The paintballers returning from battle
We all went on Owen’s birthday camping trip this year (some of the early years are here and here).
One of this year’s highlights was a paintball session. “Unfortunately,” Fiona and I couldn’t go because 10 was the minimum age. For once, it didn’t rain during the campout, although it was chilly.
Click here for some photos from this year’s adventures.
Spartan gets some exercise
Sparty has been pesky lately and too full of energy. He doesn’t want to go out to play during the day because he thinks it’s way too hot. So he wants to go out in the middle of the night and run around in the yard playing.
We needed a way to get him to burn some energy, so Jack taped a dog biscuit to the back of his dirt bike and ran around the yard.
Sparty chased him.
I said he was a good dog with the best personality. I never said he was smart.
Jack goes for an interception in a one-on-one drill
We spent most of last week with Jack in Williamsburg, VA while he attended the invitation-only “Top Gun” football camp. Although the thermometer read 103-106, the heat index hovered around 110 and field turf added what felt like another 20 degrees, I don’t think Jack could have enjoyed it more. He was in heaven. (I was happy too, but man, was I hot.)
Look at the smile on Jack's face -- could he be any happier?
Football University (FBU) holds 28 camps through the year across the country for 6th to 12th graders (FBU is the organization that puts on the Army All-American Bowl game for high school seniors each year). They select about 36 kids (roughly six per grade) from each camp to come to the Top Gun camp in July. There were about 1000 kids at Top Gun camp.
Someone said last week that more than half of the top 50 ranked high school senior recruits in the nation were there. Many of the kids we watched play last week will be playing at D-I and D-IAA schools next year and in the years to come.
At FBU camp in June, Jack worked out with #37, who is the 7th-ranked LB in the country & had a verbal commitment from Stanford his junior year
In April, we snuck Jack in a year early (he was a fifth grader) to a FBU camp at Rutgers. He had a great time and loved the field/classroom format of FBU camps.
We knew he had a done a great job working out at camp and in the classroom, but he’s just so tiny compared to the older kids. (At FBU Top Gun, the kids were grouped by grade. At the regular FBU camps, all the grades are together). Because he was a year young and not huge for his age anyway, we were a little bit surprised that he was selected to attended Top Gun.
Jack also attended a FBU camp in June in Pennsylvania, which featured a different set of coaches, and he was selected again for Top Gun.
All the FBU camps separate players by position — QB, RB, WR, OL, DL, LB, DB & K — and train them specifically for that position. The coaches are all well-known college and NFL coaches and former players. Jack’s linebacker coaches at the Rutgers camp were:
Click here for photos from FBU Rutgers. Blog post about the camp is here.
At the PA camp, the coaches were:
Click here for photos from FBU Pennsylvania.
My favorite moment from FBU in PA was when Jack answered a question in class. Here’s how it went:
The linebackers are in the classroom after an 8-hour day. High Schooler #1, who’s being highly recruited by DI schools, flails at detailing coverage progressions in cover 2 defense. High Schoolers #2, 3 &4 are clueless as well. Coach Fontes asks for volunteers.
Tiny little fifth-grader-masquerading-as-a-sixth-grader JACK raises his hand and proceeds to the white board to detail and draw every possible permutation of the coverage, sounding like the Professor talking to Sherman in Rocky & Bullwinkle.
The best thing: He said he did it because he knew if he didn’t volunteer I would kick his butt.
Coach Cottrell seemed to really like Jack at FBU Rutgers and we were thrilled when we realized after the opening ceremonies that he would be in charge of the sixth graders at Top Gun. He recognized Jack right away and they bonded about Del Val and Doylestown.
Camp started off really well for Jack. The photo at the top of the post happened the first night in one of the first one-on-one drills. It led to one of Jack’s best moments at camp: the Coach Cottrell hug.
After Jack made that play, Coach Cottrell started yelling praise at him from way across the field; he continued yelling good things at Jack as he walked across the field to him. When he reached Jack, he told him that that play deserved a hug.
The general schedule for the three days was workout on the field then class room session, three times a day.
The workout on the field was broken into a drills session, a one-on-one session (LB versus QB/RB), and then seven-on-seven (which is kind of weird to watch: 3 LBs, 2 DBs, 2 Ss against 2 QBs, 2-3 WR and 2-3 RB, so there are two balls flying around and a lot to keep track of).
Although it’s hard to be objective, I would say Jack was in the top three LB in his age group at camp. He struggled a bit with the outstanding speed some of the offensive players had and he was consistently giving up many inches in height and some weight to the guys he was covering. (Remember, he’s at least a year younger than everyone else in his group.)
Also, so much of Jack’s game — and excellence — is his hitting. Obviously, this camp was no contact, so that worked against Jack showing the best of his skills. Almost all the drills are geared toward covering the pass, which again, probably isn’t Jack’s best strength. You could tell that he was just dying to blast through a line and hit a QB hard.
Even though Jack was sometimes getting outpaced in the open field (these are some of the best players in the U.S.), we were most surprised at the speed he showed.
When he did get beat by a speedy RB/WR it was usually only by a step and while he often lost touch with the guy at the beginning of the play, he just as often ran him down and ultimately made the play. I think he realized by the third day that roughing them up a bit at the start of the play slowed them down.
All in all, we had a great few days — apart from the heat. I was impressed with the level of coaching. They demanded a lot of the kids and for the most part, the kids responded. There was very little fooling around; everyone was serious about learning to play better and competing and kept up the pace.
Jack loves FBU because he really like the classroom element. While the coverages he was working on are probably too sophisticated for him to use in the next few years, he loves to increase his football knowledge and he’ll be ready when the complexity of the game steps up in high school.
Click here for photos (many with captions) from FBU Top Gun 2010.
Fiona & the Datoga chief ... he already had several wives, but I think he might have been shopping for another!
(Back to Tanzania … )
Along with the time we spent in schools and with children, we loved encountering the wide variety of cultures throughout Tanzania. There are “officially” 126 different tribes in the country.
During our two-week trip, we met a number of individuals from several tribes. For example:
Makonde carvings at a market in Mto wa Mbu
We got to spend time with three different tribal groups in their villages: the Maasai, the Datoga and the Hadzabe.
In and around Arusha, we started to see Maasai communities. Traditionally, the Maasai were nomadic people whose lives and culture revolved around cattle. As their range has diminished and they’ve become slightly more settled, they’ve begun a bit of farming, usually maize.
Maasai boma as seen from the air, en route from the Serengeti to Kilimanjaro
The “home base” is called a “boma” and is a circular paddock area that contains the huts for living as well as a circular pen in the center for the livestock — their most precious possession. The boys and men are responsible for caring for the livestock and we regularly saw them driving cattle out to feed in the early parts of the day and back toward the boma as night approached. The older boys and men manage the cattle and the younger boys start off with the goats.
Maasai boma on the northern slope of Ngorongoro Crater
Many of the Maasai that we saw had their lower two teeth knocked out. We were told this was to facilitate giving them medicine and food if (when) they got tetanus, or “lock jaw.”
Many Maasai who we saw — in fact many Tanzanians — wear sandals made of old tires. We frequently saw them for sale along the roads and in markets.
We visited a Maasai boma that has been set up to help the women, who traditionally have very little status, earn some money by selling their bead work. We got to go into some of the huts. They’re basically one room structures, which a small storage area, a bed and a fire in the middle of the floor. We tasted their breakfast food — a kind of polenta-porridge drink made with maize and fermented milk. Traditionally, the main elements in their diets are blood and milk.
We met the school teacher and her students, who go to school half the day and spend the other half doing chores. They’re building a new schoolhouse so they can continue their lessons when the rainy season starts.
Interestingly, although everyone live in the traditional huts and wore mostly traditional clothes (the big cloth that they wrap themselves in, kind of like a Scottish plaid, is called a “shuka”), we did see several men in the boma with cell phones and several people who had digital watches.
Fiona modeling an "engarewa" (a beaded ceremonial collar). A Maasai women might wear several of these at one time.
The bead work was interesting and the women were very proud of their crafts. Bracelets, necklaces and the wide collars were all for sale. They also had some decorated herding sticks. I don’t think I ever saw a Maasai man in our entire time in Tanzania without his herding stick.
The Maasai are probably the most famous tribe in Tanzania and it seems like the government has made a lot of concessions to keep them happy, in terms of granting them land.
CLICK HERE for more photos of the Maasai we encountered in Tanzania.
A few days later, when we were staying near Lake Eyasi, we got to spend time in a Datoga village. The Datoga are a Nilotic people, thought to have originated in Ethiopia or southern Sudan. Like the Maasai, the Datoga traditionally were herders, but have added a bit more agriculture. They are also well known as blacksmiths.
Owen said it was really tough to work the cow stomach hand bellows
The Datoga use cow stomach as hand bellows; Jack and Owen both got a chance to try to pump the bellows when we visited the village. The Datoga melt down anything — pipe fittings, discarded bicycle parts, anything metal — to make simple jewelery as well as arrowheads to trade with neighboring tribes, such as the Hadzabe (bushmen).
They “dressed” us in jewelery (some which we purchased later) and were clearly very proud of their arrowheads and knives. Some of the women have the decorative scarring on their faces in circular patterns around the eyes.
The woman with the drum has the traditional scarring pattern around her eyes.
We really enjoyed meeting the Datoga women; the men pretty much kept to themselves although they hovered nearby. And even though we were speaking through an interpreter, it really felt like we were talking together. The chief’s older wife took us into her hut and was very engaging. She asked us as many questions as we asked her! We “chatted” for quite a while.
After visiting, they demonstrating their dancing. It was much like the Maasai dancing — some singing, clapping, a small drum and the “dance” consists of jumping straight in the air. I must say that some of the young men can really spring high. The women also add to the music by tapping their bracelets together.
CLICK HERE for more photos of our time with the Datoga.
The Hadzabe, or bushmen, are among the last true hunter-gather societies left in the world. They are closely linked with San in southern Africa, who live hear the Kalahari desert (the stars of “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”) They hunt on foot with bow and arrows, don’t have permanent homes and speak a “click” language.
The National Geographic ran a great article on the Hadzabe in the Dec. 2009 issue. (Read it online here.) One of the bushmen we met was photographed in the article.
Like the Datoga, they live near Lake Eyasi. We got up WELL BEFORE dawn one morning to catch up with them and go hunting. When we first got there, the hunters were still getting ready–putting on baboon fur headdresses, checking bows and arrows and smoking joints. Apparently, marijuana has become a big part of their lives.
Around the campfire, there were an older man, who was fletching arrows, and an older woman, who was weaving fronds into long strips that I think get made into baskets. They told us that all the other women and children had been gone a day or two, hunting for honey. Fiona was disappointment that she didn’t get to meet any “bushmen children,” as she called them.
As the hunters were getting ready, Jack and Owen got a chance to shoot the bows. I think the Hadzabe were quite surprised at how well they shot (they have bows, arrows and targets at home.)
Jack gets an archery lesson from a Hadza hunter
As hunting with the bushmen requires running through the woods for a couple hours, Fiona and I stayed behind. She was also quite apprehensive that they might catch and kill a baboon, which is one of their favorite targets. While they were gone, we hung out with the basket-making lady and the arrow-making guy.
Apparently the hunting trip was quite exciting, although they only came home with a squirrel and a bird. The bushmen immediately threw them on the fire — whole and un-gutted. As they cooked, they pulled fur and feather off once they were charred. They would pull a piece of the bird or squirrel off the fire and use their knives to cut off cooked bites, which they offered around. We all had some. I think they probably eat every last bit of the game.
Hadzabe hunters cooking a squirrel and bird WHOLE on the fire
After our “meal,” the boys got some more bow and arrow lessons and they offered to sell the bows and arrows, which we immediately said yes to. (I think they were about 15.00 a piece). They also had some porcupine quill necklaces, which Fiona latched onto.
Although their lifestyle is certainly the most primitive we’ve encountered, they’re not immune from modern civilization. Our local guide told us they’ll probably take the money they earned and go to town to buy meat and drink beer until the money’s gone. Sort of reminds me of the early encounters between white men and Native Americans.
CLICK HERE for more photos of the Hadzabe.
Previous posts about our trip to Tanzania are here:
(Catching up…here’s a report on Jack’s summer baseball team; look for posts about FBU Top Gun football camp, more about Tanzania (!), and general summer photos in the next few days.)
Jack played on a combined Upper Makefield-Solebury team this summer. It was great for him because he got to play with his friends from the Spiders as well as his friends from the Mavs team he played on during the Spring. The main focus of the team was the PONY regional tournament, held outside Pittsburgh 15-18 July, where they rallied to finish as runner-up.
The team also did a warm-up tournament in June at the Ripken Complex in Aberdeen, MD. The team struggled a bit in Aberdeen, but had lots of fun and started to get used to playing together.
Bucks Co. Mavs @ Ripken Complex, Aberdeen MD
CLICK HERE for photos from the first game in Aberdeen.
CLICK HERE for photos from the second game in Aberdeen. (I missed the last game they played because I was at Owen’s fencing tournament.)
The team had several practices between the Aberdeen tournament and the Pittsburgh PONY league tournament and really started playing well in the PONY games.
They won their first two games, lost the third and then battled back to play in the championship game. In the five games, Jack went 7-11 at the plate (0.636) with a 0.750 on-base percentage and (my favorite stat) NO STRIKEOUTS.
Offensively, he made a couple of excellent bunts (shades of last year!), had a couple a nice singles to the outfield and got robbed once by a questionable infield fly call. He seems especially to like to swing at the first pitch and to hit with an 0-2 count.
(L) Getting in, just under the tag & (R) A big hit with with 0-2
Defensively at third, he had one or two errors, made a couple of strong plays and made nice double play that the ump inexplicably called the runner safe (see the game #5 photos: the 1st baseman’s foot was so clearly on the bag, before the runner even gets into the frame. And, no, that’s not creative photo cropping.)
CLICK HERE for Mavs v McCandless (Game #1)
CLICK HERE for Mavs v Cranberry (Game #2)
CLICK HERE for Mavs v Brad-Mar-Pine (Game #3)
CLICK HERE for Mavs v Washington (Game #4)
CLICK HERE for Mavs v Brad-Mar-Pine (Game #5, championship game)
Beside the excellent baseball, I think the boys (and families) really had an awesome time together. We all stayed in the same hotel, so the kids did a lot of swimming. We went to the movies and even got to catch the last half of a Pittsburgh Pirates game, complete with Clemente jerseys (THANKS again, Hitchcocks!). All in all, I think it was an experience the boys will remember a long time.
(L) Mavs on the big screen & (R) At the Pirates game (thanks Karen for the photo)
Owen (on left) scores a point
Owen had a great fencing tournament … but his run was stalled before the semis when he ran into a kid almost four years older and about 14″ taller!! Despite that, he won the first bout of the elimination round (there are three bouts in an elimination match), then took his opponent to match point before losing the match.
(USA fencing has funky age categories…Y10 fencers can be born between 1999 and 2002 and Y12 can be born between 1997 and 2000). This was supposed to be a Y10 and Y12 tournament (Owen is Y10) but there weren’t enough younger fencers so Owen had to fence up an age group.
The real highlight for Owen was beating a classmate in pool competition that he’s never bested in a tournament before. In fact, at the last tournament, Owen lost to that fencer in the championship match.
Although they both gave it their all during the match, they were back to being teammates immediately afterward. In fact, I think my favorite moments of the whole tournament were when Owen and his teammate were coaching each other against the other fencers and giving each other “expert” advice and encouragement.
Click here to see more photos from the tournament (Owen is almost always the fencer on the left.)
Jack, Fiona & Owen posing at the Yorktown battlefied
We went to Williamsburg, Jamestown & Yorktown over the Memorial Day weekend.
I think Jamestown was our favorite. There was so much to see and do: the Native American village, the ships, the fort and the museum. The visitor’s center there is fantastic and we just didn’t have enough time to see everything we wanted in the museum because we has to rush over to Yorktown to see the artillery demonstration. We also ran out of time at the Yorktown museum. So we definitely need to go back to the area to see some of the things we missed or rushed through. Two and a half days wasn’t really enough.
One of the best times in Williamsburg was when Kevin bid in an open air auction on a trap ball game (kind of like early baseball/wiffleball). We spent a long time playing on the grassy area in the middle of the town (although, the weekend *was* supposed to be a break from the Spring’s endless baseball games!)
Right before we left Monday morning, we flew through the Rockefeller Folk Art museum and that was a surprise hit with the kids. They were even disappointed we didn’t have time to visit the other part of the museum (the decorative arts section.)
There was minimal fighting once we got the sleeping situation sorted out and everyone enjoyed eating in the taverns.
Click here to see photos from the trip.
Mavs congratulate Will after his monster homerun
Quick post: Click here for the photos of the latter part of the Mavericks season.
More details coming soon….
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