Another Bang!

 Erik started the school year off with a bang, also. His cross-country training started on the 2nd day of school, but I had been encouraging him to do some training over the summer with his friends, just so that running wouldn't be so painful that first day. They run on his soccer team, but it's a little different when you get to a meet and are expected to run 2 miles straight!

His first meet was the very next week. His extra training paid off! He came in 6th place at 12:35 (a major PR for him from last year) and 1st place for his school, Discovery. The next week, he came in 3rd place at 12:31 and first for Discovery, again! 

He's behind his coach with the bucket hat, on the left. 

Coming in strong!

He has been learning a lot from Austin and from his own experiences in xc. 

Soccer started well with a 9-1 blowout. This is the first time Erik has been playing Center Defensive Mid (as in midfield). He gets to run around more, which also helps with his running, and he still plays his aggressive defense that he's so good at. This year's team is a "trap" team or a supplementary team. Since a lot of Erik's teammates are Freshmen and had the opportunity to try out for the high school, they combined the teammates from his age group who either didn't make the high school team, didn't try out, or are 8th graders, like Erik. After the HS soccer season, around November, they'll go back to the teams they were divided into in early June. So, for now, Erik's with some guys he's never played with. They lost their second game, 6-1, but hopefully they can learn from that and improve. It's so up and down right now, or maybe it always is. I'm new to this level of soccer. 

He's in the black, flying through the air, after a big kick!

(I took more videos of him playing than pics, but they're not uploading properly. So I'll post more pics another day.)

It's his last year in middle school, and we already know all his teachers. Either Victoria, Austin, or Erik himself had them. In the late spring of this school year, he has the opportunity to go on 2 major field trips. One for the 8th-grade band members to Toronto and one to Washington DC for the 8th graders of the whole school. Both are amazing opportunities, as well as lucrative. So we're getting ready to work hard on those fundraisers and find additional ways for him to make money.

 Goooo Eagles! (Discovery Eagles)