System
November 08, 2020 12:32 PM
The Coach
November 08, 2020 12:32 PM
Quidditch Tryouts! by The Coach
OOC: your student is welcome to come to tryouts even if they didn't get their name on the tryout list, although that's always good if you do. BIC:
"Hello, everyone!" the coach said, greeting the gathered students with a grin. There were a mix of return players and new players, and everything in between. The coach wasn't sure about this year in particular just yet, but there were even years where return students were new players, and that was always exciting too. The variety didn't stop with demographics though; there were excited students, nervous students, and students who were definitely both. Most students were probably both. "As most of you already know, Sonora has a school team rather than house teams, and we play against other schools in the area. That means the team will be traveling, and my hope is that we will have enough players to have a reserve team for games at home, as well as for some support if players can't make away games." The coach grinned, unable to help showing some serious excitement.
"And now, on to tryouts! I have a poster up on the wall if anyone needs a refresher on the positions, but if you get on the team, you'll also have the opportunity to learn a lot more about it." The coach pointed to a large poster illustrating the positions in simple terms. Moving animations showed little figures of what each position sort of did. "Anyone who is trying out for more than one position may need more time than we have here today, so please follow up with me afterwards if you don't get a chance to try for all of the ones you want to.
We'll start with some warm ups, stretches, and laps to get our blood pumping, and then the tryouts will begin. I expect everyone to be limbered up properly. I know many of you are nervous, but injuring yourself because you were too important to get through a proper warm up won't do anyone any good, and I won't be impressed by that sort of behavior." The coach looked warningly at the students, although still with kindness. It wouldn't be the first time someone hurt themselves and it really was very frustrating to see it happen. "When that's done, I want you all to take a couple warm up laps on your brooms. I've set up some obstacles, so I want you to take your time getting through those. Over or under posts, through rings, around poles, things like that. I want to see that you can handle yourself, not see how fast you can manage it, so be careful. Finally, we'll begin the tryouts for individual positions."
The coach had a clipboard with a list of people who had signed up for tryouts already, although that never ended up being exactly true of who showed up but it did help. Pointing out spots around the pitch, the coach explained where each position would be trying out. "Those of you trying out for seeker will be over there. The contraption over there is charmed to fire off different color balls about the size of a snitch. First, you'll take turns--" the coach paused to assign each prospective seeker a color "--trying to catch balls of your color alone. Then, you'll all be up there, trying to only catch balls of your own color and not each others'. It's important that a seeker can be lithe, quick, and aware of their surroundings so as not to get run into or run into anyone else.
Those of you trying out for Keeper will be over by the goal posts with a similar contraption, except you won't be going at it at the same time at all. This will be a bit shorter because perspective Chasers," the coach pointed to another spot on the field, near the goal posts, "will be practicing some passing and catching activities together and then showing me what you can do for making goals. You'll do that without a keeper first and then I'll have the keeper tryouts get in there and give it a go. Missing a goal because the keeper gets there doesn't mean you did badly, and getting a goal because a keeper missed it doesn't mean you did well. Just do your best. I can absolutely see when you are playing skillfully, whether or not you get a goal out of it."
The coach paused to check for questions and then moved on to the final position. There were fewer people signed up for this one, particularly considering that they needed at least two, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be expected to tryout just like anyone else. "Prospective beaters, you're going to first take a bat and be working with a contraption much like the others I've mentioned. It'll shoot off Bludger-sized balls at you and I want you to hit them back at the targets that are set up where I've pointed. When that's done, you'll pair up and pass balls back and forth with your bats. If we have enough people, I want you to switch partners; I need to see how all of you work together."
Double checking the clipboard, pausing for questions and answers, and taking a deep breath, the coach grinned one more time. "I'm really glad you're all here. Let's play Quidditch!" The coach blew a whistle and the students began.
OOC: Welcome to Quidditch tryouts! This will function essentially like classes, although there won't be points award for this. I am trying something new and setting up specific groupings for subthreads for each position and general threads. We'll see how well that works. Feel free to tag the coach if you need, or god mod the coach slightly as necessary.
The team will be determined both by IC factors - experience and skill, things that the school would logically take into consideration - and OOC factors - essentially, contribution to tryouts. If you have any questions, shoot a message my way (Evelyn Stones') way in chatzy, or in an OOC. If you signed up for tryouts, it is assumed that you came to tryouts. However, if you don't actually post at tryouts, your chances of being on the team are significantly reduced. You'll have two weeks to post here and get your tryout in, and then I'll start building a roster to be posted in three weeks.
New students can get an idea of how tryouts can go by looking at last year's post here. Happy flying!
Subthreads: Beaters with System, Billy Cobb, Hilda Hexenmeister, Nathaniel Mordue
Warm-Ups
Seekers with System, Valentine Duell, Anya Delachene, Jeremy Mordue
Keepers with System, Augustine Reed-Fischer, Morgan Garrett, Graham Osbrook
Chasers with System, Heinrich Hexenmeister , Evelyn Stones
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The Coach
Quidditch Tryouts!
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The Coach
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Billy Cobb
November 15, 2020 1:52 PM
This looks like fun! by Billy Cobb
Billy had mostly figured out the whole flying broom thing. He wasn't sure how it exactly worked, but he wasn't exactly sure how Pa's truck worked either, so it was fine. For the most part the broom did what he wanted it to do now, which was more than he could say for Pa's truck. So he found himself out on the Quidditch Pitch, to try out for the Quidditch team... Quidditch, heh. That was a funny word. As far as he could figure out, that was 'playin ball' around these parts. It sounded a bit odd, but no worse than some other games he and his cousins had made up over the years.He hadn't been sure what position to sign up for on the paper, and he still wasn't. He'd figure it out as they went. The warm-ups were nice. Finally he could just get out and run again! The obstacle course on the broom was fun enough. He definitely didn't win any speed awards though, but he made it. His broom mostly listened to him which was good. Then came the point that he had to make a decision. Did he want to catch little balls, catch and throw normal balls, or hit balls that were trying to attack him and his team? Hmm... when put like that, he headed over to the Beater area and picked up a bat.
Taking off, he attacked the first ball he ran across and missed it completely. The second ball he made decent contact with, but it didn't go anywhere close to the target. After that he began to figure this out. He wasn't great and his broom work could use some improvement as well, but he wasn't terrible. When the time came for partners he grinned and swatted a ball over to the nearest person. "This here's pretty fun, ain't it?"
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Billy Cobb
This looks like fun!
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Hilda Hexenmeister
November 17, 2020 7:00 PM
It is fun. by Hilda Hexenmeister
Now fifteen, Hilda was finally starting to look the right size to be a proper beater. She'd always been large for her age, both in height and muscle mass as well as bone structure, but now she was old enough and mature enough to hold her own against even seventh years. Well, the seventh year in question this term was Nathaniel and she thought she could fly circles around him, though he was definitely far superior to any other option Sonora had for Beater (other than herself), so despite still being pissed at him for wearing the Head Boy badge, she'd been glad to see his name joining hers on the sign up sheet, and she expected the two of them would be the first string beaters again this year. After the friendly fire incident last year, she didn't see Felipe as a threat, and the first year who had signed up would hopefully be good enough to take over for her or Nathaniel eventually, but she doubted he stood a chance now against kids so much bigger than he was.She got through the warm ups with just enough sweat to show she was trying but not enough to wear her out for the rest of the try-out. The obstacle course wasn't really a beater's best friend, but she bulled through it with more power than finesse, but she didn't think the coach would count that too hard against her given what she position she was going for. She hadn't been a totally uncoordinated oaf or anything, but the slighter seekers and chasers had definitely had the edge in that contest.
Now it was time for the beating tryouts. She recognized the contraption from last year, so even if Heinrich hadn't been offering explanations during the Coach's original run down of what they were doing, she would have had a good idea of what was expected of her. Still, it had been good to have her brother confirm some of the words she hadn't recognized on her own, and she felt she had a good handle on what was going on.
Smacking around the fake bludgers at the targets had been satisfying, both for the opportunity to demonstrate her competence after the obstacles, and because she just enjoyed smacking around medium sized balls with a bat.
Once that part had finished, the tiny first year swatted a ball at her and she swatted it back, being relatively gentle about it given his obvious inexperience during the rest of the try-out. She glanced over at Nathaniel, realizing that if she partnered with the kid, that left him with Felipe. Well, she was mad at Nathaniel. He could go be uncomfortable.
"It is fun," she agreed, hoping she had understood the boy's strange accent and grammar correctly. Her own words were laced with a very heavy German accent. "You are American?" she questioned, not sure if his strange command of the English language was a result of being foreign or just a native dialect she hadn't encountered before.
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Hilda Hexenmeister
It is fun.
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Nathaniel Mordue
November 25, 2020 6:01 PM
Here I go again. by Nathaniel Mordue
Intellectually, Nathaniel knew it was the last time he would attend Quidditch try-outs, because in his mind, he knew he was a seventh year, and therefore everything he did at school would have a last first time. It seemed, though, like he should find the event more...interesting, or significant, or something than it presently felt to him. As he ran through warm-ups and listened politely to instructions, though, it all felt very....normal. Routine. Everyday and unremarkable, even. As if he would do it all a thousand more times.There were reasons for that, of course. For one thing, these were all basically things he had done for as long as he could remember, even before Sonora, and would carry on doing, no doubt, in future. Jeremy had emerged as something of a natural athlete in their family, and thus, especially after their father left, one of Nathaniel's duties had been practicing with his brother in between the formal practices of the youth league. It was also part of his long campaign to win back something of Jeremy's trust, and perhaps even a measure of affection. So there was that. There was also, of course, the fact that practices for this Quidditch team were not really so very much different from this, after all - especially when he suspected that for him and Hilda, the tests were more of a formality than anything else. He and Hilda had both come back, after all, and the alternatives to them....
Well. Try as he would to find a way to think it without being unkind, the best he could come up with there was saying that the alternatives...failed to impress.
They did, however, need training, as he would be gone next year and Hilda only had two more years to go. For a moment, he felt a flash of something like betrayal - an emotion he imagined Felipe more than merely shared, under the circumstances - when Hilda swept in to work with the first year and left him with De Matteo. Good manners forbade him from protesting this, of course, but he almost did anyway when he noticed the look Hilda gave him - something that made him think it was a deliberate insult rather than a thoughtless Pecari action. It was the sort of look he would have expected to get from someone he had personally wronged, someone who felt he deserved to have to work with someone he would have most definitely hexed in the emotional aftermath of a Particular Game last year, had he only had his wand on him at the time (for better or worse, he didn't carry his wand on the Pitch; his position involved too much time in close proximity to the Bludgers for him to feel entirely comfortable having his wand about him at the same time).
He could not think of any wrong he had done Hilda, with whom he had always thought he had a fairly amicable as well as respectful relationship, but he could not really address the matter now. It would not do to be drawn into a conversation where he could show a bad example. Reluctantly, then, he bit his tongue and turned to the black sheep of the Quidditch family.
"Good day," he said, not with overt hostility, but without any real attempt at warmth either. "May I assume you practiced over the summer?"
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Nathaniel Mordue
Here I go again.
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