Camp at Middle Park

Last week a few of us headed to the mountains to be clinicians at a camp in Granby, CO (right next to Winter Park). It was a great time. The kids did great, and the coaches had plenty of time to enjoy themselves. The camp ran from 9-12 in the mornings, then from 12-5 we had a long break. During these breaks we found ourselves Jet Skiing, hiking, on paddle boats, and even doing a little four-wheeling. The athletes at the camp learned a lot, and it was a ton of fun for the coaches.

In The Words Of...

Abbie Howe;

Just a good ole’ Greeley summer…
So, unlike most of the girls on the team, I am a local. Northern Colorado born and raised which means while all of my lovely friends skip off to their hometowns for the beginning of the summer I stay here in Greeley.
For the most part my summer starts out pretty slow which is really wonderful considering I spent my finals week trapped in a room writing what could be the equivalent of a novel’s worth of papers. My finals went well and so I spent a solid week sitting on my hind end just because I could J
Although a solid week of laziness is great, I am one of those types of people who can do nothing for a little bit but gets really antsy after a while so I started back with my job. I cater. Basically that means I spend my summer making sure everyone else’s parties and weddings are great. I cook the food, serve it, and clear all off of the plates when the guests are finished (not my favorite part of the job). But I do get to see some of the most insane parties in Colorado.
I usually head to work after I finish working out with the team in the mornings. We lift and run about midday during the week. My summer isn’t all work though… my parent’s have their house in the country about half an hours drive outsides of Greeley and I spend a good amount of time out there. Every Saturday night my mom makes Saturday night supper, which is amazing, and I get to see my dogs too :)
Now, Greeley is the type of town that requires a little bit of creativity when it comes to summer entertainment. One of the things that a bunch of us in the athletic department engineered is a super long slip-n-slide down the butler hill. Basically we take about 150 ft. of plastic and run it down the massive hill with coolers full of water at the top. Add a little dish soap and you have great summer fun! There are some casualties with this super slip-n-slide but all the bruises and scrapes are well worth it. Last summer the guys even set it up at night and had some moonlight slip-n-slide action! We haven’t gotten to set this up yet this summer because for some reason Colorado weather has decided it doesn’t want to behave like summer yet, go figure. So our slip-n-slide antics are to be continued…
Well, this is my little insight into a local summer. Hope you all are having a great one! GO bears :)

In The Words Of...

Coach Jenny Glenn...

There is no better way to finish off a great spring season than relaxing on the beaches of Costa Rica. I joined Lyndsey and a group of friends to spend a week surfing, zip lining, volcano watching, and sunbathing. The highlight of the trip had to be zip lining over the canopies of the rainforest at the Monteverde Cloud Forest. There is nothing like soaring hundreds of feet above the trees and creatures! It was definitely my closest experience to flying. We also stood and stared at Arenal Volcano for over an hour waiting for it to erupt one night. Apparently it erupts quite often, but we decided that was just a way of getting gullible tourists to go there. Another highlight was surfing the beaches at Tamarindo. Thanks to a local surf instructor who spotted us rookies out and had pity…I was able to surf out an entire wave more than once! He was pretty tough and kept yelling at me to “bend your knees.” I had visions of what our athletes must feel like when I say that to them all the time :). Playing in the ocean, reading books, laying on the beach, playing water volleyball and water polo, dance lessons (apparently I know how to do the Merengue now :), and other random activities filled most of our days. Unfortunately, vacation ended and my tan quickly faded, but really, it is all about the stories anyway!

In The Words Of...

Kenzie Shreeve...

While I was at home, two of my sisters were gone, one out of the country for her birthday and the other in Vegas with friends, so I went with my parents to Lake Powell. I was eager to go because I had not been for about seven years. My dad and uncle have been working on the house boat but we all got to go this time as well, which was definitely nice to get out of Eagle for my last weekend home. I spent most of the weekend taking care of my neice Zakia, which is fine because I do not get to see her alot. She has become such a character. She was okay being in the water until she saw a fish swim past her feet. My younger sister Lauren came along as well. We joked around alot as we always do and were able to be in the sun and water with the weather being as nice as it was. We found out that Lauren is somewhat claustrophobic and couldn't sleep down below in the bedrooms, that was pretty comical. It was kind of a rough weekend for her though, as she jumped into the water she forgot she was wearing her glasses. They are now laying down in the bottom of Lake Powell probably with many numerous items from the past. All in all it was a great trip and it was nice to spend the time with my family...just wish my two older sisters were there to share the many laughs.

In The Words Of...

Breanna VanDerMost...

Going home for summer is always a tough adjustment because we are leaving our teammates and friends. However this year I was very excited to go home for the month of May because my parents bought two 8-week-year-old puppies a week before classes got out. I couldn’t wait to go home and play with my new puppies!!! The puppies are muts so it is hard to say what they are, but my family and I do know that they are part Chihuahua and a mix of Terrier. This combination may sound ugly, but they are so adorable! The puppies will be three months old on June 15. Jade, our little princess, is the brown one. She is so playful, and loves to lick our faces. It is so funny to watch her run because she bounds and kind of skips. It is so cute!! We named her Jade because her eyes are bright green. That is one of the reasons we picked her from the litter of six. While my parents and I were seeing the litter for the first time, I knew I couldn’t go home without Jade. And I am so happy I didn’t!! Jasper is our little fluff ball. He is very mischievous, and loves to get into the plants in the backyard. But even when he is being bad, he is still so cute no one can be mad at him for long. We named our little guy Jasper because he is so white and reminded of Casper the friendly Ghost. But, I didn’t want to name him Casper, so I cleverly thought of Jasper, which fits him perfectly! When we first saw Jasper, my dad laid down in the grass, picked him up in his arms, and said, “You’re going home with us!” There was no debate between my parents and I that Jasper needed to be our puppy. I was so lucky to have three weeks with the puppies (or how I call them is the “babies”). It’s hard not being with them now, but since they are only two hours away in Colorado Springs, I know I will see them soon!!

In the last weekend in May, I had to be pulled away from my babies to go on vacation to California. Most of my aunts and uncles live in California, so I love visiting there. It feels like a second home. I stayed with my aunt KT in her condo in Irvine, which is a part of Orange County. I had a great time going to the beach and laying out. My favorite is Huntington Beach!! It's a great place to shop, play beach volleyball, and of course play in the waves. This trip was shorter than my usual visits to California, but it was still just as great! Well I’m back in Greeley now, working out and enjoying spending time with my teammates. Summer is great but I can’t wait for the fall, GO BEARS!!

Our Seniors...

Here is a little poem that Natalie Laband (Sophmore from Colorado Springs) wrote for our seniors...

Here's to our seniors...this season's for you!
This is the year our championship's in view.

We'll pump all the iron...all those stadiums we will run.
We'll practice our hearts out while we make bonding fun!

We’ve got the whole package, we now put it together,
With us all together...any storm we will weather!

You are the reason we’ll work hard and fight!
You deserve our best so we’ll get it done right!

So look out Big Sky teams we aren’t holding back!Be ready to greet us then get yourselves whacked!

In the Words Of...

Coach Tom Hunter...

Hey all... Just a quick update on what is going on in the life of an assistant coach. We just finished the move into our new, but temporary home, Bishop Lehr. It used to be a K-12 school that was on our campus (NC did start as a teacher's college) but is now the home of our athletic department. I actually like our new place. I am sure there will be pictures of it up on the blog soon.

Before the move, my wife, Andria, and I went on a mountain biking trip. It is the third year in a row we made the same trip and it was a BLAST! We drove to Fruita, CO, road around there some, then headed to Moab. Moab was ridiculous. If you are into mountain biking, you need to ride slick rock sometime. Super fun.

Besides that, I have just been working around the house and getting ready for our 2009 season. It is going to be so much fun! Our 2009 class is shaping up to be great and our returners are very solid. Going to be a good year to be a bear.

Ducklings!

Time to give an update on the ducks! Unfortunately the number of ducklings are down to 3. All three look to be very healthy and are starting to run out in front of mama duck. They are getting bigger! Keep an eye out for more duck adventures at the 'Ship' (we call the new building the 'Ship...' the building's actual name is Bishop Lehr).