~*~Letter to Coach Kear~*~

"subject: After two days of school...

I'm still alive, thank god. I was pretty nervous at first, but now its kind of gone afraid. You know how they always say when your a junior or senior you get senioritis. I think I'm one of the rare types, who doesn't quite want to leave. My life didn't really truly begin until I came to Granbury. I never got serious about soccer until I transferred too, and well the same for my grades as well. All of the girls and you have made such an impact on my life, its unbelievable. By the way, thanks for your encouraging words in your last email to me, I appreciate it. Yeah I'm not sure either why girls can't seem to keep self confidence, I'd like to say I can, but I have my insecurites just like everyone else does I suppose. I guess I've never really had people tell me it will be ok or anyone to encourage me. But now I do, and I love it, I feel safe for the first time in my life.

So you the the assistant volleyball coach huh? I didn't know that until today, I found it interesting. Me being the former volleyball player (7th grade to last year) and all, I can see where you're coming from on it being a stupid game. But like any sport if you have the passion for it, then you'll like it. For me I found that is has some sort of grace in it, its more gentle, cause if you're not gentle with the ball then its going to go flying off into the stands. Ahh.... freshman, seems that as the years go by, the maturity level of kids drops. But you how it is here now, we have the sophomores, they aren't very bright either. They crowd up the halls horribly, thinking they can stand there and just chat away, and in the meantime everyone else is crashing into each other trying to squeeze around. I still can't believe how many people there are here. I went from 108 people in my class to almost 400, its insane. Speaking of alot of people, Morgan told us that in all, there are 76 girls in soccer, or something like that, theres 43 girls alone in 2nd period.

Winkleman and all of us are adjusting fairly well, its definately different but in a good way I suppose. I think the only thing we weren't comfortable with about having Winkleman, was the fact that hes been under Mayo for so long. Matter of fact when I told my dad about what happened, he said that exact same thing. But I told him otherwise, cause 2nd period he talked the entire time, and he seems to have everything planned out, well in the general sense of course. I could just tell by the way he talked that he was his own man, and has his own ways, just like you did. And I respect that, so I'm not really nervous about the new coach thing I guess. Winkleman talked the entire time today too, talking about plays and the way things move on the field. We have discussed our traditions, like team dinners and all that. We tried to explain mafia, but he didn't quite seem to catch it. He kept going on about winning and, winning state and all that. But several of us finally told him no, that we're not like that. Which yeah winning state would be awesome, but if we begin to think too far ahead, we won't think about the present. And Ashlee made a good point, that if we win a few games in a row, and begin to think we can win them all, then we'll get arrogant and have it thrown in our face, like it did last year, against Stephenville. You understand how we are, we like the whole one game at a time, cause thats what matters, you make mistakes in that game the next thing you do is try to fix it, and you progress from there. We told him we're not like the guys, we don't do the whole cocky, we're better than everyone thing. Cause well I just found it extremely annoying when they did that. But I think this year will definately be good, Winkleman is stepping up physically wise alot!! Lots of running, sprinting and long distance, and well definately the weight room. I'm kind of excited. One since I came to Granbury I've lost alot of my physical strenght, I went from play 5 sports to just 1, I've lost ALOT of my speed!! And I hate it. I used to be just as fast as Sabrina, maybe faster, seriously I'm not just saying that. Oh in class we have 4 new seniors, 2 hispanic girls, one girl who moved back to granbury, the other played her freshman year (her name is Taylor K), the last two I think will be good. And of course theres the sophomores, I never got to watch Vicky or any of those girls play. But I know Erin and Heather will do good. And oh I almost forgot about our Juniors, theres like 5 of them. Ally is the only one who stands out in my mind right now. I know she has the ability, and the passion, shes just has to build up her self confidence. Which I'm going to try and help everyone out this year, that I can see, last year I was still a bit shy, but then again all of the people who probably could use the help I never saw. Lol alot of girls call me the counselor, simply cause I'm there for them when they need to vent, hoping I can become everyone in soccer's counselor. I like it, I like trying to help people out, whether something about the game or anything mentally too. Some of the seniors got a little cocky today, trying to get everyone quiet. I was late and came in and heard them being kind of rude about it, and I was like hey guys I as one of the seniors say that ya'll be a little nicer about it. I don't want them to get that whole cocky thing, cause thats what causes conflict. Which I know you completely understand that. But yeah I'm excited.

I walked by your classroom yesterday, I looked in, and I was like oh yeah hes not here. Before school started I got there early as always, and I got to the locker room door and I was like I hope Kear has unlocked it already, then I realized you weren't there. The walls in the soccer office and locker room are all completely blank, as if they were abandoned or something, but we plan to redecorate, lol thats what girls do right? Well it made me sad, but like you said, you had to do the best thing. And you're completely right, the right thing to do is generally the hardest thing to do. Speaking of your letter, the part where you started to mention some of the girls, as I started reading it I almost cried. It was so funny, but it made me miss you alot. Well your letter made me miss you even more than I did yesterday. By the way, Sarah read your letter to everyone who hadn't read it, even to the new kids. I think everyone appreciated it and enjoyed it, and your address and all that is up on the board for everyone, so I'm sure some of the other girls will email you or something. But yeah this year people will be missed, of course the obvious you. The seniors. And well the two we can't help. I'm going to miss Jeannie ALOT this year, and I keep hoping she'll show up one day. I know you've had to talk to her, is she going to play down there or what? I should email her, but I haven't quite gotten around to it yet. And the other person, Ann. I'll miss her on the field alot, I got attached to playing with her in club sophomore year. Shes probably the primary person that convinced me to come to granbury. Although she has her good reasons for not playing, which I completely understand, she'll still be missed. Bree and I have become quite good friends over the summer, its crazy, I still remember her as the girl who went to Ireland. I didn't like her at first, well I like everyone, but I guess I was probably just jealous of her, cause she got to go to Ireland (I'm really big on foreign countries). But also I just got this vibe from her, that she was really good. But I knew none of the seniors but Jamie and Charla, so I guess I was kind of worried about her not liking me. But who can resist little Erin right? But yeah I'm going to be sad to see her leave on tuesday, we've talked about you and the new coach, and we always come to the conclusion that well it doesn't really matter for her cause her time was done at high school anyways.

I saw Jamie a few weeks ago, I didn't really get to talk to her, she seem good though. I've seen Jennifer a few times up at the movie theatre (her job), and talked for a few seconds, she seems good too, I'm not sure when she leaves for college, where is she going and is she still getting to play ball there? Oh yeah Gina and her are still good friends as far as I know, but I can tell Gina is pulling off on her own, her own person. We talked this summer about the team butthole she was afraid everyone was going to hate her, but everyone is seeming to be getting along great so far. Gina and I are really good friends as well, we hung out alot this summer because of church. Gina got braces last week, and of course the color of her bands are pink. Maggie's hair is shorter now, and is still sweet as ever. I'm sure you've talked to Sissy, haven't you. She told us yesterday that she is really in anger management classes now. We thought it was funny, but we all also agreed that she did really well throughout last year. :) We are still calling Ashlee, Skank, we must keep our traditions, although I'm still not quite sure how it got started, I just know the name stuck, Audrie and I have even got the girls at club calling her that (oh yeah its just Audrie, Ashlee, and me on the team now from granbury). Well Sabrina, I think might have felt a little out of place without her faithful sidekick, or well neither were really sidekicks, so I guess I'll just say her other half. She can't play club with us because shes taking driver's ed at night and her parents can't afford to play for club and the class. But even if St. Claire could work it out, I don't think she really wants to play with us, the team is basically completely new, and Bree, Jeannie and Ashley aren't there, so she might not feel as connected to the team. And Taylor can't play with us for some reason, she and Maggie both got mono this summer, I found it quite funny. Taylor is still boy crazy, she flipped when she saw me yesterday, cause I was dressed really cute. I still think that Jodie, Sarah, and Kim feel like JVers, they still seem disconnected from everyone. I've never understood the seperation really, why should teams seperate who you hang out with or what you talk about or any of that. It just doesn't make sense to me. Wow who else is there, Heather is still a bit shy, but she seemed more comfortable since all of the other sophomores were there. Or well shes not why, shes just quiet. Oh I can't forget Morgan, I know you've talked to her, she told us so. She got her hair cut, she has bangs, it looks good on her, it makes her look younger. I'm glad she decided to stay, or whatever happened to where she is still here. We enjoy her company. Oh wow, I almost forgot Nikki, she stays so quiet. Shes got really short hair now, not quite as short as mine was when I first got here, but its short, it looks good, it kind of does its own thing and flips out everywhere. I'm not sure whats up with her, she has hardly said anything the last two days. So ok yeah thats everyone I can think of.

So the Diamonds, today we had our best practice so far, we had like 10-11 people there, which we've normally been having like 4, which sucked, we could hardly do anything. At first we weren't really in the mood, but then we had to do this meeting thing with our parents, which mine weren't there. About where we'll play, we got screwed (we have to play in Plano), but big deal. I hate listening to parents bitch, they act like they're the team. I was getting aggravated cause I drove an hour to practice not to listen to them. Well finally they accepted the fact that it was our decision if we wanted to play or not. We could play in Plano or become a tournament team. So thats when we came together, in our team meeting, we went off and talked for awhile, actually discussed the benefits and all that, but we all new at first we wanted to play in Plano, which is better I think. More practices and games and we're still going to play in tournaments, the more experience the better is what we thought. So we told them our decision, and then we basically said bye and we went back and practiced on our own, we kind of took over our practice, it was great, we had finally had a real chance to work together as a team. It was really productive. Audrie are going to go up this weekend and work with St. Clair for awhile, we're going to try and do individual stuff with him as much as we can outside of practice and all that. Audrie wants to play in college too, she seems pretty serious about it too. And St. Clair is all out up for trying to help us. Do you know a guy name Mike Gaskins, or something like that. Well I met him after one of our qualifying games this weekend, and my mom and I talked to him for like 20 minutes about college stuff, he came to me and asked me if I was a senior and if I planned on playing after HS. Hes going to help me out alot too he said, he gave me alot of advice too. I think playing with the Diamonds is really going to help alot. Its so much different than granbury club ball. I like it alot, and I get along with everyone really well. But I get along with everyone. So yeah I'm getting ready to start applying to colleges, I just have to find our what my ACT and SAT scores are, I don't remember. And of course I have to write essays and all that good stuff. I wish I would have known to start all this stuff alot sooner, like I should have taken my PSAT freshman or sophomore year and taken all of the other tests sooner, basically just to prepare more. Glen Rose didn't help me at all with that stuff, my grades sucked in Glen Rose, and I hate that now, cause it has really hurt my GPA, I wish I had someone on me back then about making good grades. But I'll survive, I know I'll get into a good college and I'm pretty sure I'll get to play soccer. I've just got to get on it, asap.

So wow, I've written ALOT, I'm quite a detailed person if you haven't noticed. Once I get started I can't stop. But well I really appreciate you being a part of my life, you're a great man, and I'm glad that things are working out for you. You deserve it. I can't wait to see you at Abilene, but most likely not before then, unless I can convince some of the girls to make a trip to a volleyball game, :) But I'll definately look forward to that, until then we have email. But well I think I've written enough, I've been writing the last 2 hours. And now its 12:40 a.m. and I have to get up at 6, so I better go. We have to work out tomorrow, running and weight room... YAY. So yeah I will talk to you later.

Love Always,

Erin Jones

P.S.
I got my letter jacket yesterday, Gina and I were so excited we ran straight to the box. Thanks for giving me the chance this last year, it was greatly appreciated."