So proud of Cassidy

This weekend Cassidy was at the Middle School Track Sectional in Gibson City. He normally does hurdles, 4 x 100 relay, 800 and most recently the high jump.


His 4 x 100 relay team has been changed so much, they're pretty much screwed from the start. Although he's run with the same 3 boys the last few meets, I don't think they've ever run in the same order. And their hand offs, well, let's just say they need some work. So we didn't expect much from this event. And I don't think Cassidy did either. I think they may have come in dead last.


He didn't do the high jump (I think he was happy about that) or the 800. He was a little disappointed in the 800, but seemed OK with it. And then there are the hurdles.


Cassidy has a passion for the hurdles. I have NEVER seen him so excited about. . . well, anything really outside of video games. He's the only 7th grade boy that runs them and I think he likes that. A freshman has been working with him and I think he thinks that's pretty cool, too.

He came in 3rd in his heat which put him in the finals. I had the camera and decided to record the final heat. I figured if I didn't he would make it to state and I wouldn't have it recorded. If you've ever tried to record a sporting event, you'll know that you're not really watching it because you're concentrating on recording. I have him and the 2 runners on either side of him in the view finder. He says he got a poor start, but I didn't notice it. He was keeping up with the others, but I couldn't really see who was in the lead, and it was all I could do to contain myself. When they crossed the finish line, Dana says, "Was he third or fourth?"

He came in 4th. But I could not have been more proud of him. He also had his best time of 18.7. We headed to the other end of the track to see him. As we went that way, we passed the freshman (Matt Watson, I think) that's been helping him. I heard someone say, "Matt, how'd he do? Did he make it to State?" He replied, "No, he came in 4th." I just wanted to jump up and down and say, "That's my boy!! I'm Cassidy's mom!!" I do wish, however, that I had stopped Matt and introduced myself to him so that I could thank him for working with Cassidy. It might be cool for Cassidy to have a freshman helping him, but probably not so cool for a freshman to be helping a lowly little 7th grader. I hope he knows how much that means to Cass.

We finally caught up with Cassidy and I gave him a big hug and told him how proud I was. I know, probably not the coolest thing for me to do, but he'll appreciate it when he's older. I certainly hope he sticks with this; I've always thought he would do well in Track. Let's hope for a State showing next year!!

If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post the race.