Category: Belgrade Sports

Bill & Nadia’s Hot Date: “Run Your Bass Off”

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Bill & Nadia Warm Up, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Sunday Nadia and I ran the 28th annual “Run Your Bass Off” 10 kilometer road race in Crystal Falls, Michigan. The race is part of the Bass Festival held at Runkle Lake. We were unsure of going when we got up Sunday morning as it was 50 degrees F and drizzling. We powered through however and got the kids up and packed and drove the 15 miles to the other side of Iron County. We dropped the boys off with our good friend’s the Bonetti family and dropped Ocean of at my aunt Ione’s home in Crystal Falls. It was great! We felt like we were on a date with no kids. As you can see, I was a bit more excited about running in the cool weather than Nadia.

Most of the 279 present were running the shorter “Half Bass” or 5 kilometer run/walk. Crystal Falls should be renamed Crystal Hills as there were killer hills throughout the race. There were some nice scenic spots as we ran by the Paint River. Nadia and I ran together as it was a rare opportunity for us to do something together sans offspring. Nadia started off slow but then got her second wind and we passed some runners. There was a large hill however at the 4 mile mark that took the wind out of her sails and she slowed a bit. In the last 2 miles she recovered and we finished strong together at 1 hour and 2 minutes. We didn’t win but that wasn’t the point. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and got out and did some exercise.

Grandma Kralovec’s Top 5 Least Favorite Athletes

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My mother, Yvonne Kralovec is a sports fanatic. She still follows sports daily, at age 67. She was a great athlete in her day, playing fast pitch softball, basketball, and bowling. She was a long time girls’ basketball coach at West Iron County Public Schools.

Her top five least favorite athletes are as follows:

#5 – Peyton Manning, QB Indianapolis Colts – “He thinks he is so great. He still complains about losing out on the Heisman trophy to the Michigan guy.” She loved it when his little brother upstaged him this year.

#4 – Todd Jones, Pitcher Detroit Tigers- “He can’t get three consecutive outs and makes me nervous.”  Note- Grandma watches or listens to every Tiger game. She has been doing this for the past 60 years.

#3 – Alex Rodriguez, Third Baseman NY Yankees – “Too much attention is paid to him, plus he is a Yankee.”

#2 – Kobe Bryant, Captain, LA Lakers – “Braggart, ‘I am the MVP’.” Anyone who campaigns for the MVP loses points in her book.

#1 – Tiger Woods, golfer – “That is all you hear about. For example, his poor knee, he won the US Open and they are worried about his knee. If he can play 91 holes, he doesn’t have problems with his knee.”

As you can see, she loves the underdogs.

Farewell to the EVAC

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Mr. Kralovec, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Yesterday was my final tournament in the Eastern Venezuelan Athletic Conference. The EVAC consists of five schools here in the eastern oilfields of Venezuela. Besides our school, they are Colegio Internacional de Puerto La Cruz, two QSI schools, one in El Tigre and the other in Lecheria. The other is the International School of Monagas in Maturin. Since my arrival to the school in January of 2002, several times a year I attended the events, which ranged from roller hockey to debate, soccer to knowledge bowl and many others. I usually was coaching or assisting the Guacamayas in most of them.

One of the reasons I went into education is the opportunity to coach. My mother was a long time basketball and softball coach and my father was quite an athlete when he was young, so I grew up in a sports crazy house. I feel very strongly that one of the best characteristics about American schools is their strong commitment to extra-curricular activities. Young people need as many activities as possible in this era of passive entertainment. To have the students learn the fundamental of sports, develop healthy exercise habits, learn to deal with competition, and develop friendships with teammates and opponents, is so much better than sitting at home playing video games

Yesterday was s sweet ending to my EVAC career. Our elementary softball team won first place and dominated the softball competition. They scored 52 runs and only allowed 6 runs. I am shown above pitching to our team, as the coaches do the pitching to speed up the game. The students and myself really enjoyed ourselves yesterday! It was the most excited I have seen the students all year! It just confirms my beliefs above. I hope to continue being involved in sports and other activities in my new school and conference.

I would like to thank everyone who I worked with in the EVAC. I would especially like to mention Chris Irvin, the CIPLC Athletic Director and founder of the EVAC. Through his energy and sportmanship, he has made the EVAC very successful and given our small school, the opportunity to compete with other international schools. It really enhanced our school and the program we offer. I would also like to thank some of the other coaches I worked with through the years, like Ken Hall, Aaron Harnden, Rick Hoogenboom, Mark Richert, Joe Fenbert, Diego Wells, George Gostovich, Heather Villaparedes, Dave Becvar, and many others. Shown below was the most recent EVAC Planning meeting that took place earlier this month at QSI-PLC. Shown around the table are Mike Martell, Henny Sands, Nick Wasuck, Heather Villaparedes, Aaron Harnden, and Chris Irvin.

EVAC Planning May 2007

Kralovec Family Success in “Run For The Earth” 5 KM

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Owen & Papa Run the 1 kilometer Race, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Escuela Anaco hosted yesterday the “Run For The Earth” 5 kilometer race. The Kralovec family did extremely well. Above, Owen and I ran together in the 1 kilometer race. Owen needed a bit of encouragement not to stop and look at all the people behind him. He was a tough trooper however, and finished with a time of 7: 48. He would have had the fastest time of any younger student, but the others cut corners on the inside of loop of the course while Owen and I ran the proper course. I was so proud to be running with my son. It was the first time we competed together. I hope we can continue to compete together in sports in the years to come.I kept going after escorting him to finish the 4.8 kilometer course around the school grounds in 28:09. It was extremely hot with temperatures in the mid to high 90’s. I couldn’t quite catch Mr. Flinn’s friend Leo who was visiting from England. I finished with the silver medal.

Nadia was the true hero of the Kralovec family however. First she ran hard and won second place in the women’s race with a time of 31:59. She then entered the 100 meter dash for adult females. She was having trouble with her hat and fell behind early, but came from behind to beat ninth grade student Francesca. Owen finished tied with his cousin Sebey in the Kinder 100 meter dash for second. Even little Oliver got in the act and did some running with the day care personnel. So overall it was 3 silver medals and a 100 meter championship for our family. This is our last fun run at the school as we are leaving next month.

Below, Nadia wins the 100 meter dash, with hat in hand and Ollie enjoys the run too. You can see these and more photos on the run by clicking on the photo above to take you to our flickr.com set.

Nadia Wins 100

Ollie Runs Too