Ozaki Cup-2023

Every year, our Southern section organizes a team tournament called the Ozaki Cup. It's a special tournament in which each of the NINE states in the Southern section competes against each other. Each state brings its best three boys and best three girls in each age category. You have to be invited to play this tournament, assuming you are ranked close to the top 3 in the state, and you have to have no suspension points from the past year. Mark was fortunate enough to have been invited to play for the North Carolina team as a B16 member. 

The tournament is held in Rome....Georgia. It's about a 7 hour drive from us, pass Atlanta. It's a beautiful place with one inconvenience--the lack of hotel choices. We ended up staying at the tournament hotel, walking distance to downtown, the Courtyard, but not a very cheap place.

This team event is so special for these tennis kids who compete on their own all the time. Here is a picture of them doing the team cheer.

Each state team has four coaches that supervise the kids and coach them even during matches--which is very different from regular tournaments. All the teams are divided into groups, and then all the teams play each other within the group to determine the next bracket. 

Comradery is the biggest asset of this competition. These kids absolutely love supporting each other and watch each other's matches. When your team's point is at stake, so many of them come out and watch the last matches still on court. In this picture, everyone was watching Mark and Joseph who were playing a doubles match against South Carolina. Every point matters when rivalry is this close! 

Usually, the top three of the Southern states are Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In 2022, North Carolina took the title for the first time in a while. But this year, our B16s team actually did not do as great as they hoped and that cost us the lead.

Here is another picture of the team on the first day when everyone was arriving. 

I can't remember the specific order, but I know that at some point North Carolina had to play Arkansas. Mark played doubles with Ryan Corcoran for the first match. 

In the evening of the first day, Mark also had to play doubles with the tiniest girl who was actually a back up as we had a very last minute default from a female tennis player who was going to play the number one position! So the director had to scrambled and literally asked a sister of one of the girls to become a last minute sub. Mark was such a good sport about this match! I mean, he knew that they had no chance to beat the other mixed doubles team after looking at their size. But he and this girl did not give up. Mark was SO encouraging and so kind to his partner during the match that her parents did not know how to thank me for raising such a fine young man. Miraculously, they won 4 games and only lost 6:4 as the final score! They had a great time although they lost....

Perhaps because of that, Mark actually received a Sportsmanship Award from our NC coaching team! And a gift card to Smoothie King. It was quite a surprise!!! 

One of the evenings, we all had to stay at the courts till 11 pm because somehow we got ourselves into a big pickle against South Carolina and basically a mixed doubles team had to play a 10 point tiebreaker to decide who gets the winning point as we were tied after all the matches from that day. Sadly, our team lost by a fraction and we ended up setting back into the third spot with Georgia leading the pack. Mark, however, won all of his singles matches so he really helped his team (well, at least he didn't hurt them).  

Downtown Rome...Georgia. Walking around in the evening to get some dinner. 

Joseph and Mark were paired up in doubles and happened to be next to each other after they gave out the frames to remember the tournament. 

And here are Mark, Victoria Mann and Cody Benton--they all trained at Cameron's. 

Oh, and backtracking a bit...we all arrived for practice on Thursday afternoon to the Rome Tennis Center. I parked and suddenly I saw smoke coming out from one of the cars parked just a few cars away from me. I came out of my car as I saw another parent get out of the car as we heard a loud pop. When I clearly saw the smoke, I got back into my car and reparked further away and dialed 911 as I saw the flames appearing from under the hood of the car. 

The dispatcher told me that help is on the way already and should be arriving shortly. And they did. By the time they got there, the front of the car was engulfed in flames! It was scary. They quickly tried to put away the fire, but definitely destroyed the car further in the process. 

Most parents stayed out of the way (the kids were practicing on court at that time). The car was completely destroyed...it was someone from TN, if I remember it correctly. Ford Edge--so don't buy that car as something malfunctioned randomly. They safely got their luggage and the cat out of the car,  and we all were happy that no one got hurt. Yeah...pretty eventful. 

Mark wishes he could play this fun tournament every year! But he probably will only be able to do it in his second year of 16s or 18s. Glad they have this team event for kids to feel like they are a part of something bigger. 

Lyana.

The Only Kid

And so it actually happened.... Mark is now the only kid living at home. 

It's quite a monumental event and deserves a full post. I actually don't know how I feel about it...it's another transition and it almost feel unreal. 

It's now easier and simpler in terms of scheduling, that's for sure. But then it's also too quiet sometimes, and a bit lonely. The dynamics in the house changed and it's kind of interesting to see what we can make of it. Also, don’t be alarmed...we don’t just randomly take pictures of just Mark...this was so that we can have a record of how he likes his hair cut. 

Mark is a pretty easy going kid though, so he is a pleasure to have around most of the time. Getting him to talk to us is a bit tricky as he always says "I am just thinking..."-haha. He is just a bit more reserved than the other kids and doesn't just waste his breath on chatting. He claims, though, that he does talk a lot when he is with his friends, he just doesn't do that to us-haha. 

He is a very busy kid but likes to chill at home when he can. Does not like crowds or big parties, but does enjoy going to the stake dances and tournaments (of course). 

 We all miss Katya and Alex but we are grateful we get to spend extra time with Mark for the next almost four years. 

Lyana. 

Weekend Trip to Washington DC

Shortly after Mark and I got home from Orlando and Robert got home from dropping off Alex at BYU, we drove north to Washington DC for Labor Day weekend. Mark was playing and L4 tournament up there, and the hotel stay was free with points, so we decided to all go and make a weekend trip out of it. 

On Friday afternoon, we parked in downtown and walked around the basin. 

It was a beautiful day! 

It was a bit lonely to be taking pictures with just the three of us, I am not going to lie. Also look how Mark is catching up to Robert. 

Lincoln Memorial in the background. This time we didn't walk around the mall but did go to the Holocaust Museum that required reserved timed tickets. 

It was a very poignant visit, the kind that leaves a very sour feeling in your heart and resolution to protect the world from the horrors of Holocaust. 

We could have stayed there all day reading the accounts of the survivors and learning the in depth the history of the WWII terror. I even took pictures of all the times that "the” was written in front of "Ukraine" on the plaques, incorrectly. And then I told the manager at the front desk who encouraged me to fill out a form (which I did) and told me to hold on to those pictures in case they contact me. He told me that an extensive renovation is due so they will be working on fixing such mistakes. 

After our visit, we drove to our hotel that was kind of towards Falls Church and grabbed a bite to eat at an Asian place. 

The following morning, Mark's tournament started. It was his first 16s L4, so he was just starting to get a taste of the competition. He played well, but lost to Reed, who is actually from our area in NC and who goes to school with Mark. 

Mark did win the next two matches and then lost to Matthew, another kid from our area. Overall, it was not a bad tournament for Mark but he knows he could have done a lot better. 

In the meantime, we decided to stop by and see our friends from England times--the Williamsons. Their son, Christopher, who is Katya's and Alex's friend, was in the middle of his Home MTC as he was preparing to serve in Germany, Alpine mission, Russian speaking (which is quite unique and kind of crazy). It was great to see them as we remembered our good times in Europe and got an update on all our kids.  

Finally, on Sunday, I decided to track down Abbie Glazier who was serving a mission in Washington DC Spanish speaking. I knew from her Facebook that she is in the area, and then Jeana, her mom, my friend from Japan times, told me what ward she was assigned to. I realized that her ward was meeting less than 10 minutes away from the tournament site, so while Mark was playing a match, I ran over to the church and surprised Abbie! She was so excited to see me but also very surprised! Katya and Abbie were best friends in Misawa! It's so incredible to see our kids being all grown up and doing such difficult adult things. Jeana told me to give her the biggest hug ever, so I did.

   

And so this is how our quick Washington DC trip went! Thankfully, the drive was uneventful and easy. I am sure we'll be back! 

Lyana.