4:24PM
Spring Football
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 4:24PM | by Otter I coach the defensive line on a team of homeschooled high school aged boys. My son plays for them.
We've got our Spring game tonight.
I'm salivating: last night the coaches took on the team. There were seven of us, thirty of them. We beat 'em, yours truly having a pick-six to slam shut their pretty comeback hopes.
God, what a great sport....
My dad's got a new iPhone and will be texting the hospital so mom can keep up. (Mom and dad only missed maybe two games last fall. They're the proud grandparents of the coolest defensive end in high school football.)
Time to go get suited up and chew some red meat.
Reader Comments (2)
I'm glad you get to do something fun tonight. Enjoy it. I hope your mom enjoys the play by play and that your team is victorious!
Not victorious: but then we've made it a priority to play all of our kids. If they practice, they play. Our bigger stronger guys are really cool about this. I have a hunch the opposing coach knew if the number one priority was to win, we could have put a lot more pressure on them. But that would have meant maybe ten or twelve guys playing two downs instead of a full quarter.
There's nothing like seeing some skinny scared kid who's worked his tail off in practice getting out there with a deer-in-the-headlights look, taking a few hits and losing his butterflies (if not his lunch) and growing up a little bit.
And the parents paid a little more than $300 per kid so their grandparents could come out and watch their kid play, not sit on the bench. So we ask them to play their very hardest no matter their level, but play they will.
We've had parents from other teams say, "Man, you might not win many games, but we wish our kid played with you." We don't curse or swear at our guys, and the angriest we get is throwing a hat at a guy. That's our official denunciation of a guy's play.
Got that right: the coaches love the kids, and want to make them the best men they can be. It's a serious business.