KAYLA'S TOP 30 before I turn 30 - Celebrate Friendship and High School Athletics

It's countdown time to my 30th birthday - Just 30 days until I turn the BIG 30!!!!

Today is day 1 in the countdown. I've decided to post 30 (or maybe more if I so choose) of my favorite memories over the last 30 years. They are in no particular order - just whatever I feel like posting from my top 30 list.
Today I celebrate friendship and high school athletics. For someone who grew up very shy and somewhat introverted, athletics and the friendships that came with them meant a lot to my personal development. I'll never forget the first time I was asked to come and play at recess by two of my still very good friends, Kinsey Dahl (Zinser) and Sadie Perkins (Lyman) in the 5th grade. It felt so good to be included - especially by such cool gals! To say the least, I loved doing middle school track (and this girl is not a runner - more of a shot put thrower) and I thoroughly enjoyed playing basketball (again begin invited to join in by some very cool friends). Basketball was a great ice breaker for me. I put in some seriously hard work and ran my guts out and played for some truly amazing coaches with some seriously awesome people! Some of my fondest memories are basketball camp and basketball practice with Coach Varlin and Coach Ken. Thank goodness for Coach Andher as well! Anyway, I'll talk more basketball on the day I celebrate just that - but today, my biggest and fondest memories of high school athletics lie in my softball experiences.

It's the one sport that I truly loved to play, the sport I was decent at and the sport that I got to play with coaches and people who were committed to practicing and playing hard. This is a photo of the inaugural ladies softball team at my high school. Thanks to awesome crusaders like Mary Castleton, we had a softball team in our school for the first time when I started my freshman year. The first year I played, there were only two freshman on the team: myself and Kinsey. We played all four years, went to state tournament three of the four years and managed to be co-MVP's our senior year.
It wasn't until my sophomore year (I played utility my first year) that I found my favorite position - Catcher. No one else really cared to play it, but I loved it. I think I finally got pretty decent at it by the time I graduated.

So today, on Day 1 of my countdown, I celebrate friends who include shy, newcomers in their recess activities and high school athletics and to Coach Andher, Wood and Higbee for an aweseome first year and to Coach Ken and Coach Hansen the last and all of the years inbetween - and to the Lady Panthers Softball Team - 1996-1999!