Modified Football

Modified Football
Did I mention our 12-year old is playing on his 7th grade modified football team? It isn’t something I’m particularly in favor of him doing. He is not as big as many of the other 7th and 8th grade boys, but he can really catch and is fast on his feet. I imagine him not being quite fast enough, getting tackled by the bigger boys on the visiting team and seeing him not get up off the field.
I understand that a mother must relinquish her dreams and aspirations for her child, when they begin to have dreams and aspirations of their own. Therefore, I shut my mouth and go to every scrimmage and game. I suppress the groan from the pain in my knee as I climb to the top of the bleachers and swallow my agony of not being able to tell him: run to your other left! I don’t voice out-loud that I really don’t mind his just rooting from the side-line, instead of being in the may-lay.
The away games are fun, because we know that the folks in the visitor’s bleachers are all “on our side”. Some of the other parents in the bleachers are parents of the experienced 8th Graders and kind of lead those of the first-time 7th Graders’ parents as to when to yell “Go D!” I assume D means defense. “Push ‘em back!” “Block that wedge!” “He’s going up the middle!” and other spur-of-the-moment comments.
When one mom yelled “Hit ‘em hard!”, She turned around to ask if that was okay to say. I couldn’t resist saying “Not if it’s my kid!
After each game, we go out to eat and talk about the game. At one point, our son asked, “Did that bring back memories.” My husband and I both said yes, but I suspect for different reasons. lol
Copyright © 2010 by Kate Chamberlin. All Rights Reserved.