this is life in austin & aspen » Austin Sports and Social

Two 3×3 Basketball Tournaments

Lyssa — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:10:56 +0000

Ever since Hoop it Up fell by the wayside (Hoop it Up, where ARE you?), casual basketballers have been lacking a formal place to showcase their skills(?!)… enter McCurdy Madness & Austin SSC.

McCurdy Madness Basketball Tournament is put on by Tarrytown United Methodist Church in honor of Matt Schirmer and benefitting the church’s McCurdy mission. This year’s tournament is on June 6 at WAYA, and registration is open online until June 3.

Deets: Saturday June 6, 9am at WAYA (1314 Exposition Blvd.)
What: 3-4 people per team, divisions based on talent and age
Cost: $20 per person includes t-shirt for each team member

Register here: http://mccurdymadness.org/

The Austin SSC‘s tourney is June 27 at Northwest Rec Center. Registration ends June 12, so get your team together today

Deets: Saturday, June 27, 2009 at Northwest Rec Center, start times 10am – 11:30am (determined prior to tournament day)

2 games guaranteed (double elimination tournament), t-shirt for each participant, which is your uniform for the day

3 players on the court at a time, at least 1 of them must be female. There can be up to 5 players on the roster. First team to 20 points (1s for guys, 2s for girls) wins. 30 minute time limit. $90 per team

Register here: http://www.austinssc.com/basketball_tournament.html

Hot Mama’s Room to Read

Lyssa — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:57:20 +0000

I’ve been partial to Hot Mama’s Espresso Bar ever since I wandered in one day to be greeted by an infectiously cheerful voice saying, “Hey there, hot mama!” without a hint of anything except genuine affection. I was sold. Then the coffee was great AND I got a Tacodeli breakfast taco … life is great. I haven’t been back, though, because it’s just not convenient to my house. However, if I weren’t tailgating* all day tomorrow (Go Rice!!), I’d be headed there for this benefit:

ROOM TO READ: FUNDRAISER AND BOOK DRIVE

September is National Literacy Month and the Austin chapter of Room to Read is celebrating with a kid-friendly fundraiser and book drive! Join us for delicious food, drinks, and snacks as well as a raffle and fun events.

Entertainment includes:

Miriam Gould, an Eastern folklore storyteller

The Lennings, Austin pop

a cappella group The Ransom Notes

blubber-making (what?!)

and local San Antonio author Diane Cantrell reading and signing her book Good-bye, Baby Max, which is a touching story about how one class copes with the loss of their classroom pet.

Room to Read is a nonprofit that partners with local communities throughoutthe developing world to establish schools, libraries, and other educational infrastructure. Through the opportunities that only an education can provide, we strive to break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time. Read more about the group here:http://www.roomtoread.org/

$10 suggested donation at the door. Gently used books for grades Pre-K through 5 will also be accepted for donation to local East Austin schools. Hot Mama’s is donating all proceeds from the event to the organization as well.

SATURDAY, September 20, 2-5 pm
Hot Mama’s Espresso
2401 E. 6th St.

*if tailgating is more your style, stop by the Austin SSC tailgate at 24th and San Jacinto … yeah, sounds far away to me too, but hey, they’re fun people so it’s probably worth it.

New Direction

Lyssa — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:48:00 +0000

Rather than being a ramble on my life, which no doubt my mom finds very interesting, I’m changing the scope of this blog back to my original intention: This is Life in Austin. What I do, what I see, what trends I identify, what I think everyone else should do, visitor and local alike. So in the spirit of that! here’s what’s hot for Wednesday, April 2:

Evening:
1) SoCo Run Club: meet at Doc’s, run 3 miles (reunite with my buddies from last season!!), hang out & make friends
2) T-shirt pickup for Austin Sports & Social Club Flag Football league (conveniently also at Doc’s!)

Making Friends Through Sports

Lyssa — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:35:00 +0000

I got an email today inviting me to a crawfish boil, and it reminded me how incredibly lucky I am to have formed the friend network I have so quickly. I moved back to Austin a little more than a year ago and have already established a group of really good friends, tons of other friends, and even more acquaintances–plus a serious boyfriend I just broke up with. Most of them I met through sports, or met through friends I met through sports. Maybe I’m just lucky to be athletic.

Moving back, I made it a goal to make a lot of friends. The only way I knew to do that was to join teams and get active, so I joined a football team and started going to a run club. There I made friends, some that stuck, some that didn’t. I went with old friends/acquaintances from my high school to play volleyball–a sport I never cared for or wanted to learn to play–and now play 2-3 days a week! Right now I play on four sports teams: a basketball team, a football team, and two volleyball teams (with mostly the same people–one is coed and one isn’t).

The point is that I’ve made awesome friends really quickly, and I have sports to blame/thank for that. Do other cities have Austin Sports & Social leagues? Because that has been instrumental in me finding friends. That and Zilker Park’s sand volleyball courts! Saturday mornings, starting at 10 am going as long as we last … VOLLEYBALL!