#COUGARSOCIAL

Most of my friends and my family know that I love sports and love talking about specific players (Mike Trout, my man crush), teams or sporting events. I probably spend too much time on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram looking at video highlights, reading articles and tweeting my own thoughts and opinions on different sports and other subjects. The other day I saw this opportunity posted by BYU athletics to participate with their social media during a football game and I thought this was an awesome idea. I jumped online and filled out an application. I thought I was pretty clever in answering some of the fields of the application. Who knows if I will get picked, but it would be pretty sweet sitting in the media box at Lavelle Edwards Stadium at a BYU football game and tweet, post and comment on the game live.... It is what I do on the couch during the Cougar football games anyways. 

LOVE THE GAME

I stummbled upon this quote and absolutely love it. I love sports and how they can relate to life in general. You can learn a lot of life lessons when participating in sports and being apart of a team.


"LOVE THE GAME. Love the game for the pure joy of accomplishment.  Love the game for everything it can teach you about yourself.  Love the game for the feeling of belonging to a group endeavoring to do its best.  Love the game for being involved in a team whose members can't wait to see you do your best.  Love the game for the challenge of working harder than you ever have at something and then harder than that.  Love the game because it takes all team members to give it life.  Love the game because at its best, the game tradition will include your contributions.  Love the game because you belong to a long line of fine athletes who have loved it.  It is now your legacy.  Love the game so much that you will pass on your love of the game to another athlete who has seen your dedication, your work, your challenges, your triumphs... and then that athlete will, because of you, love the game."


---Unknown

Through My Eyes

Growing up in Southern California, and being a USC Trojan fan, I definitely have never been a supporter of the Florida Gators. That being said, I do like to watch a good football game no matter who is playing and admire players that simply win and are successful in everything that they do, on and off the field.  If you are a college football fan, you have to admire Tim Tebow for his accomplishments in his college football career, even if you don't necessarily agree with Tebow on other views/issues he is involved with outside of football. A two time BCS National Champion; the only sophomore to ever win the Heisman Trophy, makes it hard to not be inspired by him as a football player.
I never really followed Tebow, read anything about him but when I saw this book, " Through My Eyes" I wanted to read it. Before his rookie season, ESPN showed a special on Tebow and his road to the NFL which caught my eye and intrigued me. It showed his schedule with working out with trainers, his workouts with the NFL teams, his preparation for the NFL draft and the emotional moment being drafted by the Denver Broncos.  Tebow continues to be doubted my many and scrutinized for his ability to play in the NFL. I wish him luck. Not knowing much about him, never meeting him but because of his leadership, determination and success on the football field, I have know doubt he will prove more people wrong when he gets his chance to play for the Broncos. I bought his book yesterday and have already started to read it. I am excited to finally read and understand his story, through his eyes.

You win some. You lose some.

I guess you can't win every game. Every once in a while, you play a horrible game and you want to just forget that it ever happened.  When you play sports and are as competitive as I am, you expect to play very well in every game you play. You expect to make all the plays, drive in several runs on several base hits, make the big catch, etc. Last night was the worst. After a great softball season of going 9-1and pretty much dominating every team, every week, we lost in the Championship game. It was pretty humiliating. In three seasons playing on this team and winning the Championship the previous two seasons, last night was the worst game we have ever played and it had to come on the night it mattered most. I certainly didn't do my part. I went 0-4 at the plate. 4 flyouts. That is unacceptable. I am not sure if it started with me or what, but the lack of production was contagious. No one was consistent and we only scored 10 runs the whole game. Pathetic! We usually score that many runs in one inning a couple times a game. To add to my frustration I made several fielding errors that were very uncharacteristic of me. We simply didn't show up to play and definitely didn't deserve to win the Championship last night. That is the great thing about softball; any team can beat any team on any night. Gotta bring your A-game all the time. Can't wait for the next season.

Lets try this again

So.... It has been over six months since I posted a blog on MY blog. That's a long time. I had pretty much given up on my own blog since Brooke and I got married because,

1.we made one together, which has been neglected for some time now, and

2. we didn't have internet at our new place for a few months.

But.... I have decided that I want to keep my own blog; talk about sports, church, random thoughts and inspiration that relate to me and do small post about what Brooke and I are doing these days and more about OUR family on the other blog. ( http://www.ryanbrookeridley.blogspot.com/ ) The blog of Brooke and I together will have more pictures and details. Well, thats my plan. Wish me luck.

I know I have tried to keep this blog updated before but I am making a more concentrated effort to really spend some time in sharing my thoughts and opinions about life in general, my experiences and sports.  So..lets try this again..........