Fall Break

Fall break could not have come at a better time for me.  I had two exams on Wednesday that I had to take, and I knew that once I was done with them that I can go home for the week, and also watch my high school play in the playoffs for football.  They won their first round game and they play again tomorrow night so I'll go back for that.  On Thursday I went out to eat with my mom during her lunch break, and then visited Turkey Valley and my former teachers, then went to my girlfriends house and carved pumpkins with her family.  Friday I spent the day at home and mowed lawn.  Then later in the day I went down to Cedar Falls to celebrate one of my friend's birthday with a bunch of my classmates that I haven't gotten to see much since I've been at Wartburg.  On Saturday I had to work the concession stand at the football game, and after that I came back home and spent the rest of the day with my girlfriend.  Then today, Sunday, I am spending time with my family before I head back to Wartburg for the week.

Social Change

When I look at the Wartburg College Social Change, I see myself in the Community Building section.  I participate in and play in baseball at Wartburg, and being part of the team requires us to get involved with our community.  Already this fall our baseball team has been involved with two community service projects.  The first one was towards the beginning of the school year when we help out with a 5K run at the Boys Scout Camp.  We helped direct the runners where to go throughout the course.  The next project we did is that for every home football game, our team works the concession stand.  We have 15 or so players work every home game and split the group in halves with one doing the first half and the other the second half.  The main reason I see myself in the Community Building section is because I did a lot of comunity service while I was in high school, and I look forward to doing even more while at Wartburg.

Outfly

Outfly finally happened this week! I  heard of all of the stories about what happens and to be able to finally experience it was awesome.  The OrangeExceleration staff came running through the halls pounding of the doors declaring its Outfly at 6:30 in the morning.  At first I wasn't going to go outside to hear the President declare its Outfly since it was really cold out, but Christine forced me to go so I put on a bunch of warm clothes.  When we went towards the victory bell we saw a large group of people standing and a band playing.  Then the President arrived on a horse drawn carriage dress up in a Harry Potter outfit.  Him and Rex came onto the wagon and declared Outfly for the day.  Once they did that I went back to bed for a few hours.  Once I woke up I knew I had a bunch of homework to do so I started working on that.  I had to write a paper and study for a test so I was in my room the whole day instead of enjoying Outfly.  The positive thing about it though was that I don't have classes on Tuesdays anyways, so that meant that I would have a four day weekend since I also don't have classes on Thursday. So for my part of enjoying Outfly I went home this weekend to see my family. 

Baseball in the Cold

Throughout my life I always played baseball in the summer, starting in May and ending in July.  When I came to Wartburg I knew that I would be playing in different seasons then I'm used to.  I knew that I would be playing in the fall and in the spring and that the weather would not be as warm as it is in the summer.  So far this fall the weather has been great, a lot of hot warm days and not many cold days.  But this past week was different.  I played in my first 40 degree baseball game, and I can tell you that was the coldest I have ever played in.  I had to bring a jacket, gloves, and a stocking cap to keep me warm and even that wasn't enough.  It was windy during the game so it made it feel like it was 30 degrees out, and then later during the game it started to rain so that made it even worse.  Every time I caught a ball my fingers went numb and I couldn't feel them for quite some time.  Experiencing this game gave me a heads up on what to expect in the spring as it could be the same type of weather in March and April. 

Coaching

Last week while I was sitting in my room I received a phone call from one of my former baseball coaches at Turkey Valley.  He called me to see if I wanted to be a basketball coach with him at Hudson High School.  He told me that I would be the Head JV coach and would just have to coach the JV and can come to Varsity games if I wanted too.  I would also get paid without having to sign a contract.  It was an exciting conversation that we had and I told him that I would let my parents know and would think about it and let him know later in the week.  When I told my parents they were happy about the news but they told me that I would have to find two weekends out of my study time to get my coaching authorization since I didn't have one yet.  They also said that I would need a car to drive back and forth to practice and that I wouldn't get home from practices and games until very late at night.  We also weren't sure how it would fit in with my baseball schedule.  So after two days of thinking I called my coach and told him that I had to turn down the offer since I wouldn't have any time to get my coaching authorization and wasn't sure how it would work with baseball.  I also told him that I wanted to see how my first year at college would go and see if I would have time to fit coaching in with my schedule.  He was very understanding and told me that I would have plenty of other opportunities to coach and that I should get my coaching authorization right away.  I told him I would and that if he ever needed an assistant again in either basketball or baseball that I would accept his offer.  It was very exciting to know that at 18 I can be coaching already at the high school level and I know that I have coaches who will be looking to ask me for a job.

Homecoming at Wartburg

This week is Homecoming week at Wartburg and as a Freshman I don't really have a clue as to what is going on during the week.  I see events on the schedule, but I don't know what any of them mean.  I can tell you that the Homecoming events that we had at Turkey Valley were way different than what we are having here at Wartburg.  At Turkey Valley, each day we would dress up to a certain theme, and also have a list of activities to do during the day.  Some activities we did were Minute to Win It games, Dodgeball, and also Turkey Valley's Got Talent.  We would have the King coronation on Thursday, and then on Friday in the afternoon we would have a bunch of activities to do and also have a pep rally.  Then at halftime of the football game, the Queen would be crowned.  Once the game is over then we have our Homecoming dance. The Homecoming court would take pictures after the game, then about halfway through the dance, the court would have a grand march where the candidates would be announced.  The King and Queen candidtates would dance together, and then they would dance with their parents.  Once that is over then everyone else can continue to dance until it ends at midnight, and then that is the end of the Homecoming festivities that we have for the year.  It'll be interesting to see what Wartburg does later this week to see how it compares to Turkey Valley's Homecoming.  It should be exciting to be a part of.

Having a Great Roommate

When I was accepted to Wartburg College, one of my biggest questions about it was about how good of a roommate I'll get.  I had to wait all summer to find out, and in August the answer finally came.  I had a good idea of who I would get since my baseball coach was lining me up with another baseball player.  I was right with who I would get as my new roommate was Jon Heinsman from Waterloo.  I talked to him a few times on Facebook before we had to move in, and I finally got to meet him for the first time when we moved in.  It took us awhile to get to know each other, but since we were in baseball we were able to hangout all of the time and got to know each other more and more each day.  As of today we are very good friends who have a lot in common and our friendship will only continue to get stronger through the year.

When Will Outfly be??

When I arrived at Wartburg, I heard about the many traditions that it had.  One of the traditions that I was told about was the tradition of Outfly.  Outfly is scheduled by the President and the student body president.  It is a day when Orange Exceleration Staff wake people up at 5:30 in the morning screaming Outfly and everyone meets at the victory bell when the President declares that it is Outfly.  This means that there are no classes for the whole day and you can do whatever u want for the day.  Whatever day Outfly occurs on those classes will be moved to Friday.  This year Outfly hasn't occurred yet, and many are wondering when it will be because we are at Homecoming week already.  Usually Outfly is before Homecoming so many thought that it would have been last week, but it wasn't.  Others thought that it might have been today since there were no Homecoming activities today, it wasn't.  So in my honest opinion I believe that Outfly will be sometime next week or it will never happen.

Being a Minnesota sports fan for 2011

Since Iowa doesn't have any professional sports teams, I go up north to Minnesota and cheer for three professional teams in three different sports, the Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota Twins, and the Minnesota Vikings.  I have been a fan of those teams my whole life and never have I experienced a season as bad as this year for all three teams.  First I'll start with the Timberwolves who have been rebuilding there team ever since they traded away their franchise player Kevin Garnett.  In the past two years the T-Wolves have had the worse record or one of the worst in the NBA, and this year wasn't any different.  They finished with the worst record and only won a league worse 17 games out of 84.  They do have young talent that will eventually emerge and make the team a threat, but I don't see them making the playoffs anytime soon unless something dramatic happens.  As for the Twins, they were coming off of a 94 win season and were the Central Division Champs!  But they lost in the American League Divsion Series to the New York Yankees.  Coming into this season many believed that they could make a run for the World Series, but many of the starters were injured and they started out slowly to begin the year and had to battle back.  At one point in July they were only 5 games back but too many injuries hurt the team and they fell apart to the second worse record in MLB.  By the end of the year they had mainly rookies in their line-up as most of the starters were injured.  For the Vikings this year has just been dreadful to watch.  They weren't expected to do much this year, but no one thought they would be this bad.  In their first three games they blew a 10, 17, and 20 point lead at halftime and lost all three games by less than 5 points.  Then this week they lost again to a team that also had no wins so overall they are 0-4.  So being a Minnesota sports fan right now isn't going the greatest, and like most people, I'm already looking forward to bounce back seasons next year.

First Baseball Scrimage

This past Thursday I played in my first baseball game at Wartburg.  It was just a scrimage between us players, but we played it like a real game.  The coaches split the teams up evenly as there is a black team and a grey team.  We will play 12 games in the fall, on Tuesday's and Thursday's we play 9 inning games and on Sunday's we play to 7 inning games.  Thursday was game one with the coaches there evaluating us.  I am on the black team so we were the home team for the game.  I didn't play the field right away, but I did hit when my name came up in the line-up.  My first at bat was as good as it gets as I laced a line drive to left center field for a single.  What a better way to start the game.  The next part though wasn't great as I was picked off while at first base.  I think the excitement of getting my first hit got in my head to much and I forgot to pay attention to what was going on on the field.  It only got worse from there as I struck out my next at bat.  During my last at bat though, I came up with the bases loaded and I hit a deep fly ball to left center field that brought in a run so I was credited with a sac fly.  I then had to pitch the last inning of the game and I went three up three down in the order.  So overall I went one for two hitting with a sac fly and an rbi, and pitching I didn't give up a single hit or allow a runner to reach base.  All in all it was a great first start to my baseball career at Wartburg and I hope to build on this performance and continue getting better.