MVP

Tonight was the fall sports awards program at the high school.  Doug and I were able to sit together during the opening ceremony before they split everyone up for individual team awards.  As we listened to the jacket and watch winners one category caught my eye.  Every season Wik gives out an academic achievement plaque to the team with the highest GPA.  As the teams were giving Mr. Perek their tropheys, I was counting the stars by the tennis team member names.  I realized that all but four of the players and managers on the tennis team were scholastic athletes.  There were other teams that had quite a few scholar athletes as well.  Thus, at the end of all of the other awards I sat on the edge of my seat waiting for Wik's announcements.  He started off letting everyone know that for the first time in the history of the award (10 seasons) a boys' team had finally won what he believed to be the highest team honor.  As he announced the tennis teams name all of the boys stood up and cheered.  I was incredibly proud of them.  I had always hoped that Cal would be on the first boys team to win this honor.  I have always felt that Cal was an underrated student.  This proved that there was so much more to him than just being an athlete or leader of the cheer block.

After the group awards Doug went to the annex gym with the soccer girls and I went to the library for the tennis awards.  Vince and Shane had a lot of wonderful thoughts to share about Cal and how much the team would miss him.  They felt that he was a great team leader and competitor and would be hard to replace next year.  It was nice that they also thanked me for help with the food and Doug and I for providing the banners.  The best part of the night, however, was yet to come when they gave out the awards.  Cal was voted MVP by his teammates and concurred by his coaches.  Once again I was as proud as could be.  Cal wasn't even sure he would play this year.  Instead he became a team leader and had the best season record for the third year in a row.  I don't know if he was as happy as I was, but he did let me take pictures of him with his teammates and also his coaches.  I will miss all of this next year.  It was awesome to be a part of this team and all of the energy that Cal brought to it.