Captain Liliana Bannister
May 23, 2016 7:20 AM
Pecari Try-outs! by Captain Liliana Bannister
Liliana was excited as Pecari had a full team that year and it appeared that Aladren’s was shaping up as well. This was good sine they could contiue officially ompeting against one another without the whole combined team thing. Not only that but Teppenpaw looked to be having a full team too—if last year’s tea roster in the yearbook meant anything. She hoped Crotalus could pull it together as well—it would have been amazing to see all four Houses competing against each other once more! She was in such a good mood thinking about all this she even smiled at Jamie Park when he showed up to try-outs, catching herself only when it was too late.“Alright,” she said once she was sure everyone who was going to be there had arrived. “Welcome to Pecari try-outs. I’m the Captain, Liliana Bannister and this is Joella Curtis, the Assistant Captain. I’m going to read off the names from sign-ups so shout ‘here’ when you hear yours. And if I don’t call your name, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.” After roll-call, she clapped her hands together and the list rolled up and tucked itself in the bag she had brought to the Pitch earlier.
“First we’ll do some warm-ups, followed by agility training. And then we’ll split off to try-out for parts.” The exercises, as she explained to the group, were as followed:
First they would run laps around the Pitch, four each. She would be evaluating them on pacing rather than quickness but she didn’t tell them that though Joella, of course, knew. She had run all this by Joella previous to setting up for the try-outs and asked her Assistant Captain to contribute any ideas that she had. Next they could participate in an obstacle course which was also evaluated on pacing though she would also take into account steadiness. Lastly she had them all walk on a line three feet up in the air. She didn’t expect anyone to complete the tightrope (though she would have been impressed if they had) and rather just wanted to see how far each person could go before falling over. That and it was amusing to watch.
Once the pre-try-outs were over, Liliana called everyone to reconvene again. “We’ll have Chasers with me, and Beaters with Joella.” Though Joella played Chaser and Atlas was the Senior Beater on the team, Joella was her Assistant Captain and she wanted the Beaters to have some live target practice. She had full confidence that Joella would be able to evade most of the Bludgers and besides that, it would be no different from regular practises when Liliana asked the Beaters to aim at the rest of them, an exercise that she liked to have at least three times a week, if not every practise. “The Chasers will work on passing and scoring. We’ll have you pair up and start at mid-pitch, before ending at the hoops where I will be guarding. As for the Beaters, you will be batting towards Joella and Jamie.”
While Liliana was having the Chasers and Beaters try-out, she needed something for Jamie to do and she wanted her Seeker to be fully prepared for the upcoming season by practising dodging Bludgers whenever he had the time. After the Chasers and Beaters were done, Liliana would have a time-trial for the Seeker position with the Chasers and Beaters playing around them, but she was almost positive that Jamie was the only candidate for the position so it was really just a formality that she had to do.
OOC: Sorry that this came up so late, RL got a little busy… Anyway, have fun with this and good luck! Remember, regular posting rules apply (200 words min., creativity and realism is important, etc.)
Subthreads: Beater? More like beat <em>me</em>!! by Sammy Meeks with Assistant Capt. Joella Curtis, Lily Spencer
Can we not do this ever again? by Ben Pierce with Killian Everett
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Captain Liliana Bannister
Pecari Try-outs!
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Captain Liliana Bannister
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Sammy Meeks
May 24, 2016 3:42 AM
Beater? More like beat <em>me</em>!! by Sammy Meeks
Sammy made a special effort to be not only on time for tryouts but in fact early. For one thing, she super loved Quidditch and wanted to spend as much time in the mindset and physicality of the game as possible. But also--and this was the main reason for her hurry--she had totally spaced and forgotten to put her name on the signups, so she wanted to be timely so that Liliana would see that she still wanted to play.“LILIANA!” she exclaimed when she arrived, half out of breath, which only aided to the desperation in her voice. “I’M SO SORRY!” Sammy practically threw herself at the feet of her captain, begging for mercy as she explained why her name had been absent from the signup sheet. There were plenty of I’m an idiots thrown in there, complimented by the frequent I can’t believe this happeneds that went along with it.
But Liliana was a benevolent, merciful queen, or at least Sammy thought so. The younger Pecari was still going to get a shot to be on the team, so that was something. (Apparently, walk ons were a thing.) She wasn’t necessarily sure Liliana would call her name during the roll call, both since Sammy’s name wasn’t originally on the list and since Liliana knew for a fact that she was here. Nonetheless, she was attentive and on her very, very best behavior through the whole thing.
Normally, Sammy might have been one to rush ahead during laps--partially to show off, and partially because she happened to really like running--but she was, like, all nervous now and didn’t want to do anything stupid to jeopardize her spot, so the brunette did her best to actually pace herself on the laps around the Pitch. It felt like a crawl, but when she didn’t feel completely dead at the end of it, she decided that maybe that was a thing she ought to do more often. The obstacle course, however, she ran with more speed, too excited by the fact that they had an obstacle course to contain herself. To her own surprise, she only fell down once or twice.
The tightrope was another story. Sammy was one of the first in line, and she fell off almost immediately. This frustrated her. Tightrope-walking always seemed cool, and balance--which she assumed was the point of the thing--was super important for effective broom-flying. So she doubled back to the end of the line so she could try again. This time, she got a bit farther: nearly halfway. “Can I just try one more time? Please?” She hated to push her luck, but this was important to her now. Sammy Meeks was no quitter. She couldn’t ask for more than three, but something in her heart told her she wouldn’t need another.
And she was right.
With her tightrope success a quiet flame that burned within her, giving her all the confidence she thought she could ever need, she was ready for the real tryout. Rough, stubby fingers wrapped firmly around the handle of the bat, her other hand gripped tightly on the broom between her legs. Game on, she thought as she rose into the air. Let’s get swingin’.
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Sammy Meeks
Beater? More like beat <em>me</em>!!
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Sammy Meeks
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Assistant Capt. Joella Curtis
May 26, 2016 4:52 PM
Come at me. by Assistant Capt. Joella Curtis
Liliana seemed to be taking Quidditch especially seriously this year, not that she’d ever been slack of course. There had been no matches last term but team practice had continued anyway, although Joella supposed this time they had more to work for. On top of that, this was Liliana’s final year as captain of the Pecari team, as sad as that fact was, and she was probably determined to go out with a bang. Joella thought all the effort that the seventh year was already putting in (and the year had barely even started yet) rather admirable and sincerely hoped that it was made worthwhile.At the same time a part of her did feel mildly concerned by the strict training regime the captain had planned for the year, thinking Liliana may be forgetting that her team weren’t elite athletes, but she wasn’t going to say so. If people struggled to stick to the schedule, Liliana would probably pick up on it and change it. Joella herself was fully capable of keeping up with the intense training, her only worry being that it might cut into her own personal routine, and didn’t want to underestimate her teammates.
Nevertheless, Joella was very keen to be of optimum assistance and was glad that Liliana always gave her such opportunities by involving her in many decisions. The try-out plan for today was rather different from the sort Joella was familiar with but definitely in a good way. The initial exercises were well thought out and potentially fun but at the same time served their purpose of assessing the potential player’s abilities.
Once Liliana had fully explained everything to the group, Joella mounted her broom and took off with the Beaters. The Pecari team already had Atlas and Sammy, whose positions she didn’t think could possibly be threatened, but it was still interesting to see new talent (particularly if they would be in need of a Beater next year) and having reserves was always handy.
The fifth year thought that being the Beaters’ target practice would be beneficial for her too and get her back into training mode for the many team practices to come. Of course, she always managed to get in a good deal of Quidditch practice over the holidays but there were certain skills she simply couldn’t cover without her teammates.
“OK, show me what you got!” She called through the air, grinning over at the Beaters.
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Assistant Capt. Joella Curtis
Come at me.
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Assistant Capt. Joella Curtis
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Lily Spencer
May 27, 2016 5:12 PM
Gladly! by Lily Spencer
When Lily woke up on the day of the tryouts, she couldn’t keep in her excitement. She was a little sleep deprived after bouncing around in excitement the night before, but her energy hadn’t lessened in the slightest. She pulled her hair into its usual ponytail and dressed herself in comfortable clothes and her favourite trainers. Not making the team wasn’t an option, even if it meant sitting on the bench as a reserve. That was, of course, the worst case scenario. After dressing and eating a quick breakfast, Lily joined her house-mates on the fresh pitch. She couldn’t stop smiling.Since signing up, Lily had had time to think about which positions she'd like to try for. Keeper was definitely out; that looked like the most boring position. Seeker also seemed a bit dull even if it came with lots of glory and fame. Chasing after a little yellow ball when there was so much else going on around wasn't appealing. The other two were Beater and Chaser, two positions she could definitely imagine herself in.
Lily was proud to say that her cousin played for Puddlemere United, though he was part of the reserve team for now, and as a very good Beater. She knew it was a position typically played by wizards on co-ed teams because of the strength and endurance necessary to hit heavy iron balls. Lily only saw that as an excuse, however, and was adamant to try out for it. Even though her smaller frame and lack of experience on the pitch would make her better suited as a Chaser, she was too stubborn to just acquiesce to the natural course of things. She didn't want to back down without a fight. Her stubbornness came undoubtedly from fighting with the very few lads back home who didn't let her play games with them just because she was a witch, or her mum scolding her for playing rough with her brothers. Nothing made her angrier than when someone told her she couldn't do something just because she was a girl. She didn't believe witches weren't capable of doing what wizards did, and she hoped her dominantly-female team believed the same. That is, if she was good enough for the team in the first place.
Though she had never been allowed to play Quidditch, she loved to watch and listen to her brothers and older cousins talk about it. She knew everything there was to know about the rules and shared a favourite team with her family - Puddlemere United - and had sneaked off with her brother's old broom to try flying on her own unsupervised. Playing Quidditch had always been a dream of hers, and now it was finally her turn. Both Rupert and Adam had played on this team before her, as captains no less. She knew it was a decent team and couldn’t wait to be a part of it. Even if she was small and little and a witch, there was nothing she couldn’t do. She would show her mum that she could play and win, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Liliana began calling roll and Lily answered when her name was called, delighted that she shared a similar name with her - hopefully - future captain. Adam had asked Lily to tell Liliana Bannister and Joella Curtis hello for him after she'd shared her exciting news about getting sorted into Pecari and her plans to try out for the Quidditch team. She could just imagine seeing Adam up there doing Liliana's current job, but it was difficult to really believe it had been a reality at one point. She wished she'd been born just a few years earlier to attend school with her beloved big brother for at least one year. But she did have Liliana and Joella who shared memories with her brother that Lily was eager to know and ask about. If or when she joined the team, she was going to make fast friends with them; as the youngest of four and the youngest out of all her cousins, talking to older students and adults and befriending them wasn't intimidating in the slightest.
Four laps around the pitch was exhausting. She’d started off at the front of the group, but by the fourth she was lagging behind with a growing stitch in her side. She definitely was not prepared for this kind of exercise. Who knew the pitch was so large? The obstacle course was a bit easier. She’d learnt from her last mistake to take her time with it. Obstacle courses were fun, anyway, and much more entertaining than running laps.
The last warm-up was going to be the most difficult. It took iron nerves to walk a line like that, and Lily secretly hoped no one would succeed so she didn’t look like a typically naive first year. She tried to figure out a strategy as she waited for her turn, but when it came to her she leapt onto the line and walked straight across as fast as she could. Her quickness, limber feet and astounding sense of balance took her halfway before she fell. Climbing trees and leaping from one precarious branch to a more secure one had trained her well. She would have tried again like one of the older witches, but she was impatient to get on a broom.
Finally, finally all the warm-ups were over and it was time to get serious. Lily joined Joella though she saw that two others were already vying for the one open spot on the team. She was one of the youngest and didn’t think they would give the spot to her, but at least she could say she tried.
Once she was up in the air with an unfamiliar bat in her hand, she suddenly panicked. She was much weaker than her other house-mates and certainly wasn’t on par with Rupert Princeton. Why did she think she could do this? Still, her pride refused to let her back down or give up and she faced the iron ball though inside she was shaking. It felt strange aiming at the team’s co-captain, but Lily swung her arm back with false confidence and hit the ball as hard as she could with a beautiful crack!. The ball went farther than she’d expected, but her aim was completely off. Lily still grinned, proud of herself. It wasn’t so scary now that she’d done it once.
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Lily Spencer
Gladly!
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Lily Spencer
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Ben Pierce
May 29, 2016 10:15 AM
Can we not do this ever again? by Ben Pierce
"Here!" Ben called, reflexively raising a hand in the air when he heard his name called. Lilliana must to have gotten all that team reconciliation stuff covered during their meeting before the feast because she didn't mention it again now, which was probably good, because there were new people and introducing the team as fractured before they even met anybody was entirely the wrong foot to start on. Still, he made sure to smile and nod at every person present so nobody could accuse him of having favorites or enemies. This was actually a little harder to do with Sammy than Jamie since he'd been a total idiot in front of Sammy while he still hadn't had much close contact with Jamie due to the large age difference and not much need for junior chasers and seekers to work together.The warm ups were fairly standard, though Ben goggled a little at running four laps around a standard sized Quidditch Pitch. That was a lot if running. He set a modest pace, not wanting to burn out before he even got in the air. Hippo might live and breathe sports but straight up running wasn't really his favorite thing to do. If anything, he sped up for one final push at the end, just wanting to get it over with.
The obstacle course was way mire interesting. He took it carefully, assuming Liliana and Joella were judging to make sure they overcame each obstacle cleanly. Rushing through would just make him sloppy, and his muscles were already complaining about the four laps of continuous jogging. He wasn't the quickest, nor was he flawless, but he was pretty pleased with his performance. He succeed at every challenge with no more than one or two false starts, and sometimes none at all.
The tight rope, however, proved to be his downfall. He did make it out a few steps, to the point where the anchors were no longer able to provide a little extra steadiness. The rope swayed and Ben's foot slipped and he dropped, letting out an unmanly shriek when the rope caught him in his manly bits. He almost didn't want to get on his broom after that.
Almost.
He was pretty grateful to Sammy for wanting to give the rope a few extra goes, which gave him time to recover somewhat and get the tears blinked away.
He mounted his broom a bit gingerly at first, and then he was confused about which group he was supposed to go with since he wanted to try out for both Beater and Chaser, but it seemed a lot of people were headed for beater so he stuck with Liliana and the Chasers for now, hoping he'd get a shot to try out for his preferred position later, ideally after he could sit on the broom and steer it with his knees without pain.
He made no effort to get hold of the Quaffle first, wanting a little extra time with both hands for steering but at least tried to fly competently despite his injury and put himself in a good position for when the first pass took place.
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Ben Pierce
Can we not do this ever again?
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Ben Pierce
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Killian Everett
May 30, 2016 2:06 PM
I don't think I'm going to survive by Killian Everett
To Whom It May Concern,Killian Everett is to be excused from any and all vigorous activity due to poor health. He is unable to participate in physical education classes or any class activity that requires a great deal of exertion. He has a weak constitution and shouldn’t strain himself needlessly. Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Everett
The note, a little wrinkled around the edges now, trembled slightly in Killian’s tense grip. He was supposed to deliver the letter to the school nurse when he’d gotten settled in, but it stayed, neatly folded, at the bottom of his trunk. When he’d learned about flying lessons, he’d rationalized them away. Flying on a broom wasn’t exactly physical activity, was it? When it came to flying, the broom did all the work, and he just had to hold on and not fall off. True, the not falling off part was more than a little tricky, but still. It wasn’t gym, or sports, or anything like that.
Quidditch however, even he couldn’t rationalize that away. Sure, he wouldn’t be running around or anything, but people were going to be shooting cannonballs at his head. That probably counted as strain.
His fingers tightened on the note, causing one corner to tear. How he wanted to rip the darned thing into little pieces and throw it up in the air like confetti, but he didn’t dare. Instead, he folded it up again before tucking it back into the depths of his trunk. Mom wasn’t here now, and unlike all his previous schools, she couldn’t show up with doctors notes in hand demanding the school keep him from participating in anything more vigorous than a slow walk.
Growling under his breath, he slammed the lid of his trunk, got dressed in a pair of black shorts and a dark red t-shirt, and made his way out to the pitch. There was nothing wrong with him, there wasn’t! Maybe he was small, and yeah, he’d been born way too early and spent a lot of time in the hospital, but that didn’t mean he was still weak.
He almost died, all those wires, trapped in a plastic box where she couldn’t even touch him, he almost died. He cringed at the remembered words, overheard when his dad pointed out that it wouldn’t hurt him to get some proper exercise and the fight it sparked with his mom. But that was forever ago, and he felt fine now. More than fine.
He felt great, and he was magic. Grinning like a fox who’d just snuck into the hen house, Killian joined the growing group at the pitch. Excitement buzzed through his blood like a swarm of disturbed hornets, and he couldn’t wait to prove to everyone that he could do this.
“I’m here!” Killian shouted, unable to contain himself when his name was called. Once everyone was accounted for, the Captain gave them their first task. Run laps? What does that have to do with flying? the first year couldn’t help but wonder, still, when she told them to go he shot forward, going all out for the first time in his young life.
If felt amazing to run, and to his delight, he almost made it to the front of the group as they took off. Only Lily stood between him and being first, so he pushed his flying feet faster. No one yelled, demanding he stop what he was doing RIGHT NOW, and his face hurt with the size of the grin he wore.
Halfway through the first round, he began to rethink the wonder of running. A body untested for 11 years could hardly keep up such a grueling pace for long, and there was an alarming spike of pain developing in his side. Maybe his mom was right, maybe he wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing. But he refused to give up. Even if he fell down dead at the end of the four laps, at least he died trying to go beyond the limits life gave him.
By the time he managed to drag his tired body through four laps around the enormous pitch, Killian was dripping sweat and shaking. Each breath tore its way out of his chest in a gusty huff, and little black dots danced around the edges of his vision, but he’d made it! He almost fell over when he came to a stop, dead last out of the group for all that he’d been almost first at the start. Thank God that’s over, he thought, desperate to lay down in the grass and pray for the agony in his side to stop.
Instead, they were informed that now it was time to run an obstacle course. Something terribly close to a whine escaped between panting breaths, but he didn’t fall over and quit. Waving off anyone’s concern with an irritable, if breathy “I’m fine!” he mounted his assault on the course and found to his shame that more than one of the obstacles proved too much for his weakened body to handle. Giving each one his best, he scrambled over, around, or through each test before making it to the final challenge.
A tightrope. It took more strength than was pretty for him to stagger up to the top of the platform and make his shaky way out onto the thin expanse. Two steps in, he fell with a squawked that would make any startled chicken proud. Somehow, he managed to catch himself with his legs and one hand, ending up clinging upside down to the rope. Sweat dripping in his eyes, he clung to it grimly, and like a drunk squirrel, he scrambled to the other end while still upside down before dropping to the ground and promptly falling over.
Every muscle on his small frame seemed to quake and quiver uncontrollably for a long minute, but he knew he couldn’t lay there forever or someone would decide he needed to go to the nurse, and that so wasn’t happening, not after everything he’d been through. He would finish the try-outs!
Scrambling to his feet, doing a wonderful impression of a newborn moose trying to get its gangly legs beneath it, Killian stood. “I’m fine,” he said again, this time with a weak grin.
Before anyone could tell him he should maybe sit down and rest, Killian snatched up his broom and followed after the first person he saw and ended up with the Chaser group. It was as good as any other, he supposed until the Quaffle flew at him in a bright red arch. Panic flared in his aching chest when he realized he’d have to let go of the broom to try and catch the ball. The moment of indecision cost him, and the ball flew past him without him even reaching out for it as it headed for the ground. “Uh, oops?”
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Killian Everett
I don't think I'm going to survive
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Killian Everett
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