Hello everyone, welcome back to another edition of Dog Dayz! I had a great last month of the summer that began with an amazing trip.

The trip was to the beautiful Dominican Republic with family. It was the last time hanging out with my older cousin, Elle, before she went to college, so it was a great week to spend with her. We stayed in Punta Cana and the experience was different from anything I had ever done, or any other trip I had been on. The ocean water was not only the bluest ocean water I had ever seen but the warmest. That wasn’t any surprise, however, with it being the Caribbean.

Our resort included 3 or 4 massive pools, which worked great for throwing a football around to still get my offseason training in. There was also a water park we got to use that had a big wave pool and some awesome slides. My cousin Carson and I took advantage of the mini-golf course, the pool tables and, of course, the buffets.

I ate so much food, from all over the world and literally stuffed myself, but always somehow managed to work it off in the pool. My cousin and I consistently went to the buffet 3-4 times a day, but that didn’t include dinner.

For dinner, we went to a Mexican, Spanish, steakhouse and seafood place. All of it was great food! However, my favorite was easily the Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, where the food was amazing, (I got steak and shrimp every time.) The bonus was they cooked it all right in front of you. We went there three times. Overall, it was great to get away with my family for a week, to enjoy a week in the sun in the Caribbean, rather than with pads on.

Before I could get home our flight had a delayed landing into our layover, which was Charlotte, North Carolina. This meant we missed our connecting flight to Seattle, which meant we got to spend one more day together. Since the next available flight to Seattle wasn’t until the next day, we explored the city. It was big, sure, but a very clean and beautiful city. I got to see the Carolina Panthers field and the Charlotte Hornets arena. We took advantage of our extra day and eventually made it home.

I came home to the end of the fair and beginning of football. I spent a day at the fair, watched a couple concerts and spent some fun time with friends. The fair is a great place to reconnect with friends after a summer of not seeing them. Next, football started with fitness testing, which included maxing on our core lifts and agility and speed tests, such as the 40-yard dash and a vertical jump. After two days of testing, we started practice, which included two practices a day every other day. Two-a-days were grueling and tough, but they not only brought our team together, they also got us in better shape and mentally prepared us for a football game.

The season started off with the jamboree, where we played Elma and Hoquiam. Each mini-game consisted of 10 plays on offense and defense. It was a fun night and a great night for Bulldog football.

A week later we were on the road to kick off the regular season against Aberdeen. This was my first varsity start of my life and it went well. We won 40-8 and didn’t give up any points on defense. The best part was we could have played way better. It is going to be exciting to see how our year shapes out. All we can do is grind to get better!

I hope you enjoyed your summer. I will see you next month.