Population:
Thousand Oaks, CA – 130,209
Covina, CA – 46,837
Saugus, CA – 41,743
Moorpark, CA – 37,576
Bishop, CA – 3,428

Which of these towns has the best U14 soccer team?

That’s right – Bishop, baby!  Bishop AYSO’s Spring Select soccer season is off to its biggest start ever.  Bishop now has ten teams playing in the Spring Select season, with both boys and girls playing in competitive tournaments both locally and abroad.

This past weekend saw the Bishop under-14 boys team travel to the Pot-O-Gold tournament in Thousand Oaks, California.  They competed in a 20-team U14 division, and didn’t lose a game.  On Saturday, the Bishop boys defeated tournament hosts Thousand Oaks by 3-1.  Next, they defeated Moorpark in a resounding 5-0 victory.  Going into the opening round on Sunday, they met the Covina boys team, who were also undefeated.  They won that match 4-1, but lost striker Irving Perez to a broken wrist.

Bishop was ahead on points going into the final match against a tough Saugus squad.  Saugus scored quickly, putting Bishop on their heels for the entire first half of play.  Saugus punished Bishop with two more goals before halftime, and Bishop was down 0-3 at half.  Bishop emerged in the second half with an invigorated defense led by defenders Hector Santana, Alex Gonzalez, Alejandro Sanchez, Jarod Dossey, Evan Meneses and Joe Domke. Goalkeeper Daniel Martinez didn’t allow any goals the second half.  The stronger defense kept the ball in the attacking half of the field, allowing midfielders Joey Griego, Tristan Sinkinson, Jose Mendez, Alexis Santana, and Elijah Alexander to dominate possession in the second half.

A brace of goals by Elijah Alexander, including the tying goal five minutes from the end of the match, saw Bishop take the championship in the tournament.  Along with their first place trophies, each age division champion team was formally invited to walk on the field at a Los Angeles Galaxy game at halftime for a “Parade of Champions,” with each team announced and shown on the jumbotron at the Home Depot Center.  The team was led by head coach Greg Alexander, and assistant coach Joe Griego.  The team referee was Louis Molina.  Click on the photo to the right to see the full album of pictures from the tournament.

Their next tournament will be the Sagebrush Tournament in Reno, NV on the weekend of March 26th.

Back Row (L-R) Coach Greg Alexander, Elijah Alexander, Daniel Martinez, Tristan Sinkinson, Hector Santana, Jarod Dossey, Evan Meneses, Joey Griego,Irving Perez, Assistant Coach Joe Griego, Team Referee Louis Molina

Front Row (L-R): Joseph Domke, Jose Mendez, Alejandro Sanchez, Alex Gonzalez, Christopher Molina, Alexis Santana

It was a very nice Christmas morning.  We got to sleep in to about 7am, which isn’t too early, all things considered.  Gracie was the first up, and so we got Mom up (who drove up from Barstow to spend Christmas with us) and we promptly got to opening gifts.  Our Christmas Eve dinner was pheasant, which I had never cooked before.  Frankly, it was a lot like chicken (maybe turkey), but it turned out quite well.

We had many wonderful gifts.  My dad sent all of us money, which is always a flexible gift.  Mom brought up some fresh eggs from her chickens, made some sushi (our favorite holiday dish!), and gave us all some homemade canned goods.  We got canned beets, apples, peaches, cherries, and tomatoes!  My mom also brought some homemade enchiladas, another great Griego family traditional holiday meal!  She may be Japanese, but she makes the best enchiladas…

Joey’s big gift this year was a ski jacket, which he’s been needing, now that he’s grown so much.  He’s *almost* taller than me – just a matter of time…  He got a couple of video games, a new wii motion controller, some books as well.  Both Joey and Gracie got a gift from Karen’s friend Nancy, who donated on their behalf to a school in Nepal, which their school (Round Valley) is sponsoring.

Gracie got several books, including the full series of Sisters Grimm books, which she really likes.  She also got a hand-carved magic wand, for those all of those flights of fancy she enjoys taking after reading a good story…  Some movies, gift cards, money, and some fun stocking stuffers, such as a classic Slinky, and a kids’ magic kit.

Karen got me a nice custom dash cover for the car, and the autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1.  That looks like a great read, if a bit daunting – it’s a thick 680 pages!  I got Karen a couple of movies she’d wanted (“Scrooged” and the Star Wars trilogy), as well as a some gift cards.

It’s off tomorrow to Ridgecrest to spend time with Karen’s family.  What a joy to spend time with our family, and I look forward to being with the rest of our relatives tomorrow.  Hope everyone is having a nice Christmas, too!

Click on the photos to view the gallery of Christmas pics…

Joe Griego

We headed up this past weekend to Little Lakes valley.  It’s a nice, relatively level hike, starting from Mosquito Flat trailhead, just above Rock Creek lake.  It’s only about 15-20 minutes from our house, so it’s a good way to introduce anyone to backpacking.  It was a beautiful day Saturday, but we did get a quick moving Sierra storm squall in the afternoon.  It actually snowed and hailed for a few minutes on us!  We just sat in the tent and played cards, then went out later for some fishing.  Gracie, Joey and I all caught plenty of fish.  Gracie and Joey even used my fly rod to catch some, so that was fun.  Click on any of the photos to view the entire gallery.  Joey took a LOT of pics, so browse at will.

Joe Griego

Well, Joey and Gracie are off in Santa Fe visiting their aunties, and I’m missing having them around.  So, I thought I’d post some pics of our 4th of July celebration.  I had just returned from Spirit West Coast (a christian music festival) with our youth group, and was pretty tired.  But, how can anyone be tired of setting off fireworks?!

So, click on the photo to see the gallery of 4th of July pics!

Saw this today, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think most people inherently understand why profit incentives don’t work, but we sometimes pretend otherwise.  Three things motivate us for complex tasks – they are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  Give us these three things, and watch the amazing things that can happen.  Share and enjoy!

The Griegos had a great Easter weekend.  We spent Saturday down in Ridgecrest having our traditional Easter egg hunt at Maria’s house, and then we went to Easter service at church in Bishop.  You can click on the photo of Gracie (with butterfly) on the left here to see the full gallery of pics.

Happy Easter!

The Griego family celebrated Christmas morning with the usual early riser (Gracie), coming into the bedroom to ask if we’re ready to get up yet!  So, we rolled on out of bed, and began the gift opening.  We’ve been blessed this year with so many things.  Good health.  Kids did well in sports.  Both kids getting on the honor roll with straight A’s.  We are so fortunate.  I’m so thankful that we are doing as okay, even in a very tough economy.

Joey enjoyed all of his gifts, and he’s showing off his Jozy Altidore offical Hull City FC jersey here.  You can click on any of the photos to see the full album of photos.  His “big” gift was a new TV that he can use in his room to play his Wii.

Gracie’s “big” gift this year was an iPod nano.  She really enjoys the video camera, and spent all morning recording herself doing silly things.  Hopefully she’ll take good care of it, since it wasn’t cheap!

Even Mochi got in on the action.  She got an edible Christmas card, and a chew toy that was shaped like a Christmas star on a stick.  She ate that one right up.

So, it’s off to finish Christmas dinner.  I’m making duck, which I’ve never done before.  I hope it turns out okay.  It’s quite fatty, so I’m hoping it’ll still turn out ok.  We’ll see.  Feel free to click on any of the photos to visit the online album of pics.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Joe, Karen, Joey & Gracie Griego

Last Sunday, Gracie performed “The Advent Song” for First United Methodist Church in Bishop, CA. Of course, I may be biased, but I thought she sang quite well. She’s even getting a little vibrato in her voice. I know *I* couldn’t stand in front of so many people and sing, especially at her age!

Share and enjoy:

This year’s AYSO season went quite well for both Gracie and Joey.  It ended, as it traditionally does here in Bishop, with the Kit Carson Shootout All-Star Tournament.  It took place over weekend of November 7th-8th, and for the first time, both Joey and Gracie were selected as all-stars.

Gracie was selected to play on the U10 Girls “B” team.  Bishop sends two all-star teams, an “A” team (generally the bigger, stronger, or faster players), and  a “B” team of the talented, but generally smaller players.  Gracie played very well, as did the rest of the “B” team players.  Her team was: Lauren Simpson, Molly Foster, Sara Stone, Emily Ball, Kori Boxley, Tatiana Sinkinson, Grace Griego, Ivy Mendiburu, and Evelyn Lopez.  They lost their first game (against North Lake Tahoe, who fielded their only team, an “A” team, in the “B” division…sigh), then came back to win against Carson Valley 3-1, then lost their last game to Incline 3-1.  Gracie did some wonderful dribbling, and passed quite well.  I’m biased, of course, but it was nice to hear from the North Lake Tahoe coach that she was a “wonderful” player, and he even told Gracie directly, which she really enjoyed hearing.

Joey’s U14 team has never beaten their rivals, the Mammoth Flames, at Kit Carson.  The Bishop U14 boys lost to Mammoth in last year’s championship game in kicks from the mark (Joey didn’t play in U14 last year), so they were hoping for redemption this year.  Bishop U14 won all three of their group games, and so advanced to the championship game again this year.  Mammoth won all of their group games (they tied South Lake Tahoe, but won on kicks from the mark), and also advanced to the championship, so the big rematch was ON!

The Championship game definitely lived up to the rivalry.  Mammoth opened the scoring with a beautiful shot that beat Bishop keeper Chris Gonzales.  There followed another full half of beautiful soccer that included one yellow card for a hard challenge on Bishop midfielder Angel Flores, several shots ringing off the post, just over the crossbar, and a fantastic chance for Joey on a great run into the area, and saved by the Mammoth keeper.

It all came down to the final few minutes of regulation time.  The last minute heroics were provided by Bishop High freshman Wesley Hart, who made a lightning run from midfield onto a great through ball from Tristan Sinkinson.  Wes hit a great left-footer that came across the goal to beat the Mammoth keeper, and equalize at 1-1 in the final minute of regulation time.

The game was then forced into two five-minute overtime periods.  The first period went scoreless, despite some frightening attacking play from Mammoth.  The second period was equally fierce, with desperate defending from both Bishop and Mammoth.  With two minutes to go, Bishop won a free kick about twenty-five yards from goal.  Wesley Hart fired a great, arcing free kick to the far post, and Chris Gonzales came blazing in to head it on-frame and score to put Bishop ahead 2-1.  The final two minutes were very tense, with Mammoth putting in shots in the Bishop goal area, and Bishop keeper Steven Santana desperately saving several times to keep Bishop ahead.  The game ended on a final corner kick from Mammoth.  A Mammoth player missed the corner kick, hit it off his shoulder, and Angel Flores cleared it out of the area, as the referee blew the whistle for full time.  Bishop U14 boys won the Kit Carson championship for the first time in five years with this dramatic come-from-behind victory, 2-1.  Wesley Hart was the player of the match on this day, and all of the boys played tremendously.

Bishop as a town also fared quite well.  Bishop U14 boys, Bishop U14 girls, and Bishop U10 girls (Sierra division) all won in their divisions.  Bishop U12 girls also made the championship final, but lost 2-1.  Bishop U19 coed made the championship final, but lost 3-1 to Mammoth.

Click on any of the photos above to view the entire gallery of photos from the tournament weekend.

Joe Griego, Bishop, CA

In yesterday’s football game, Joey scored three touchdowns for Round Valley Elementary, in a cross-town rivalry match versus Bishop’s Home Street Middle School. They beat Bishop by eight points, and Cammy Alexander contributed with several two-point conversions. Joey said that they are primarily a running team, and all three touchdowns were from running plays from the backfield.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch this game (darn work!), and we don’t have any pictures. But, Joey really had a great game, and I hope to post some photos from a few of the other football games later in the season.