Tuesday evening was dessert night for the Falcon gals’ water polo team.  Sylvia and I had been invited to attend and we were there for that special time.  After folks helped themselves to a selection of yummy desserts, Coach Lane and his assistant summarized the season for us.  First they talked about the gals on the JV team.  Then Coach talked about the varsity.  He called up a couple of freshmen who ended up playing with the varsity by season end.  Then the sophomores followed by the juniors.  It was interesting to see the gals in regular clothes.

It reminded me of an experience at the regional tournament.  I ended up sitting next to a very pleasant chap and soon we were talking.  He is the uncle of one of the players on the Jennison team.  He said, she’s number 11 and she’s 6 ft 1 inch tall when she’s out of the pool.  You’d never know it because in the pool she’s only this high–and he held his hands about a foot apart.  At the time I thought about the way Briana treads water and lifts herself up so that’s she’s out of the water almost to the waist.  It really helps get some power on her shot.

Then coach called on the two seniors that played on the varsity team.  That would be Eliza and Briana.  Eliza has played goalie for her entire High School career.  Her teammates voted her most valuable defensive player.  She was named all conference (only one goalie is selected for that honor).  Briana has played a number of roles and for the last two years she has directed the team from the pool.  Her teammates voted her the most valuable offensive player.  She was second high for scoring with 100 goals and led the team in steals.  Briana was also named all conference.  In addition, Briana was given the Coaches Award.

All too soon, the evening was over and it was time to go.  First, they took a team photo.

These are the gals that will be going to the state tournament this weekend.  We’re hoping that they do well.  In the back row is Julia (high scorer with 112), Sarah (a team captain), Briana, Eliza (both seniors were team captains) and Chloe, who is the tallest gal on the team.

Turns out that Julia is the joke teller.  So they asked her to tell one of her better jokes.  She started laughing uncontrollably.  That’s when someone spoke up to say, “All her jokes start the same way.”  She started to tell her joke, but you couldn’t understand for the laughter.  That’s when Sarah stepped in to interpret for us, “There were two peanuts . . . much laughter . . . walking in the park . . . much more laughter . . . and one of the was a salted.”  The gals on the team broke up in howls of laughter.

It was a wonderful evening and Sylvia and I were so glad to be part of it.  Some of the gals that are tigers in the pool were such kittens out of the pool.  All in all they are a wonderful group of kids, and we’ll miss watching them play.  We’ll have to catch some Grand Valley State U games next year when Briana plays for them.