A Bittersweet Beginning of the End? - Sports Kids Moms and Dads, Episode 7 by Kristy Lussier
Karli’s Florida adventure begins, but she doesn’t have much time to practice before the competition. Karli’s first time in the ring doesn’t go very well, because the Ring Steward is missing. (A Ring Steward keeps track of time and riders turns). On her next event, which is show jumping, she does awesome, and it’s also one of her favorite events to do. Her confidence shines through, and on her second day, she has a tremendous run on her cross country course. But the emotion sets in when she realizes this is her last day, and last time ever to ride her horse. The dreadful goodbye to her best friend is drawing near, and the victory of the great performance is bittersweet.
As it stands, Sarah is in first place for most of her categories that she is competing in, but it’s time to prepare for Nationals. On her first practice, Sarah is obviously exhausted and stressed out, but Sharon pushes her on, explaining that it’s better for her to be negative on Sarah because it will only make Sarah better. While practicing on the trampoline for her cheerleading stunts, Sarah’s brother comes outside to help her and give her pointers. Then, Sharon and Sarah sit down to review her scores from the last competition, just so they can see what they need to improve on for Nationals. Later, Sharon stresses out on the packing for the trip to Galveston where Nationals is held. They finally arrive at the hotel, but Sarah is in a goofy mood, and can’t quite focus. Sharon gives her a typical negative “pep” talk, and Sarah gets back on track.
TJ and the girls go on a weekend team retreat to Big Bear, CA. TJ and another coach will evaluate each girl individually during this time, to go over their strengths and weaknesses. TJ tells Lindsay that her weaknesses are laziness and lack of drive to make something happen with the ball during the games. TJ fears this will show through in all aspects of Lindsay’s life, so she needs to shape up on the court. The girls then play a really important game against Rolling Hills, a pretty good team. It seems the retreat helped, because the girls come together and win big, crushing the other squad. Later, they play their first playoff game, which they almost let slip through their fingers, but they rally and win big again.
Kim and Bryce have a serious talk about where he is going now with his skating. Kim’s approach is simply that if she pays for everything that goes into his skating, she wants to have all control over how he skates, and she wants to him to win big. Both Bryce and Kim have extreme tension between them, but Bryce chooses to move forward, and gets ready to test out of his intermediate Junior Level, to the Novice Men’s Division. At the practice for his test, he is still nervous and has trouble on his jumps. Test day then arrives, and Bryce goes out for one last practice on a jump, and he falls really hard.
Craig brings Trenton to one of his Flag Football games, where he says that he is living out his own football dreams. (Funny, I thought it was through Trenton?) Trenton says he loves to watch his Dad play, but his Dad’s team doesn’t win, and they don’t move on to play towards a national championship. A funny foreshadow, I thought, because in the next clip, the Bears’ coach gives the news on Playoffs, and sadly, the boys don’t make it. Trenton is very emotional and cries. Craig is emotional too, he thinks they were cheated and robbed. Later, the Bears end their season with a banquet, and Trenton gets a special trophy. Craig also mentions this as a bittersweet ending, because this is probably Trenton’s last year playing with the Bears. Craig feels Trenton needs to play with a team who passes the ball to him more. Craig—ask for a salary increase along with that!
Next Week: Will Sarah keep her First Place Titles? Will Bryce Pass the test?
|
|
