Congrats to tournament champions SANDSHARKS! Riley's first tournament of the year was this past weekend and they won it all. Though Topeka is only 75 miles away the team decided to go early and have some fun in the local Holidome. The kids swam and played while the parents hung out and played some cards.

There are two 12-yr old teams in Riley's club this year with 16 girls in total. The "12-1" team which is similar to varsity and the "12-2" is the junior varisty. Riley is the only girl from last year to play on the 12-1 team. Four girls from last year's team play on 12-2 and another 4 went to different clubs. Last year's team had a lot of attitude and drama involved and Riley had a very difficult time dealing with and overcoming this.

Let me just say .... Riley's team this year is wonderful. They are all very supportive of each other and if one person is down the others do their best to bring them up. Over the winter school break Riley spent a lot of time with two of the new girls and I think she is considering them her best friends now. The team has a lot of talent but I think what helps them the most is that they are friends off the court.

The first part of a vball tournament is pool play. This is where the teams are broken into pools of 5 teams and they play round robin (all teams play the other 4 in their pool). After pool play, the three teams with the best records move onto a single elimination tournament. There were two pools (10 teams) in this tournament and this is a picture after Sandsharks 12-1 won their pool.

Since they received a bye in the first round of tournament play, they only had to win 2 matches (best 2 of 3 games) to win the whole thing. The first match was against a mediocre team with amazing paience that they beat 2-0 in pool play, but one game was a very close 27-25. A 3rd game was needed in the tournament match but they won 15-9 and moved onto the finals!

The final match was against a team that won most of the Topeka tournaments last year and finished the 11's season ranked #2. In pool play they split each winning a game 25-19 and they barely nudge them out of winning the pool. The girls were focused but tired. They won the first game and lost the 2nd requiring a 3rd game. The 3rd and final game was neck-and-neck all the way but the Sharks pulled it off and won 17-15!!

Another good thing about these youth tournaments is that there are no referees. Each team is responsible for reffing other games (with a little bit of coaches help at this age). This ensures the girls know the complete rules and teaches them that refs are only human and make mistakes. Riley has wanted to top ref forever and she finally got the chance.

And one more picture to share. Are these the cutest little 5-yr olds that you ever saw???? Thomas and Isabella are younger siblings of the team.