A week ago, T-Bone took part in two categories of competition at the Ottawa Tae E. Lee Tae Kwon Do Cup held at Algonquin College.

In his patterns he was both crisp and fluid, and barely missed out on a medal.  His shyness, (the reason we got him into Tae Kwon Do), still showed through his body language, but was leaps and bounds better than it was last year where he finished dead last in his belt/age group.

It was a similar result but a completely different story in the sparring.  He came out incredibly strong out attacking his opponent who put up some feeble blocks.  But in a non contact sparring competition, they did count as countermoves which left T-Bone on the short end of the scoring stick.

The better half was right in assessing his skill when she said “He would have kicked the other guy’s ass in a street fight!”  Knowing T-Bone, he wouldn’t get into a street fight, but if he ever had to defend himself, I have to whole-heartedly agree.

The shyness in him is fading as he enters his teen years and if he keeps up the hard work, I know I am going to have a tough time saying no when he asks me for the car keys in a few years!!

For those out there who have a shy, quiet child, with self-confidence issues, I highly urge  you to take advantage of the Conservative tax break on sports registrations and get your kid into Tae Kwon Do.  Not only will it give them self defence they may one day need, but it will bring out the best qualities in your child.  It has done wonders with T-Bone and he has a couple of very proud parents.

Last weekend, my daughter and her provincial champion teammates took the show to the Power Cheer National Championships, which were held in Mississauga, Ontario.

The weekend started out with some fun as T-bone, the better half and I made a pitstop at Staples to pick up some bristol board and markers, with which we proceeded to make up some signs to wave as we cheered on Cookie and her teammates.

The Hershey Center was split up with two floors going at once which meant the place was rocking all weekend.  They had demo performances and some great tumbling stunts performed by alum from my alma mater, the University of Western Ontario.  The reigning national collegiate champs for over 20 years running.

Cookie and her teammates took the floor for their first performance on Saturday afternoon.  The run was a bit shaky and they were sitting in 9th out of 12 teams when the first round came to a close.  Hope was not lost, but they knew they needed to make up a lot of ground to climb into the medals.

The second run started out really strong and they maintained it through to the end of their performance, where they had a slight bauble in their last stunt.  All in all, it was a very solid performance and ranked third best in the second run.
When the two scores were tabulated, they had finished a solid fifth in the nation.  This means her cheerleading season is winding down with one invitational left to go.  Needless to say, I am the very proud father of this 9 year old provincial champion.  She (and her team mates) may have finished 5th in the country, but they are, definately, first in my eyes.
She still has the provincial rhythmic gymnastics championships to go in a few weeks and then she (and we) can relax a little bit.  T-Bone has soccer season revving up soon which means many evenings swatting bugs and smearing the sunscreen on as we tour around Kanata.

This past weekend was a busy one for Cookie.  On Saturday she (and her cheerleading teammates) were competing in the Ontario Provincial Cheerleading Championship at the Hershey Center in Mississauga just west of Toronto.  They did their routine twice over about 3 hours and after all was said and done, they won the event taking home a trophy almost as big as Cookie!!

This is one of those moments in a parent’s life that may only be surpassed by a possible national championship which they will be vying for this coming weekend.

To top it all off, on Sunday she was also competing in the 2nd qualifier for the Rhythmic Gymnastics provincials.  11 of the 17 girls competing would make it to the provincials which will be held later this month.  She finished 7th overall in her free routine (3 places better than she placed in the 1st qualifier) and she finished 7th overall in her hoop routine (3 places worse than she placed in the 1st qualifier) and she finished 7th overall for the meet (1 place worse than her 6th place overall finish in the 1st qualifier).

When the scores from both qualifers were combined, Cookie finished in 7th overall which means she will be at the provincial championships.

Needless to say, I am one proud pappy today.

Last weekend I made the journey down to Toronto where Cookie was competing in the first of two Ontario provincial qualifiers for rhythmic gymnastics.

They changed the format this year so that anyone who wants to compete at provincials must compete at both qualifiers. The scores are then merged and they take the top 60% to provincials. This means that we got a good look at all of the competition that she will face should she qualify.

Last year, as some of you may remember, she finished in last place at provincials, but just making it was big for her. At this first qualifier, competing against everyone, she finished 10th of 17 in her free routine, and 4th of 17 in her her hoop routine for a 6th place overall.

Am I a proud dad or what?  She is making huge strides in her athletics.

But I must add, I am even MORE proud of the nine A’s she received on her report card a week or so ago. She’s one smart Cookie too!!

Yesterday was the gruelling two and a half hour soccer marathon that ends the year of T-bone’s indoor soccer season.

The format was a mini round robin of three 25 minute games, one against each of the other teams in their league. After two wins and a tie his team faced off against the other finalist in a full hour long game.

I must say that I do enjoy watching the indoor winter league more than the summer leagues. The pace in the final game was very quick as the two teams knew what was on the line. But in the end T-bone and his teammates were victorious.

He is sporting a shiny gold medal today.

I think the only downside to the day was that he only got to play about 30 minutes out of the 125 minutes of game time through the competition. The average time played was about 70 minutes on his team. With the league being just a small four team houseleague and not a “Competitive” level, I would have hoped he had more playing time, even if it meant they didn’t get the gold.

But the disappointment in playing time didn’t down us or how well he played when he did get on. I’m still very proud of him. In the third preliminary game he had a couple of great breaks up the field dekeing a player on each. Both runs were started with nice defensive plays and one ended up with a nice push forward to a winger and the other in a shot that was just shy of the mark.