Can't believe I made it through.
Games started slowly today. Apparently on purpose. A team composed of me, Mikey, little Katy, and a couple of new guys beat a more experienced squad who paid the price. Because other shirts were up.
In the absence of Tbone, who showed up late in the day and played well, I appear to have been handed the keys to the kingdom up there. And heavy is the head that wears the crown.
There are rules, people. To all the pros who were sitting out to assemble a super team that failed to put up a shirt, I had to kick you out. Put. Up. A. Shirt. Please. Is that plain enough?
Because my current duties, which I was pretty sure I'd retired from, don't just let me be a player up there. I have to try to ensure the greatest good for the greatest number.
That sometimes means I don't get to play on the best teams. And I'm sure this is repetitive, but there are reasons why you do this. #1--winning hearts and minds. People will remember you and respect you if you fight with them. I made a point of telling the not so good boys who decided to fight 4 times today that I will fight just as hard with them as against them. Jonathan joined me in that endeavor, and that meant we got to try to draw up some plays. He got to be the go to hitter and got some practice on give and go passes. Lost 14-9 on the sun side, with some fluffing from our opponents. But I will argue these things are worth doing. Hey, I blocked Ford again(!), and such games do not always go as planned.
What I tried to tell one of the new guys who was sitting out how to do this--watch the games, see who's good who is sitting out, pick accordingly. Sadly, if you just stick with your friends, you're likely to go "one and done." Also sadly, I'm guessing a bunch of you sitters declined to play with this fella.
Let me point to the example of TJ the smaller. Will he ever get spiker of the year? Nope. But he knows how to pick a team and he does his part, and then some. He got a hold of me, Mikey, Scott, and Jess, and we went on a 3 game winning streak. One of those games involved Ford, Dub and another crew of sanders who just imploded.
If you do your lineups right, this is a truism. Small player serving = scoring lineup. A lotta times that's me. This time it was TJ. His moon ball jacked people up.
I'm getting some flack from people for busting up a 3 in a row win team. Sorry, for those that don't remember, "win and stay in" was the mantra we busted when we were able to finally penetrate the perimeter of the "exclusive resort community," because the "bad guys" won and the "good guys" lost. They then saw the efficacy of mixing things up, rather than letting us play in their pool all day while they sat out.
Also, ladies play there now. That wasn't true back in the day.
It's a balance, people. I point the shame finger at the super team of Dub, Ford, Jess, and Scott magically ending up on the same squad at the end of the day. Was that really an even distribution of talent?
Enough of my lectures, which no one will listen to anyway. There was a lotta good game today, and a lotta heavy hits. Heavyyyy. I'm not a hitter, so I won't go into your percentages today... but the Sultans of Swat were out in force. You know who you are: Scotty, Mikey, Ford, Jess, Dub, in no particular order.
Ronin Steve's head was a target today, even for his own team! Jared needs to get his contacts checked. His serve was nowhere to be found. Alex played well today. He's learning. Good net play on both blocks and spikes and decent serving. Little Dave got a couple of hitting opportunities, went on a serving run or two, and dug some nasty spikes.
I'm pretty sure the humble teller of this tale did his part.
Though I'm sure opinions vary, I think we're doing good work at Riata. This is my favorite summer ever up there. "Us" vs "Them" was productive, in the beginning. Not so much anymore say I. Sons of Argosy and Sons of Riata are learning to play as one, for the second time in my tenure as a player. It is good that it is so.
_________________ Chief
Death from above! Fire down below!
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