Tackle Football

Our little shy guy decided to play football this year. I think the uniform weighs more than he does.

This mama's boy has surprised me with his emerging toughness. Pops advised him to "hit them first and hit them hard", so that seems to be his goal.  Initially, the team's practices lasted between 2 and 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, with heat index over 100 while wearing all that gear. Yet, he hasn't been complaining.  If I make him walk five minutes across a parking lot and through a shopping mall, he may cry bloody murder, however.  It's all about the game, I guess.  His grades haven't suffered too much yet, but after two and half years of reviewing material from our homeschooling years, he will eventually get to new material requiring him to actually study.

 

Except when he travels for work, my husband has been primarily responsible for getting him to practices while I take care of getting our daughter to/from all her field hockey practices and games and each kids to their three music lessons each week and to Bible study. IMACS, our daughter's intensive Bible study, and church youth group activities all kick-off this weekend and next week, so I'm not sure how we will juggle it all.  My husband, the introvert, sits up in the trees away from the other parents but under the shade of the trees during practices, a smart move in all the terrible heat we've been having.

So far, the coaches have been training our boy to play linebacker and wide receiver.

I'm glad my boy talked me into buying him shiny red football cleats because they make it so much easier for me to find him out on the field. Maybe those cleats will help him move like the wind....but hopefully not all the way to the Land of Oz or to Kansas

His team had their first scrimmage day against two very good teams this past weekend. They were supposed to run 40 plays on offense and 40 plays on defense, but one of the boys on our son's team, Aiden, suffered an eye/head injury during a tackle after the first few downs.  EMS was called and he was hauled off in a stretcher. It was a sad way to start the season and brought the scrimmage meet to an end after only a few plays.  Aiden is back home and resting, hopefully with only temporary injuries.