Ketttle-Moraine Tourney

Well, we all made it to the hotel. We had our BBQ (food was awesome!) and we all retired to our rooms for a good nights rest. Although I don't know about all of you, but all my kids are going nuts in the room. either fighting, playing, or just overall crazyness. Hopefully I will be able to get to bed sometime.

We have a 6:25am rondevous in the lobby for a quick breakfast and then its off to the field for the warm ups. More to come tomorrow.

If you gte a chance, get those cameras working overtime tomorrrow. It would be nice to use the photo opportunity this touney offers to put some good pics into our collection.

See you all at the games! GO VIKINGS!

Site Update

Hello everyone! Been a long time since I have posted an update on the site. Greg Lanphier has been doing an excellent job posting game summaries! I want to say thank you to Greg for his efforts!

I sent out an email yesterday (yes.. during the game. The ump and his low strikes had me disgruntled. I needed to take my attention away from that travesty before it sent me to another place) regarding my plans for "closing up" the web site towards the end of the season. So if anyone has any pics they wish to share with the team, please coordinate with me how to get them to me (in case the cummalitive size of the pics is rather large) so I can include them in the planned slide show DVD I will be making.

We have our big Wisconsin trip this coming weekend. As I'm sure everyone is, I am looking forward to this trip. I think it will be a great time for all. We have a tailgate planned for Friday night in the parking lot and plenty of swimming to be had at the water park. In checking the hotels web site (and from Amy Singers very informative emails) it appears all their water facilities are INDOORS! This is a good thing. Im sure the kids cannot wait for that part of the trip. I know my 3 are excited!

Speaking of pictures, this weekends trip is a great place for a few parents to take a variety of pictures for the upcoming slideshow. With the on-field and off-field fun and activities, it will make for some great moments to be captured of the team, their siblings, and yes.. even the parents! We should all have a great time.

I will soon be putting travel info on the site (in a central location most likely) to assist everyone in finding the hotel as well as possibly some surrounding local fair. So be on the lookout for that coming sometime this afternoon.

Infomation on the upcoming tournament in Vernon Hills.

All the parents should have received the email from Coach Weede this morning regarding the Vernon Hills Silver Start Tourney (Their site says it is called the Silver Start, but I have a feeling it is actually the Silver STAR Tourney. I'm thinking whoever typed it got a bit to over zealous with the keyboard and hit the letter T by mistake). . The email detailed the schedule for the weekend and it looks like our games start on Saturday and end Sunday.

I have updated the calendar to reflect the game start times as well as a map to the field. A quick note on the field locations. The addresses of the fields themselves do not register on Google maps. So I pointed the map to Corporate Woods Parkway which is only about 1 block away from the field. If your looking for directions to the field, all you need to do is click the "map" link on the calendar, take a look at the field and surrounding area, and you will be able to find a way into the field. The idea is, by pointing the map to a road that the map can find (Corporate Woods Parkway), it allows you to utilize the map and have Google give turn-by-turn directions to the fields in Vernon Hills from whatever location you designate as your "Starting" location. This way everyone can find the field.

I am also going to include a link to the Vernon Hills Athletics Assoc. website. They have information on the tourney there as well as a downloadable pdf of the fields themselves. The link can be found on the left sidebar along with our other links. Alternatively you can always go here: http://www.vhcyaa.org/
However, you CAN get this same information by using Google Maps from the calendar and choosing "satellite" view. This will give you an actual picture of the field. This is a cool feature that sometimes helps where a traditional map view does not.

This tourney seems like it will be a good time. I am assuming we do not need to be there Friday since our first game is Saturday. Mr. Bragg, can you confirm this for us and leave a comment on this post just incase others are wondering as well?

If anymore information on the tourney comes up, you can be sure that I will post it here. So keep checking the site for updates.

Todays Game canceled. Possibly set for tomorrow.

Quick update everyone. Todays game in against Montgomery has been rained out! Coach Bragg has sent out a text which you should have all received. Stay tuned for any further updates.

A rainy Wednesday

Keep an eye out for either an email or text from Coach Jeff Bragg as the day wears on. We have had rain all morning and it is expected to last (albeit sporadically) throughout the early afternoon. Should this occur, Coach said that the coach of the Montgomery team we are scheduled to play does have a contingency plan. He reserved his field for today and tomorrow for just such an event!

The one good thing to come out of this is we may possibly have uniforms come in today. If that is the case, then we will have uniforms for the game tomorrow! However, just a reminder.... should the rain stop and the game be on nschedule, then make sure the boys wear their practice shirts with baseball pants and a blue hat.

If you do not have a blue hat, post a comment here on the site or shoot out an email to everyone. Between all of the All Stars we have on the team, we should be able to wrangle up a couple of hats if needed. So if your player needs a hat let the team know.

I know people are looking to Coach Jeff's emails and text for last minute game details. But I will continue to post late breaking updates onto the site. I figure the site is supposed to be a "one-stop-shop" for everything GBA 10W so why not. I can post to the site directly from my phone. So it will actually be an easy thing to do. Once I get a text or email from Coach Bragg I will post the info onto the site within minutes! We have this tool, why not use it? Fingers crossed... stay tuned for any updates.

1st outdoor practice a success!

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The clouds would part, those cold chills would dissipate, and we would have baseball! Winter workouts were great. The kids got in shape at a time they would normally be avoiding the outdoor freeze. But I'll be the first to tell ya, there's a certain feeling you get when your finally on a freshly raked field, outdoors in the sun. Of course.. it's been a few months since having games at Mill Creek. So I for one need to remember it is WINDY out there! "Dress appropriately" is something I should make a mental note of.

Regardless, it was a great practice from what I saw. The kids all got into the spirit right away and before you knew it they were feeling it too. Coach did say they need to keep working on their footwork, and stay consistent with it. Overall it was a nice evening for some baseball and from some of the talk I overheard, the kids are all looking forward to their upcoming scrimmage.

Upcoming events to look forward to: We have a practice this coming Saturday at 9am (Mill Creek 2). Then the following week there is a Tuesday practice followed by a scrimmage on Wednesday in Montgomery.

Site Update: As I get more pics as days go on, Ill start a picture section. Trying to keep them organized will be the key. So if anyone does send in any pics naming them as to what they are from will be a big help. Thanks!

Tomorrow's Practice at 5pm!!

Our first outdoor practice! Starting to get exciting now..

Originally the calendar had the time for 5:30pm tomorrow (Tuesday March 30th) but Jeff's last email pointed out it is indeed at 5pm! It has now been corrected. Mill Creek 2 is the location. See every one there..

I'm hoping to try and get some pictures of the boys practicing tomorrow. It will give me something to put up on the site a bit more current. If anyone has anything let me know. Also.. hoping to get the player profile out today/tomorrow. Had a slight delay on that, sorry. I think what I will do is just send out the questions.. and then the first response I get with the answers I will do their player profile first. If possible though, when sending that answer sheet back to me, if you happen to have a pic I can include as well that would be great!

Thanks everyone..

-Tony

Welcome to the GBA 10W Travel Blog!

OK. So all corny-ness aside, this seemed the easiest and most practical solution. Everyone is familiar with YouTube and should be familiar with blogs. Yes, FaceBook is technically one too. Anyway, here we can post stories (if we desire) throughout the year, coaching tips (the kids should hopefully get a benefit - they are allot more tech savvy then we sometimes give them credit for..), schedule updates, etc.. Just a central point of reference.



So.. here is what is happening here. We have videos at the top. All hosted on YouTube. Our YouTube channel is GBA10W. In case you want to search there. We have a column on the right side that we can use for updates, news, whatever. It will also store any of the "main" articles posted here.



Coaches.. I am in the process of sending you all the info you would need to post ANYTHING you should want. If there are videos you found somewhere else, and you want them showing on OUR blog (page, whatever you wanna call it). All I need is the link and I can embed the video into our site. You want to post a write-up on proper stance, power position, etc.. write it up and I will post it. Or you can log on and post it directly.

Here is where the call goes out to parents. Seriously, if ANYONE wants to get involved please email me and let me know what you would like to do. EVERYTHING is open. :) Anyone want to "cover" the team throughout the season? Photos, videos, anything!!

The cool thing is if we do this right... anyone who may want a "keepsake" of sorts can just let me know and I can package up all the pics, videos, stories, etc.. from the entire season, put them on a disc and there you go! Instant electronic scrapbook!

Also... when the coaches or anyone writes a story for this middle section, they will be scrolling down on the page as new ones are added. But they are always available.. and there is a comment section below each story. Team/Parents/Coaches, leave comments. You can further a discussion this way and that could be fun.