We stayed in Sonora last night after the game… along with several other coaches and their spouses. This morning we met for breakfast at Jeb’s. (I highly recommend it… it was delicious.) We couldn’t resist taking picture with this big bear after our victory over the Summerville Bears last night. Go Raiders!
Tag Archives: Central Catholic
Last Game
Today was the last game for the 2010 JV team. A bittersweet time around our house. Having the season come to an end slows things down a bit, but it also means that Leroy has to say goodbye to the boys that he’s grown to love over the last few months. Football starts around the first of June each year and gets more and more intense as the weeks add up. Through all the work, the team bonds and really comes together as a family and that includes the coaching staff.
Leroy will stay involved over the next few weeks as Varsity heads into playoffs, but it’s not the same as having your own team.
My Mafia Family
I write a lot about football… and what it means to me. Being a part of football, especially with the program at Central Catholic High School has had a huge impact on me and my family and will forever be in my heart as one of the greatest experiences of my life. The life lessons learned from the game of football and being a part of a team have had a tremendous impact on my children and I credit much of their success to the game they love so much.
Of course, if I’m going to be honest… it’s not all a bed of roses. Anytime you get that many passionate (or non-passionate) people together, there is bound to be some personality differences and conflicts. We’ve experienced our share. One thing I know for sure… the friendships we’ve forged with the exceptional families and coaches over the years will last our lifetime. We are bonded together with a common goal… and adversity only makes those bonds stronger.
On most Friday nights, after the games… we get together for dinner. For me, it combines two of my favorite things… feeding people, and football. This tradition started three years ago when Roger Canepa took the head varsity coach position at Central Catholic. He was making the long drive back home to Sonora on Friday nights after our games. I invited him to use our guest room during the season, and figured I’d have something for them to eat after the games as well. Then the dinner invitations went out and before we knew it… we had set up a tradition and like clock work… the coaching staff, and at that time… several players would show up for dinner. We’ve had as many as 50 people and as few as 5… but they continue to come and there is always enough to go around. We pull out as many chair as we need and somehow, we all manage to squeeze in around our dining room table. Sometimes, everyone is gone 1:00…. and sometimes they don’t leave until 5:30 on Saturday morning. If any manage to just stay the night I’ll fix breakfast for them before they leave.
Last year, one of the coaches’ wives started calling these gatherings the “Mafia Family Dinners.” I hadn’t really considered the concept before, but her description was very accurate. Only in the mafia movies would you see people gathered around a table full of food discussing “the family business” (in our case, football) with the understood code of silence that the discussions would not leave the room. This is my chosen family. These are the people that we have chosen to include in our lives and share the common devotion to the sport we love so much.
I love these people. They have my utmost respect and confidence. If I ever needed anything, either now or in the future… I know I could call any one of them and they’d have my back in a heartbeat. We have bonded through victory, defeat, persecution, blood, sweat and tears.
CC Varsity Football
Oh doggies! It was hot on the field today! We were in Loomis, CA at Del Oro High School for the kick off of the CC Varsity season. The team played Cardinal Newman in a classic match up that always promises to be a good game. I started out down on the field, camera in hand… and plugged into my iPhone where I was listening to Steel’s team play the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. I realized very quickly that I’m not very good at multi-tasking. During the CC game’s national anthem, I almost shouted out as Steel’s team (listening on my phone) recovered a fumble. The information from my eyes was not matching what I was hearing. But I gave it a shot.
It didn’t take long for me to throw in the towel. About 5 minutes into the first quarter, I put the camera away and left the field. I had worn my old Keds shoes and the heat from the artificial turf was coming through and burning my feet. I couldn’t stand still in one place. I ended up hiding under the press box in a little shade and watching the game from there.
CC fell to Cardinal Newman in double overtime. A heartbreaking defeat for the Raiders. Now the challenge will be to re-group and prepare for the Holy Bowl next week.
Rotary All Star Game
Although Steel did not play (still recovering from his foot injury) we traveled to Chowchilla to watch the Rotary All Star game. Steel’s classmate Tyler Lee was the only other representative from Central Catholic. The opposing team scored on the opening kick off and I thought for sure we were in for a long night, but the North came back and dominated the rest of the game and claimed victory.
CCHS Dress Code
One of the best things about having your kids enrolled in private school is the uniforms and dress code. I know the kids don’t see it the same way when they’re young, but even my children have grown to appreciate the convenience and ease of mandate school clothes. There’s no need to stress over school outfits, because everyone is dressed like everyone else… you just grab and go. It saves lots of money every year because they mostly wore what they wore last year. Through the grammar school years we had to account for growth, that has mostly stopped or at least slowed down. I think Steel has worn some of his shirts for all four years of high school.
So it is with a twinge of sadness that we collected all of Steel’s polo and Oxford shirts to donate. They are still in excellent condition and will no doubt last some kid another 4 years of use. I didn’t realize how many he had… This picture only shows the Oxfords… but he also had about 10-15 colored polo shirts as well. Some of these shirts I had purchased and some were hand me downs from graduating team mates.
Oh, if these shirts could talk. They’ve been there for the whole ride. I hope that they enjoy as much success, joy, hard work and fun as they’ve already witnessed.
Graduation
I wasn’t going to cry. I really wasn’t… I was in a very good frame of mind, looking to the future and as we were waiting for the ceremony to begin, the very first song that came through the speakers was my FAVORITE song of all (and the one I want played at my funeral by the way) In My Life by the Beatles… And to make things worse, it was the original Beatles version too. *sigh* I had to walk away from my family and hide behind the bleachers until it was over and I could compose myself.
Needless to say, Graduation was really wonderful to witness and attend. The official ceremony was really moving and the speakers were extraordinary. There were 98 graduates and I took 837 pictures. Seeing my son walk across the track in his cap and gown was emotional, but he really put a smile on my face when he received his diploma. After shaking everyone’s hand, he tossed his crutches off of the stage and walked down the ramp, unassisted. It was a great moment.
Another fun moment was at the end of the line. After Kris Zizzo received his diploma, he did a back-flip off the stage. What a way to celebrate!
Baseball Double Header
We went to Lodi tonight to watch Central Catholic play in the baseball playoff game. They had defeated Linden earlier in the week, but Linden came back and spanked CC in the second game this afternoon which required a third game to decide the series and advance a team to the championships. In between the games I had a brief conversation with Billy Flamion (pictured here with Steel) regrading his pitching. He is very talented. One of my favorite memories was watching him pitch a no-hitter against Hilmar in the Championship game last year (as a sophomore.) I knew if anyone could pull off a victory, he could. He told me his arm was sore but I told him to suck it up and get the job done and boy did he ever.
Billy has spent a lot of time at our house over the last couple of years and will be a senior next year. He’s promised to come over for breakfast on a regular basis so the nest won’t feel quite so empty. I’m going to hold him to it.
Yearbook
I’ve mentioned before that one of the benefits of having your children attend such a small school is that everyone knows everyone… I guess that’s both good and bad. That also means that everyone knows everyone’s business too… or at least we think we do. As parents, the good outweighs the bad. We have a great advantage by knowing the other kids at school and their families. I love it when the yearbook arrives each year. I know everyone in it… and it is so much fun to go through and see the pictures. It also brings me incredible joy when I recognize some of those pictures as my own. It makes me feels as though I really have participated. It is especially heart-warming to see so many of my pictures in the senior ads. I am so honored to have them think that my photographs are significant enough to share space on such an important sentiment of their high school experience. I’m not naive. I know they don’t pick the pictures thinking… “Gee, I’ll include this one because Mrs. Rocha took it.” I know it’s the subject, not the photographer… but that is really the ultimate compliment. It’s proof that I got it right… the moment, the feeling and the shot. I did my job.
(If you look closely, you can see the student’s names etched into the cover. They are in order of class and extend around to the back cover. Way cool.)
CCHS Sign
I dropped Steel off at school this morning at 6:00 am to head to Southern California for his senior trip to Knott’s Berry Farm, Medieval Times and Disneyland. As we pulled into the parking lot, I noticed they had changed the sign. This kind of makes it official for me now. Steel mentioned that Tuesday was his last full day of school… including his last “lunch” and I had a sharp pang of sadness… Saying goodbye to this school will be difficult.
