Why do I miss all the excitement?
Could it be that I am a jinx to my kids’ sporting teams, so
they win when I am gone?
Could it be that God knows my heart and blood pressure can’t
handle close, nail-biting games?
Could it be that when I am not present, my son is spared a
mountain of embarrassment from his extremely verbal mother and is able to
concentrate better on the game?
Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s more or less a combination of all
three.
But what a football season. Wow. What a rollercoaster. Both
my boys won their championship midget football games this season, and I am so
proud of them.
This year Joe was on fire. Somebody really lit a fire under
Joe’s butt and man was it fun to watch him play. Granted, this didn’t carry
over to his running at practice – the boy almost always finished last. As a
seventh grader, Joe weighs in at 171 pounds and stands about 5’6’’. He
outweighed everybody else on his Assurity B team by at least 20 pounds. Yes, he
was a double dot, which means he weighed enough that he could only play on the
line, and only on either offense or defense. At the first weigh-in of the
season they slapped those two green dots on the back of his helmet, and that
was the end of that. The boy has always been well-fed, although he did slim
down a little during football conditioning. I told him that he should strip his
equipment off and try to weigh in again. Maybe he could get down to 165 and be
a single dot so he could play both offense and defense. His answer: “Seriously
Mom?” And that was the end of that. Clearly he wasn’t giving up his nachos or
ice cream to play on the offensive line.
And whoever decided to put him on defense, well, it was a
good choice. He would get down in his stance with one hand poised on the ground
and one hand up behind him and just launch himself into the other team when the
ball was hiked. And he hit HARD. Imagine 171 pounds of nice-boy pent-up-fury
being unleashed on some unwitting chubby seventh grader. Joe said his job was to
wear down the linemen on the other team. He would smack them hard and tire them
out, then his coaches would trade him out for a skinnier kid who would sneak
through and get a bit sack for our team on the next play. And when Joe wasn’t
tiring them out, he would take a couple guys on the offensive line at a time. I
told him that must mean he is tough. He said, no, it just meant he took up more
space.
I know I am biased, but I thought he looked pretty tough for
a 12-year-old. Numerous times Joe would break though the offensive line into
the back field. He said during one game, he had his hand on the quarterback
five times, right as the quarterback was throwing the ball. He sacked the kicker one time; but another
one of his players had a facemask call on the play, so it was all for nothing.
But I’m counting it as a sack, none the less.
Joe improved so much as the season progressed this year.
Every game he looked forward to taking down the other linemen, hitting people
hard, and trying to get a quarterback sack. In fact, he said he looked forward
to the weeknights that he had practice. He told me that he anticipated taking
out all his frustrations on the practice field, hitting someone hard and making
himself feel better.
He also was pretty good about getting pumped up for the
games. He had one game he was really pumped up for. It was the semi-final game
in the B division. Evidently Assurity’s quarterback was looking a little too
good, and maybe getting a little too big. The coaches for the other team told
our coaches earlier in the season that “our day was coming.” The other coaches told
the officials they wanted our quarterback weighed in. The boy must have eaten a
second sandwich for lunch, and was one and a half pounds over the limit to play
quarterback. I’m sure the other team thought they had this one in the bag. What
they didn’t realize was that Assurity’s second string had been getting a lot of
play time the last couple of games. They also didn’t realize they made our boys
MAD. They were super pumped up. They hit HARD. The first series that the other
team had the ball, we stopped them in three plays, blocked their punt and ran
it in for a touchdown. Our team received two 15 yard penalties after that play
for our coaches running out on the field and excessive celebration. And it was
all downhill for them from then on. Joe said he hit the other players so hard
his coach asked him “Where did that come from?” and when our over-the-weight-limit
quarterback was playing on the defensive line, he sacked their quarterback. One
of our lineman talked a little smack then, and said, “How’d that extra one a
half pounds feel?”
I missed the last game, the championship game. But I think
it was God’s way of saving my blood pressure. I couldn’t have taken it. Joe’s
team ended up winning the game 6-0 in double overtime. I usually sit by another
loud mom. (Her son is the second-string quarterback.) We yell and cheer so loud
that sometimes parents from the other team move away from us – maybe even some
parents from our own team too. Mandy sat by my friend this last game. Mandy
said she was jumping up and down and screaming, especially when her son caught
a big interception. I can only imagine I would have been right there with her.
Just think of all the embarrassment Joe was saved. Oh the horror.
Joe’s game wasn’t the only game I am sad I missed. Rick
coached the C team for Assurity. They had only one loss during the season,
which they avenged a week earlier in the semi-final game. They played Union
Bank C in the championship, and evidently dominated during the whole game.
That’s pretty awesome because Rick was told that the other team’s coaches had
been scouting his team and video taping them the last couple of weeks. They
even had the players watching the video of Assurity’s plays. Wow. And these are
6th and 7th graders?
I’m so proud of my boys. But now their football season is
over. Rick is thinking he will coach again next year, then take a couple years
off when Joe gets to high school. In fact, he may take next year off, too. He
just isn’t sure. The freshmen and reserve football games are generally on
Tuesday nights, and those are midget football practice nights. Also, Mandy
plays volleyball on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He didn’t get to see many of her
games this season. And if she makes a team again next year (which is not an
easy task at Southwest), he wants to be able to see her play, as well.
The kids will only be in high school for a few years. And
they will only play high school sports a handful of years, as well. There will
be plenty of time to coach midget football when our kids are through school. I
suggested he could just assistant coach, but he says no. He wants to run things
the way he wants to do it. He doesn’t want anyone telling him what to do. Perhaps
I know where Joe gets his stubborn attitude. And here all along he’s been
blaming it on my flat-head German heritage. Clearly I’ve got an apology coming.
And sports go on. Now it is time to get ready for basketball
season. Hopefully Joe will do a little running before basketball starts. I
don’t want any puking this season. He still has a school volleyball tournament
he plays in at the end of October. That will be entertaining. It’s the first
time he will play without his big sister. I don’t envision him taking her
place, blocking at the net.
And Mandy finishes up her volleyball season this week. The
Lincoln city Reserve tournament is tonight. Although they can beat any of the
other Reserve teams in town when they are “on,” I predict we will get second or
third. But you never know. It depends what team shows up. It depends if they
make their serves and don’t get frazzled. It also depends on whether or not the
boyfriends show up to watch. But that’s a whole ‘nother blog.
Thank heavens we don’t have to worry about that with boys
and football. Boys are never affected by girls watching in the stands…right?
