volleyball blog

As if one blog isn't enough for me to keep up with, I have started a new one for our volleyball program! It seemed like the easiest way to keep family and fans up to date. 

We will still include some volleyball highlights on this blog (seeing as it takes up most of our waking hours) but THIS BLOG will have weekly-ish updates on how the season is going. 

on the road again...

Our team was on the road again this past weekend playing Rocky Mountain College and Carroll College in Billings and Helena (yes, those cities are in Montana). Both these teams are ranked in the top 25 nationally and for good reason. 

They are good.

And unfortunately, we did not play good (I know it should be well but good worked better in context). Sometimes you just have games where NOTHING goes right and you can't get it turned around. We had one of those at the wrong time. 

The team is still working hard and believing in themselves so I can't ask for much more (although the competitive/selfish side of me would like more wins immediately). 

We got to Carroll College a little earlier than we needed to this is the team doing a problem solving team building activity. It's interesting to watch them work together and see who emerges with ideas and solutions. 

Our manager, obviously working hard...

 Some were more active coming up with solutions than others...

We play Montana Tech tomorrow and are excited for a change to get our first conference win during homecoming week!

walk to work

Today on my walk to work I thought I would take a couple of pictures to share. These are some of my favorite things on the short (less than a mile) walk to my office:

a cool house

Street names in the sidewalk. These are right at the intersection and it seems simple but for some reason I just love it!

The emergency exit on the elementary school. I always imagine pushing the scared students down if it ever had to be actually used (maybe that's why I work with college students and not elementary).

A church on the intersection of our street. I've realized that I have not developed any sense of direction in Dillon and my only indication of when to turn to go home is seeing this church (perhaps a bit concerning but it works).

The Go Dawgs! messages on the windows (it's homecoming week here).

pretty campus

Main Hall

 This isn't on my walk to work but I thought I'd share my victory. Yes, I beat Mikel and I'm not above bragging about it.

more fish, of course

This weekend, while I was out of town with volleyball, Mikel got some time to go fishing and (of course) caught more fish!

He works practically every day that he is not helping me with volleyball so he was thankful for some time to fish and try out some of his new flies!

Beaverhead County High School

Even though Dillon is a pretty small town, we are the county seat and we have Beaverhead County High School here in Dillon (enrollment: 345).

The high school is a REALLY big deal in town and their sports teams are generally very good. This is in stark contrast to Montana Western's recent years of losing seasons and so the high school is very well supported.

We have recently had the chance to go to a football game and the Beavers are currently first in the state in high school football. I should have gotten a picture of the home stands because they were packed but this is BCHS beating someone (I really should remember these details-- but either way they were supposed to be a really tough team).

 Mikel suggested I take a picture of the scoreboard because the high school may be the only team to put up a winning score on it. That is 40-10.

You see, the high school and college teams share a stadium and football field. After I got over thinking that was really weird, it's actually quite practical for a town of ~3,700 to only have the one field. 

Like volleyball, our football team at Western has a new coaching staff this year after about five years of bad seasons.

I also went to a volleyball game at the local high school. They are definitely in a "rebuilding year" (which is the nice way of saying they aren't nearly as good as they have been). They have a new coach this year also and she is actually the old coach from Western (not the one I replaced but the one before that). She still works at the college but stepped down from the Western volleyball program to spend more time with her family.

Pretty nice gym for 350 students!

fun in Montana

Yesterday, Mikel got the opportunity to go fishing with someone he met at the golf course. They road RZR's out because it can't be driven to (I hope that's the name and really, I'm just repeating what Mikel said- I have no idea).

An old cabin they passed...

 They went to both Kelly and Esler Lake. Both beautiful...

 Mikel's big catch at Esler Lake...

 The RZRs. Conveniently, the guy Mikel went with had two!

He had a blast and I was invited to go next time! Hopefully this time I won't have practice!

hunting antelope in September

How could I pass this up?

Labor Day weekend

Unfortunately, we were out of town for Labor Day weekend because it's one of the biggest weekends here in Dillon. There is a rodeo, fair, concert, parade and lots of fun. We were in Walla Walla, WA to play Walla Walla University but we got two wins so it was definitely worth it!

We played WWU on both Saturday and Sunday but our Saturday match wasn't until 8:30 pm because they have to wait until after sundown on Saturday to play (Seventh Day Adventist school).

The team warming up at Walla Walla...

 This gave us the opportunity to get the team out of the bus/hotel routine and spend some time in Spokane.

The team in the huge wagon slide in Spokane...

There was Pig Out in the Park going on at Riverfront Park in Spokane so we gave the team some time to walk around there. It was a huge event with different vendors and a couple stages with different bands playing...

Mikel and I went on this gondola ride thing that took you out over the falls. It's right in the park...

 The park there is so pretty and it was nice to get some fresh air before a long bus ride!

my team!

Grandpa Harold

Last week Mikel's family lost an amazing man. Grandpa Harold passed away and it just seems so unfair however Mikel and I know how lucky we are to have such great relationships with awesome grandparents.

We are also incredibly thankful we had the opportunity to move to Montana and be closer to family this summer. We will always be forever grateful that we were able to go the Hazelton Celebration this summer.

volleyball in Billings

This past weekend the team competed in a tournament co-hosted at Rocky Mountain College in Billings and Montana Tech in Butte.

The first day at Tech we split (beat Walla Walla University and lost to Montana Tech) and then we went to Billings. Before we could even play a match, THIS happened. That would be a man running through/jumping out a window on the 12th floor of the Crowne Plaza one block down from our hotel. Our team had just walked by about 6 minutes before it happened on our way to lunch and walked back about 30 minutes after! What the heck?!

After we finally made it to the gym in one piece we played three matches, beating Dickinson State and losing to Davenport and Dakota Wesleyan. The team is glad to be winning some matches and played a lot better than the first weekend so all in all it was a successful trip!

This weekend we're off to Walla Walla, WA for two more matches.