I've heard about NYO and how talented these athletes are but when I got the opportunity to watch them, I found myself saying "wow" over and over again. These kids are so amazing at these events and I'm amazed at their skills. I'm so glad that NYO was held in Manokotak this year so I could have the chance to watch it and get some pictures. Definitely a memory I won't forget. It was a lot of fun!
Kids from all over the district come to do these events. I took A LOT of pictures through out the weekend and will do my best to describe each event in the pictures. I'm learning, too!
The different events that both boys and girls do.
One arm reach. The athletes hold themselves up with one arm, keeps their balance and reaches for the ball that is hanging from the basketball hoop. After each set of athletes go, the ball is raised up.
Two foot kick. Standing on the ground, they jump up using both feet to touch the ball that is again hanging from the basketball net. Again raising the ball higher when the athletes have gone through.
Eskimo stick pull. Sitting feet to feet, two people compete against each other to pull the stick away. It's best out of three. You can see their are spotters on both sides with their feet on the girls to keep them in place while they pull. If I was listening correctly, this was used as practice for pulling seals out of the water.
Another two foot high kick picture. They can jump up SO high. Very impressive! I don't remember the measurements though.
I'm honestly not sure what this is, haha. But it was impressive none the less.
Making sure to measure the ball each time it needed raised.
Boys Eskimo stick pull. You can see that the boys have two rows of spotters.
Boys' Alaska High Kick above and Girls' below. Starting on the ground holding one foot, they jump up to kick the ball with one foot. And it's done just like the others are done, raising the ball each round. For all of these kicking events, they get 2 or 3 attempts at that height.
This coach was demonstrating how the "old school" way was to do the Alaska High Kick.... he pulled his body up there so slowly and hit the ball perfectly before coming down. Impressive!!
One foot kick - she can't reach the ball but she can jump up to kick it. She was the district champ & reached almost 88 inches I believe.
Wrist carry is the event that I was most excited to watch. It blows my mind that they can hold their whole body weight with their wrist around this pole while two people carry them around. There's a starting point and the carriers start running while the athlete holds on with only their wrist. It takes incredible body strength. A lot of athletes got a few feet out (farther than I could ever get for sure) but the farthest guy was Travis from KMO (in the blue shorts) and he got a a lap and a half around the gym. And the farthest for the girls was about a half a lap. This event not only relies on the athlete holding on but also on the carriers. If they aren't running at the same speed or if they're bumping up and down or even accidently hit the person hanging, it could really throw someone off. I was told (and now that I've seen it, I completely agree) that the wrist carry and the seal hop are the toughest two events.
Just to give you a better view of how they hold on.
These next pictures are from the seal hop. The girls do it in a push up position but the boys are only on their knuckles and the tips of their toes. They hop as far down the gym as they can. There is a judge that walks along with them and taps them as a warning if they start to get too bouncy or if they start to arch their back too much. I can't even imagine their knuckles after this event. The farthest boy got about half way down the gym.
Indian stick pull involves a tappered stick that is greased with crisco. The two athletes stand with their feet together and try to grab the stick out of each others hands first after the judge places the stick. It's again, best out of three and they just keep going until their is one winner.
There was one event that I didn't get to see because I was working the door but that was the kneel jump. They start out in a kneeling position and then jump up and see how far they can jump out. All of these events left me thinking about how I don't know that I could do any of them, haha. But, it made me want to try it when no one else was around. ; )
The athletes that are going to states in Anchorage!
The whole district team - all the kids from the different villages!
Something that made me almost cry a few times during this event was the sportsmanship that these kids have. For much of the time there was two different events going on at once on either side of the gym, or the same event but boys on one side and girls on the other. There was a couple times where it would come down to an athletes last attempt at a certain height and the whole gym would start a slow clap and the other events would stop and clap with us and soon, all eyes were on that one competitor while they did their last attempt. It was just awesome to see them cheering each other on, stopping their competition and even giving each other advice. They were competing against each other but that didn't mean they didn't help one another either. It was just a really, really awesome event and I wish that it'd happen next weekend, too! I loved being a part of it and watching it.
Now for some little cuties that came to watch. : )
And Gayle doing her kick! ; )
And my awesome principal, Deb!
Love these kids! Now it's off to tackle some of my to do list that keeps growing... cleaning and packing today! I'm hoping to get most of my apartment cleaned and packed up so I can get that out of the way. We'll see how much it happens because it's already almost noon and I haven't done any of it yet. Oh well, I got another blog post written which is important, too. : )
Not too much longer until I'm home!
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