Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Sports Talk

I feel like I have been running non-stop since last Friday morning.  Well, there's no "feel" to it - I have been!  I am anticipating slowing down a bit this week - briefly - towards the end of the week.  But Saturday will be a crazy, crazy busy day.  Ugh - one day at a time, one day at a time!

We've decided to put our plans for S. Dakota on hold.  After the football meeting we had last week with Will's new coach, we just realized there was no possible way we're going to be able to get away anytime in August.  Will is going to be working at camp for all of June and July, solid, so there goes the summer.  Paul said he thought it would be good to focus on Will's football season, anyway, since this will be his senior year.  We're going to try to get to as many away games as possible, so we'll be traipsing all over the state this fall!  The school moved down a division because of their size, so I wonder what that will mean as far as travel goes.  When they were 1-A, it seemed like they had quite a few games that were a fair distance.  Actually, what Paul said he'd like to do is to wait and combine the S. Dakota trip with going out West to Wyoming so we could see Yellowstone and whatever else is out there.  I'm not banking on that happening any year soon, but we'll see!

Will has a new head football coach now.  He's young (maybe 30, if even that).  It's his first head coaching job - they recruited him from Valley in W. Des Moines.  He has two little boys - one Sam's age and a baby.  He's very fired up and determined to bring the Trojans back to their former glory.  He's making summer weight-lifting mandatory (it was always just a "come if you can" kind of thing before) and has all kinds of new rules and expectations.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing - playing any sport takes a good deal of discipline.   As Will and I sat in the bleachers the other night at the meeting I was really getting a sinking feeling in my stomach, wondering if Will would have to choose between working at camp and playing football because he will not be around for weight-lifting.  I started praying right there in my seat that God would allow the coach to see the value of Will missing weight-lifting in order to work!  We talked to him afterwards and thankfully, he was very understanding!  I guess there is another homeschooled boy on the team, too.  In fact, he was part of the team last season, but Will never mentioned that to me until the other night!  So...go Trojans!

David came to me the other night, obviously upset about something.  It finally came out that he had come to a realization that he really doesn't want to play football (this fall would have been the first season he could play).  I hope we never gave out a vibe of expectation in this area.  In fact, I always secretly wondered when David would say things about playing because, honestly, for a number of reasons, I have a hard time envisioning David out on the field!  But apparently, he had been putting himself under some mental pressure thinking that he had to play, but was beginning to dread the idea more and more.  I assured him that he certainly did not have to play football, or any sport for that matter.  God gifts us all differently and just because his older brother loves the game and plays it well doesn't mean that we expect all the kids to follow suite.  "Yeah," David said, "I think I'm better at watching football than playing it!"  The next day David came to me and said that he was kind of thinking about going out for track.  I guess we'll see what happens with that.  I think David's body - long and wiry - is probably better suited to jumping hurdles than plowing into line men!  The only thing is...track is spring sport and you know what spring is like around here - rainy, rainy, and cold!  I have a mental image of myself huddled miserably under an umbrella while sitting on cold, metal bleachers...

All right, I've got to run now.  David has a visit with the orthodontist, then he's getting his birthday picture taken and I have a few errands to run that I was not able to get done yesterday while doing my all-day shopping.  I'm tired!  But I'll blog some more tonight or tomorrow...or Wednesday, or maybe Thursday.  I'll get caught up eventually!

No comments:

Post a Comment