Valley competition.  When I left Zion last year a good friend took over my girls and has continued the tradition of excellence.  Thanks to Hope Bowers and Chelsi Jones for keeping the program going!  It really means a lot and I know the girls appreciate you too! 

It’s nice to look back on the past with a smile…and great to look to the future with tons of excitement.  That’s what cheerleading does for me.  I know, most people just don’t get the infatuation with cheerleading…but for me…I just love it!  And don’t we all need something to be passionate about?  What’s your passion?

Three Day Weekends are the Bomb!

So, apparently we were supposed to have an ice/snow storm.  Not so much!  However, we will gladly take the day off to celebrate our AU Tigers taking on the O Ducks in the National Championship game tonight!  What a great way to start off 2011.  And below you will find some other great updates from our first couple of weeks of 2K11!

On the basketball front…Coach Maness’ JV boys are now 8-2.  We had a very unfortunate lose to Eufaula Friday night.  Allen says he was expecting to lose because of the way the boys have been practicing the last couple of weeks.  Evidently they had “gotten the big head”; as Allen says, and had grown to think that they couldn’t be beat.  They seemed to think that they didn’t need to play defense and the E tigers ended up taking advantage.  Hopefully this was a lesson learned for them and we will come out strong tomorrow night against Rehobeth.  The varsity on the other hand is beginning to step up right on time.  Their record is now 11-8 and 2-0 in region play.  We beat both CHHS and Eufaula without much problem.  Tomorrow night’s match against Rehobeth will be a challenge.  We played them earlier this year in our Thanksgiving tournament and lost by 18.  However, the boys have been playing MUCH better basketball and I have a feeling it’s going to go our way.  That would put us #1 in our region through the first half of match ups.  Man it’s great to be part of a winning team and no one deserves it more than my hubby!

On the social front…we had a very nice surprise this weekend!  Some of our best friends from GA, The Hanners, came to visit Saturday and Sunday.  My mom was selling her pathfinder and Jeff needed a work vehicle.  They were going to come and look at the vehicle and we convinced them to just plan to stay the night.  We had LOTS of fun playing ping pong and breaking in Jeff’s new ride.  We always have fun with Jeff and Julie!  We will definitely be planning a trip to Hannerville as soon as bball is over to enjoy their company again!  We love y’all!

On the school front…so I was NOT looking forward to my new classes this semester.  It seemed that one of my classes was going to be really tough with kids who “don’t do well with authority”.  The first 20 minutes of that class on Wednesday was HORRIBLE.  However, the Hobbs came out in me and we quickly came to an understanding.  Within the 4 walls of my classroom…I AM THE BOSS!  Period.  The rest of the week was wonderful.  I’ve been told that this group of kids will set you up for a major let down…some of them wear home-arrest bracelets…but I’ve really taken to them.  Some of them are really smart.  Others not so much.  But one thing they all have in common is their need for someone to love them.  And that’s what I intend to do.  Even only 3 days in, I’ve learned that they all have their own unique personality and deep down they are eager for approval.  I’ve been known to come home and ask Allen if I can bring home a thug…he always tells me no but we’ll see how the rest of the semester goes. J

Alrighty…I need to go finish my preparations for tonight’s big game.  Allen’s coworker and his wife are coming over to enjoy the festivities with us.  I’m looking forward to a great night.  Let’s gooooooo tigers!  As one of my high school classmates said earlier on Facebook, the cheerleader is coming out in me.  My response…I’ve been practicing my moves in front of the bathroom mirror all morning!  She probably thought I was joking…I wasn’t!  Hope everyone enjoys the game as much as we plan to!  War Eagle!