State Semi-Final

We won 2-0, and play St. David's (the #1 seed) tomorrow at 2:00. St. David's is 21-1-1, and hasn't lost since the first game of the season (a 3-2 loss to the team we just beat!) Here they are lined up for their semi-final (which they won 3-2 right before we played)...
We are extremely proud of the boys for the way they are playing... win or lose, tomorrow will be Tim's last high school soccer game; this dad is thankful that it's with a State Championship on the line!

Thursday, October 29th

This is the picture posted on this blog October 21st of last year; it shows the author leading High Point Christian Academy and ACA in a prayer of thanksgiving after they eliminated us from that year's state playoffs 2-1... it was in fact the third time they had beaten us in 2008. We haven't played yet this year, but still remember them quite well, and hope to come out on top this go-round. They are a classy, well-coached team and we look forward to competing like brothers! Game time 6:00 @Westchester Academy (High Point, NC)

Wednesday, October 28th

Just thought I'd share a sequence of pictures taken by one of our parents at yesterday's game. Tim (in white) was taking the ball toward goal and tried to cut it back to the right... somehow he got called for the foul!Here we are headed to overtime... we ended up playing 2-10 minute, and 2-5 minute sudden-victory periods, before settling our score on penalty kicks...

The State Quarterfinal

http://www.ncisaa.org/text_files/Championships/2009-2010/2009BoysSoccer.htm will get you to the brackets for the State Final Four... we're in!! We played in a steady downpour to a 3-3 tie in regulation, four scoreless overtimes in the mud, and settled the score via penalty kicks... that's where our goalkeeper, Joe Barker, came up big! He made a diving save on their first attempt and forced two of the next three to push their shots wide of the net. We now meet a familiar and respected opponent in High Point Christian, the team that eliminated us last year 2-1 in the quarterfinals... game time 6:00 Friday in High Point.

Monday, October 26th

These are the guys we play tomorrow in the state quarterfinals (3:30 @ACA)... #11 ("Tyson") is their star player; he's one of six high schoolers in the state of North Carolina on the regional Olympic Development Team... the two other highly-skilled attacking players are #5 (Daniel Vestal) and the long-haired kid (back row, far left). Village Christian is the team we upset 4-2 in last year's state playoffs; they have 12 seniors this year, so you can bet they haven't forgotten... Should be a great game with a ticket to the Final Four on the line! (Adults $7/Students $5)

Sunday, October 25th

Breathtakingly-beautiful drive to church this morning and back... snapped this photo later in the day toward the end of my hike on the trail, when it's my habit to hop up on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the last mile of my five-mile down-and-back.

Big week coming up... volleyball and soccer play-offs Tuesday, Friday and Saturday in single-elimination format. In soccer, we play Village Christian, the team we upset 4-2 last year to reach the quarterfinals...

Saturday, October 24th

Tim Tebow has been wearing a different scripture passage each week on the black strips under his eyes... today's was Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Most likely his choice had more to do with his relationship with his teammates than with the game itself... or does throwing two touchdowns to the other team constitute "being kind". Another crazy game in Starkville, but the Gators survived this one 29-19.

Lana's Birthday

We went down 1-0 two minutes into the game, and it took us 20 minutes to find the back of their net, but in the end we earned a 5-1 ticket to Tuesday's state quarterfinals.
The birthday girl's son assisted on the first goal by Jared and scored the third... Happy Birthday, Lana!

Thursday, October 22nd

These dear ladies (Liz, Ginny, Joey and Julie) had lunch together on the eve of what would've been Lana's 55th birthday... They say they intend to do this every year to honor her memory! This picture was taken at the restaurant on one of their camera phones.
Tim's first state playoff game is tomorrow afternoon @4:30 @ACA... should they emerge victorious, they'd face the winner of Village Christian (#6) v. Cape Fear (#11) in the State Quarterfinals... Coach Hughes says any one of the teams in the "Sweet-16" has the ability to pull an upset over any other, so we'd best come ready to play... especially since we'll be playing on Lana's birthday!!

Wednesday, October 21st

We had a new addition to my chapel small group this morning; Carlos Paiz (back row 4th from left) is one of 5 Guatemalan students who will be at ACA through mid-December through the FACES Program!I also have a middle school small group; today's was our first meeting of this year. (Front L2R: Michael, Austin, Sarah, Brittainy, Katherine, Megan, Adam; Back L2R: Jon, Steven, Coleman, Jacob, Grant, Ashlyn, GK)

The soccer team earned the #3 seed in the state tournament, so we play the #16 seed (Gaston Christian) Friday @4:30 @ACA

Tuesday, October 20th

It was 28 degrees, frost on the windshield as we prepared to leave for school this morning, so I figured it was time to crank up the gas logs in the "man cave"... after 20 minutes of trying to get the pilot light lit, I was hunting the owner's manual when Tim got it going...
Gonna miss him next year... he's pretty handy to have around!

Monday, October 19th

I know it's a little late (since his 18th birthday was in May), but Tim registered with Selective Service this evening and was issued a draft number. OK, I understand that no one has been drafted into military service since before I turned 18, but the occasion did cause me to think about the state of our world, the possibility that my son could be called on to serve his country in a time of war, and to appreciate the men and women who have served voluntarily... May God guide and protect those currently in harm's way!

Saturday-Sunday, October 17-18

Proof positive that "a teacher's work is never done"... here's Grace sending out progress reports to her 122 6th graders from my dining room table!Sunday lunch at Cheddar's with some of our friends from Biltmore Baptist...Tim took this picture just before Grace loaded up for the 7 1/2 hour drive back to Jacksonville... Fall is here!

The Owen Game

Pictured are our five able-bodied seniors at the coin-toss of the last game of the regular season... a real treat for the fans; Owen moved to 17-1 on the season with a 4-2 victory that was much closer than the score would indicate. Both teams should do well in the state playoffs in their respective divisions... ours begin one week from today at ACA at a time TBA!

Thursday, October 16th

"Pizza and Pops" showcases the Fine Arts department... Tim had this charcoal drawing on display in the lobby.

Middle and upper school choirs performed several numbers, and we got a sneak preview of the Christmas musical "It's a Wonderful Life" (December 10-12)

Wednesday, October 14th

Grace will driving up after work tomorrow... it will have been 32 days since the last time we were together. I've tried to convince myself that it's not that long by comparing it to the 8 months Kara will be in Australia, or a tour of service in Iraq or Afghanistan, but it still seems like a long time...
She'll be at the Owen game (Friday 4:30 @ACA) and Biltmore Baptist (Sunday 9:15 Cooper CG) for locals who would like to get to know her (or warn her ;)

Senior Day

Senior Day didn't go exactly as we had hoped (Asheville School beat us 2-1), but we still won the conference championship by virtue of our 10-2 record therein (second place Rabun Gap posted a 9-2-1 record that included Saturday's loss to AS). Next up is "the battle of Swannanoa"; our "friendly" with the local public school team (Owen) that is 16-1 on the season (Friday 4:30 @ACA)

Columbus Day

Columbus Day is most commonly called "Día de la raza" (Day of the -Mestizo- Race) in Latin-America in as much as it commemorates the mixing of European and indigenous western races... some feel it's no cause for celebration as this comic strip implies.
The captions read:
"We bring culture, education, progress!" and
"So what's with the sword, professor?"

We celebrated by giving our students the day off... still had soccer practice, however, in preparation for tomorrow's big game. We play the second-hottest team in our conference (Asheville School) with the CAA Championship on the line (4:30 @ACA). It is also "Senior Day", so it'll be doubly-emotional for this old dad, since I've got one!

Sunday, October 11th

It was such a beautiful fall day that Tim and I passed on our Sunday-afternoon nap and did a little work in the yard... here he is fixing the little retaining wall behind our house.

Homecoming

Saturday's festivities kicked-off with a 5K and ended with the varsity soccer team's 3-1 victory over Christ School... thought I'd share some candids from the carnival that took place in between...Coach Lanter's "crazy bike" is always popular with his $100 cash prize to anyone who can ride it 12 feet!Tim and Harrison manning the "Lava Ladder"The younger girls loved having these teenagers paint their nails!Stephen Morris' impresonation of William Wallace..."Slug Wars" (Ketchup v Mustard)... really popular with the boys!These ladies are patiently waiting for the hay-ride to begin...My boss volunteered for "grill duty"...My forearm after the Korean exchange students got done with it... they wrote my name and "Go Lions!" (at least that's what they told me they wrote ;)Fitness Guru Carlos Perez took a turn in the dunking booth... the video shows his first drop into the ice cold water.

18 Months

One-and-a-half-years today since Lana began living life-after-life...
Hard to imagine what that is like, isn't it?
What's even harder for me to imagine is how anyone makes any sense of this life, thinking there is not one to follow!"...He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11

Carolina Day - Game 2

A solid 2-0 victory... the video shows Tim (#10) heading home the first goal of the game (his 16th on the season); this was Tim's 5th goal against Carolina Day in the four games we've played his junior and senior years (four of them headers)...
On a much sadder note, Harrison McGinnis' senior season came to an abrupt end when he found out this afternoon that he had indeed torn his ACL in Tuesday's game... surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday. Do join me in praying for his speedy recovery!

Wednesday, October 7th

My old school (Nicaragua Christian Academy) now has a spot on FB where they are posting pictures of the various activities taking place in the life of it's family... here's this year's soccer team after a home match... Go Eagles!Big game tomorrow for our boys against their nemesis Carolina Day... kick-off is at 4:30 on their new field on Sweeten Creek Rd.

Shannon Forest - Game 2

The scene at the end of tonight's game... Harrison went down hard in the second half, fearing a torn ligament in his knee... we prayed for a speedy recovery and good news from the doctor.The game was a bit of a "nail-biter"; down 1-0 for most of the second half, Thomas George netter the equalizer 4 minutes from the end of regulation... Andrew Johnson blasted home a rebound with 30 seconds left in the final overtime period to avert the tie...
We will have to play better to beat Carolina Day at their place (Thursday afternoon @4:30)

Monday, October 5th

Mu Alpha Theta and National Honor Society inductions tonight... pictured at left is NHS President (Tim's good friend) Philip Richardson "running the show", and (below) a fuzzy picture of the stage with the author ready to present certificates...

Sunday, October 4th

The latest from my daughter (currently residing in Perth):
Hey Dad-
Well, I got my comp turned on... as long as I don't shut it down i think it can stay working for a little while. Applications randomly shut off and i have to ctrl-alt-delete and cut out processes that are running in the background a lot... you know, stuff a normal computer can handle :S

I would like to learn how to surf... I don't know how seriously I'm thinking about it, though. I'm so out of shape... and I realized that when I tried to bike to the boat harbour yesterday it was about an 18 mile endeavor... geez. I am so sore and just straight fell into bed and slept for like 10 hours last night.

So yeah, not much going on, just kids, trying to make friends and otherwise.

Love you a lot!
Kara

Saturday, October 3rd

Tim's favorite home-baked cookies (walnut chocolate chip) ready to come out of the oven... this batch was just the way he likes 'em (a little on the doughy side).

Spartanburg Day - Game 2

We moved our record to 14-2 (7-1 in the CAA) with this afternoon's 7-0 victory... there are five games left in the regular season; the playoffs follow a single-elimination "sweet 16" format, with seeding being determined by representatives from each region of the state. There is a possibility (should we "win out") that we'll be assigned the top seed, and home games in the first two post-season contests... we can't afford to take anyone for granted, and even though we have previously beaten all three of next week's opponents, we were down 1-0 at halftime against two of them!

Scott Schroder's Birthday

Scott turned 42 today... don't know what I'd have done without him these past four years. As Middle School Assistant Principal, he and the rest of my administrative team have "covered for me" more times than I can count during the rollercoaster ride my life has been since we arrived in Asheville the summer of 2005.
He's a terrific administrator, History teacher and friend!