Pride and Prejudice

OK, it's been a few days... and big ones. The DNC Rules Committee met on Saturday, but more on that later.

This weekend, Kyle played his first tournament with his new club team. Kyle, Pa and I stayed out in Pomona for the event. On Saturday, he played for the usual coach, a parent of one of the other players. Kyle played well, aggressive in the cage and throwing some great long outlet passes (a la Kevin Love)... so much so that when a shot was taken by the opposing team (or when the shot clock was running down), the coach would yell out to the point player to release, to allow Kyle a better target down the tank. And it worked, we won both games. Kyle took a fist to the mouth at one point, but played through it. After the game, he expressed sorrow that when he was taking the ball to the corner and was being chased by a defender, he accidentally kicked the kid in the chest. When one of his players heard this, he said, "Fouling the goalie's bad form, man." The coach supported this with a smile and said, "Chase a goalie, you get what you deserve..." The coach also took me aside and expressed for the second time in less than a week that Kyle doesn't play goalie, but IS a goalie (more on that distinction later), and said that "Kyle certainly is cut from goalie cloth." He talked about how he liked playing with Kyle because he makes stops when he has to, isn't afraid to charge out of the cage for balls (but is rarely out of position), and makes the usually defensive position an OFFENSIVE threat.

Sunday was slightly different. We worked with a different coach with some different players (some of our better players, including the coach's son, played Sunday for the 16 and under team in Santa Barbara). Kyle started the first game in the cage as usual, but at halftime, I noticed he was changing caps. Another kid (one who wasn't there on Saturday) was put in the cage. Kyle looked a little confused, and a little bummed as he sat on the bench. I smiled to him and tilted my head as if to say, "What can you do? Coach's Decision, kid. CD..." But midway through the third quarter, Kyle was put into the field. He acquitted himself well, running the offense at point and moving the offense around through drives. At the beginning of the fourth, he was still in the field, and to our surprise was even with the sprinter on the opening sprint (Kyle is known for his speed, or rather lack of it). On offense, he began by running the point, and when no one would take the set (hole) position, he filled that spot. He tussled in set and had a good time. We lost, but we were behind when Kyle left the cage, so I wasn't too upset.

But Kyle was on the bench again at the beginning of the second game. The other kid was in goal. Kyle didn't look upset as much as bored. In five seasons of water polo, these were the first moments he has EVER spent out of the water in a game (he was the one and only goalie for his youth team, and when they pulled him out of the cage, it was to rotate him into the field so everyone on the team could score). But within a couple of minutes, Kyle was in the game, and within seconds he drove with the ball to the left on offense, faked to right, spun left, got the goalie up into blocking position, and waited just long enough for the goalie to begin his descent, and tossed the ball into the corner of the net. He swam back down the tank with a great big grin on his face. On defense he was even more impressive... the opposing team had a big hulking set who was dominating. Until Kyle took control. I had never seen Kyle play set defense before, and it was fun to watch... he shut the kid down. The kid never got another pass. Then at half, Kyle put the goalie cap back on. Pa and I looked at each other. WTF? The other goalie was doing a good job... why break his rhythm? Kyle did a great job in goal. This coach didn't want him to pass as much, but he still got off a couple of good ones. Near the end of the third quarter, after stealing the ball and while swimming it to the corner, he was fouled from behind. The ref blew the whistle, but the player didn't stop, and so Kyle stopped swimming and pushed back. His head came in contact with the opposing player's face. And the buzzer ending the quarter went off. And chaos ensued. The opposing player had to be taken out because of a bleeding mouth (it's possible he lost a tooth), the parents of the other team (who happened to be the tournament host team... so there were lots of them) were screaming for Kyle to be kicked out of the game for brutality (yep, that's the "technical" term), and our coach was imploring the ref to call an exclusionary foul on the opposing player. The ref sorted it out with one giant non-call. And Kyle kept playing while rubbing his head through the cap. Kyle had another good quarter in the cage, and we won the game.

I had never been prouder of Kyle in any athletic endeavor. And I told him so. When he was pulled for the cage, he didn't argue, didn't hang his head, didn't sulk, didn't quit. When he went back into the game, he played hard and did the things his team needed from him, even taking over set when no one else would. When he didn't start the second game, he didn't let that affect him, either. When he went in, he became an instant offensive threat and defense stalwart, shutting down the other set. And back in the cage, he did his usual great job. He didn't phone it in when he was asked to take a subordinate position, and even helped out the goalie at the end of the first half, by dropping back to help him defend against a long, last-second shot. No one expected him to do that, but he did it. It shows that he didn't care about whether or not he was in the cage, he just wanted what was best for the team.

So like I said, I'd never been prouder. Now I wasn't thrilled with the coach, but wasn't about to make that know to either the coach or Kyle. [didn't want to be one of THOSE parents...] But when I learned that the other goalie was the 12 and Under goalie, who was "playing up" for experience, I even lost my "non-thrill" with the coach (after all, Kyle is now practicing with the 16 and Unders, prepping him to "play up" when the opportunity comes). Yep, that was a good water polo weekend.

On the electoral front, not as good. They seated the Florida delegation, all of its members (so they all get to party in Denver), but with only half a vote per delegate. This didn't please the Clinton camp, as it means less of a net delegate win. The Michigan delegate solution was even less amenable: the DNC decided to go with the Michigan compromise--69 to 59 delegates--as opposed to the Clinton proposal (73 for her, and none for Obama, with 35 for "uncommitted") or the Obama proposal (an even 50-50 split, as Obama wasn't on the ballot, and thus the primary was flawed to begin with). The Clintonistas felt that the Michigan compromise was a "highjacking" of their delegates... and they made their displeasure known.

And here's the weird part:

I agree with them. She should NOT have any delegates taken away. It should have been 73 for Clinton and the rest to Obama.

Look, those four delegates mean nothing in the big picture. Everyone knows Obama will wrap up the nomination in the next few days (with today's final primaries in South Dakota and Montana, and the expected flood of superdelegates who statyed out fo the fray in deference and respect for the Clintons)... he's only 41 delegates short of the new finish line, and he'll get that easily. So why give him four of "her" delegates. It serves no purpose. Except for pissing off her already bitter coalition.

This will not be pretty. I can only hope he has NO intention of putting her on the ticket... but will announce before the convention that he will ask her to be some cabinet post (say, Health and Human Services).

I'm pretty burnt out on this whole election thing: I'm starting to hate the whole thing.