What A Week!

I'm back from traveling Wyoming with a few of the University of Wyoming athletes and it sure is nice to sleep in my own bed (a mighty comfy one at that)! We were gone for five days, traveling over 1025 miles, putting on 10 sports clinics each including six different sports. We stopped in nine different cities, most of which I'd never heard of, and worked with about 6,000 kids! At the end of each clinic we signed autographs for thirty minutes and it was hilarious to see all the kids lining up just to get a name written on their shirt. I felt famous :) The teachers seemed more excited for the autographs than the kids.

Being in a bus that long was hard but I was grateful that I'm only 5' 9" unlike most of the volleyball, basketball, and football players. Their legs barely fit into the seats and I felt bad for one of our basketball guys who is 6'11" as he couldn't even stand up on the bus. Even with that many hours in a bus we passed the time with movies, games, and long naps (kids are exhausting) and the BEAUTIFUL weather made it a very scenic journey. By far the best part of the trip was walking into gym/auditorium/cafeteria filled with hundreds of kids and teachers talking and when they saw us filing in they began screaming and clapping so loud that our heads hurt for the rest of the day (but it was worth it).

Did I mention that kids are hilarious! Here are just a few of the things we heard throughout the week

"I could dunk too if the basket was lower" -7yo boy not impressed by one of our basketball guys' 180 dunk

"Why don't football players carry ropes? Then all they'd have to do is lasso the other team instead of tackling them" -8yo boy who didn't want to tackle the pads at the football station

"Are any of the boy athletes single?" -10yo girl who wanted to go on a date with one of the guys

"Do our teachers pay you to sign autographs?"
"No we just like doing it"
"I don't believe you"-6yo girl

"For being in college and all you guys have horrible handwriting" -11yo girl referring to our signatures (it was a bit difficult to write on t-shirts though)

"Do you use steroids?"
"We are not allowed to"
"That didn't stop those baseball guys. Is that why there are no baseball players traveling with you guys? Did they get in trouble for using steroids" -10yo boy talking to one of the football players (we don't even have a baseball team)

And by far the funniest of the whole week!
When we arrived at each school we introduced ourselves to all the kids and did something fun with them like a cheer or quick competition that required some volunteers from the audience. This what happened when the wrestling coach introduced his wrestlers.

"This is Shane from Oklahoma. He wrestles 149 pounds for us"
"WHOOOAAAHH"-all the kids in unison
"This is Lealand and he wrestles one 197 for us"
"WHOOOOAAHHH" (all the kids)...
 then one kid said, "I think he ways more than my mom and dad combined!
*It was so funny because the wrestling coach had been doing the same intro all week and only this school's kids were so amazed by the weights. We all had a good laugh about it

Only in Wyoming do kids show up in wranglers (with huge belt buckles), cowboy boots, cowboy hats, ready to play some soccer... gotta love small towns.