Capt. Joella Curtis
October 23, 2016 12:22 PM
Pecari Try-outs! by Capt. Joella Curtis
Joella was so excited to host her first try-outs as captain. She’d had fun doing it with Liliana before and just thinking about that made her miss her friend all the more, but now it was her turn to take the reins and have a go doing things her own way. Liliana had always listened to her ideas, of course, but obviously being assistant captain wasn’t the same as being captain. Although, remembering how much fun she’d had being assistant captain under one of her best friends did make Joella aware that she should make an effort towards helping Sammy feel the same way that she had. Well, of course that wasn’t entirely possible because it could never be as important to anyone as it was to her but Sammy’s response to her letter had been undeniably enthusiastic. The way that enthusiasm had been expressed had partly reinforced Joella’s initial worries about giving someone like Sammy such responsibility (not the role of assistant captain so much but that of captain which it would later become) but at the same time enthusiasm was key and, whilst seriousness was important at this stage, there was no way Joella would allow herself to turn into Alistair Johnson, or equally allow the Pecari team to take on the characteristics of the cold-blooded Aladren team (although they were certainly going to take the longstanding title of Quidditch Champions from them). At least her assistant captain had promised not to let her down and Joella was definitely going to hold her to that.She had arranged for Sammy to meet her down at the pitch before the try-outs were scheduled to begin so that Joella could have help setting it up and she could run through her plans before all the eager students arrived with their broomsticks (because they would be oh so eager!).
The sixth year was very keen to get underway with the try-outs and see what her team was going to look like this year. Unfortunately due to clashes with her timetable, she had been unable to show up to the first years’ flying lesson to check them out in advance and quell her curiosity but that didn’t matter because she hardly had to wait long to find out now.
“Hi everyone! Welcome to the Pecari Quidditch try-outs,” Joella grinned at the group of Pecaris, allowing just a few minutes after the scheduled time to make sure everyone had arrived. “For those of you who don’t know, I’m Joella Curtis, the team’s new captain, and this is Sammy Meeks, my assistant captain. You will all have seen from the sign-up sheet in the common room, that we won the Quidditch Cup last term and I am confident that we’ll do it again!”
“I’m just going to read your names off the sign-up sheet so give me a shout when you hear yours. If I don’t call your name, just let me know and give me your preferred positions, if any, so I can add you to the list.” Joella sped through the roll call and then checked to see if she had any walk ons she need to add before moving on swiftly to the try-outs.
“Ok, if you could all warm up for me please - I suggest jogging a lap of the pitch and then do some stretches,” Joella kept her instructions vague because she liked to see how her players took their own initiative but she had given some basic guideline because at the same time she didn’t want the younger kids to do anything stupid. “Once you’ve done that, please mount your brooms and fly two of laps of the pitch. You don’t need to race - I just want to see how competent you are at flying, and if you’re not on your own broom it will give you a chance to get the feel of it.”
“If you have your own brooms then that’s brilliant, but no worries if you don’t - we have plenty of school brooms here so just grab one,” Joella instructed, personally hoping that her entire team would have their own racing brooms but knowing the chances of that were slim.
“You’ll see there’s an obstacle course set up in the middle of the pitch, so once you’ve done your laps please come and join me at the start of that and I’ll explain what I want you to do.”
Having watched them all fly their laps and after checking to see that Sammy was ready in her position, Joella started setting them off one by one on the obstacle course, waiting for each person to reach a certain point along it before sending the next to avoid any catching up and thus potential for crashes.
The height from the ground fluctuated over the obstacle course to suit the purposes of each obstacle. It began fairly simply with vertical poles to weave in and out of before reaching greater altitude with fairly widely spaced horizontal poles set at different heights, which Joella explained they had to alternate going over and under (the higher ones were for going over and the lower for going under to make it a little challenging). Next there were a few hoops for them to fly through and she sincerely hoped she was not going to have anyone crashing into them, much less too fat to fit through. Then things came closer to ground level as she had a net which just about had room for them to fly under and Joella informed the group that she would be watching closely for any limbs so much as brushing the ground. Finally she had Sammy positioned to throw a Quaffle at each person as they came out from under the netting, which they were expected to catch and then throw through the mini unguarded goal hoop at the end of the course. The last part she didn’t imagine to go quite so successfully as the initial stages of the course as they only had one shot and she realised all of them managing it was unrealistic, but the course was just a fun way of getting them to relax a bit before they were really put to the test so ultimately it didn’t matter.
Once everyone had taken their turn at the obstacle course, it was time to move onto greater things. “Alright everyone, gather round and listen up for your next instructions!”
“Now we’re going to split into groups. Beaters, I’d like you to grabs yourselves a bat and follow Sammy’s lead. You’ll be doing some target practice on the dummies.”
“Chasers, you are to go with Ingrid - give us a wave please Ingrid,” she added since Ingrid had not been introduced like Sammy had. “You’ll be doing some passing and shooting, starting from the middle of the pitch and working your way towards the hoops where you’ll have a Keeper waiting for you. So the Keepers are going to be blocking the Chasers goal attempts - you’ll have to take turns if there are more than one of you.”
“And finally I have a timed snitch for the Seekers so I’ll set that off for you in just a second and you need to bring it back to me when you’ve caught it. Word of warning, don’t get in between the Beaters and the dummies,” she said with a grin, but she was also serious.
“I’m aware some of you have put multiple positions down to try out for so if you just pick one first and I’ll give you a shout when you can switch,” Joella told them, referring back to the sign-up sheet briefly. “Use your common sense and make sure that all necessary positions are being filled each time. Any questions, just ask.”
“Luke, you go first as Keeper,” she said, handing her more-or-less-cousin the protective give. “Ok everyone, mount up!” With that she released the snitch for Jamie, who really did not need to be trying out after his brilliant performance last term. This was more just a practice for him, she supposed, getting him back into the game after a summer break (although she would hope none of her teammates had gone the entire summer without getting in some practice).
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Capt. Joella Curtis
Pecari Try-outs!
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Sammy Meeks
November 02, 2016 2:38 AM
Hollaaaaaa by Sammy Meeks
Sammy’s favorite thing about tryouts, aside from her weightier position helping run them and making decisions this year, was the obstacle course. When she and Joella (<3) were setting it up, she’d spent many a split second staring longingly at each part. Even that was a ton of fun, and she could hardly wait to not only get to go through it, but to get to watch her teammates-to-be (and teammates-who-were for those who were returning players) experience the same kind of super awesome adrenaline happiness it would provide. She loved when people were happy.After everyone had gone through--Wasn’t that cool?! she wanted to shout eagerly, but the Assistant Captain meant she had to be at least somewhat calm and collected and mature--it was time to split up into positions. “Ready for target practice?” she smiled instead to any potential Beaters coming her way. “Come on, then, my little baby ducks, and follow me into the air!” She hopped on her broom, bat tightly in hand, and zoomed off to the appropriate area.
“Alright, let’s do this!” she cheered. “Hit the dummies with balls. Very simple. Let’s go!” Sammy sent one hurling at one the dummies, striking it right in the stomach. That was a good place to hit, she thought. It was less likely to do permanent damage to somebody than, like, a head injury, but knocking the wind out of somebody was a great way to get them out of the way. She kept her attention as focused on the Beaters so she could report to Joella who she thought would be the best option to complete the Beating duo, but occasionally she glanced around to see what the other stations were doing and how those were going. After all, somebody, she would be running this whole shebang, and she needed to be ready.
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Sammy Meeks
Hollaaaaaa
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