Luke's Football Banquet

Luke had his football banquet this last week and if winning the championship your first year on the team is not good enough Luke's brush with greatness made the banquet the cherry on his sundae.

This past Friday Pete took Luke to the Radisson in Eastlake to attend his football banquet. Luke got another trophy, this time with his name on it, and a gift from the coaches. Luke enjoyed the meal and really liked to see his friends. They had a "really boring" speaker according to Luke that went on forever but they also had a speaker Luke liked.

The speaker was there to talk to the kids about having fun and told them that when he was a kid after football he could not talk about the game except to say if he had fun or not. His parents taught him that football is fun and that all other things, family, school and friends come first and football is meant to be fun. He told them that if they did not say they were having fun they may as well not play.

It turned out this speaker was Isaac Byrd the former NFL player from the Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers. Luke was one of the few kids who asked Isaac for an autograph after his speech. On his way out Pete and Luke saw Isaac and Luke asked if he could take a picture with him. According to Pete Isaac was all about the kids ad jumped at the chance.

Pete took one photo which was a great memory for Luke but then Isaac did something that Luke did not expect nor did Pete. He took off his Superbowl ring an put it on Luke! We thought we would share these photos with you because it was the perfect ending to Luke's season.

For those of you we won't see over the holiday have a great Thanksgiving and remember there are always things to be thankful for!! This blog reminds me that for me it is my family:)

Dad's Deer

So I know this is the kids blog but they were so excited about this they asked me to post it on the blog. Most of you know that Pete and Matt hunt. Last year Pete entered a lottery to hunt at the Ravenna Armory and won. So a few weeks ago Pete and Matt went hunting.

Pete wrote the following blurb and I have included the photo. I know many of you may be grossed out by this but the kids were thrilled and we have a freezer full of meat that they all eat.

I was lucky enough to draw a lottery card through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and participate in a special one day gun hunt at the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site also known as the Ravenna Arsenal.
This is a military base that is 7 miles by 7 miles square.
Every hunter was given 100 to 200 acres as their designated hunting area
There are an estimated 1800 deer on the property.
The hunt was Saturday November 15 in freezing rain that was sheeting down and the wind was blowing the sleet sideways.
Overall the hunters didn't have much luck as the deer were bedded down and everyone was soaked to the skin by noon. Most all of hunters spent the rest of the afternoon in their trucks trying to warm up and dry their clothes as they waited for the rain & sleet to end.
The hunt officially ends at 4 PM and I had to be picked up by the military escort by 3:30, no exceptions, no excuses.
At 3:29 this 9 pointer crossed a small field and tried to sneak between an earth covered bunker on the front side as I was walking down the back side of the bunker.
I saw him out of the corner of my eye ran down the back of the bunker, jumped a ditch and caught him when he hit the logging road. He was facing me head on at 45 yards, I had a fraction of a second to take the shot before he jumped into the woods. I took the only shot I had and shot him in the throat, he dropped in his tracks, dead when he hit the ground.
Dressed out he weighed 149 pounds, so before I field dressed him he was a 200 pound deer.
Sticking it out in foul weather until the last possible minute turned a miserable day into one of my best hunts.

Pete

We are the Champions!!!

Today was the championship game for Luke's team the mighty Redhawks. Since we last updated you Luke played two playoff games. The first game was against the Willowick Giants and they had the same record as the Redhawks 5-1. The game was played in Willoughby and Luke's team won 20-0 or should we say they slammed them:)

The following week Luke's team had to go against one of the two number 1 teams in order to make it to the championship. They played another Willoughby team Nebraska and won that game 7-0. Nebraska was undefeated and had coaches we were so happy to beat!!

That brings us to today. A crisp November day perfect for football. Luke's team had to play the Mayfield Bluecats the only undefeated team left. We had played the Bluecats once already this season resulting in our only loss at 12-0. Luke's coaches and many of the sideline coaches (there were alot of us) knew the way to win was to keep Mayfields number 31 from getting the ball. They succeeded with flying colors.

The Redhawks had 1 interception, 1 fumble recovery and scored 13 points. The final score was 13-0 and gave the Redhawks a 8-1 record winning the Championship!!!

Luke could not be happier on how he ended his first year. He wanted to thank everyone that came out to support him at his games. Special thanks to Bubby and Grandpa, Uncle Matt and Steph, The Pendland family, the Yates family for the constant support this year. Also thanks to Uncle Greg, Aunt Jen, Cammie and Lindsey for coming to the championship game today. Check back next year when Luke will be a proud member of Ohio State.

Happy Halloween!!

I think most of you know that Halloween has always been a favorite around the Corbissero/Cicero clan. Bubby goes a little crazy on Halloween decorations, sometimes making things so scarey that kids won't come up to the house! This year was no exception and in our annual tradition Papa Harry came to University Heights to join us in our trick or treat trip.

Normally we run into the Cicero boys (Nick and Kyle) in the neighborhood and spend some time with them before heading back to Bubbies house but this year Mike and the boys came over and went with us for the whole night. It was great to see that those truly motivated by candy (Sophia and Kyle) were the leaders of the pack. We had to ask them to slow down about every other house because they were out running the older three trick or treaters.

The costumes were all great with Claudia as a graveyard fairy (yeah I know never heard of it either but she looked really cute), Nick as a soccur player (his costume was great in more then one way because the teams jersey was sponsored by AIG which gave him all kind of great "what are you dresses as?" answers:), Luke as a skull biker or ghost rider, Kyle as a ninja, and Sophia as a Goth Cheerleader (I know, I know this is more a foreshadowing of things to come vs. a costume).

We all had a great time and collected more candy then we need. We wanted to thank Bubby for her usual hospitality and great food and thanks to Papa Harry for coming.