Are You Ready for Some Football?

What an exciting, nail biter of day.  My whole post is about the football game today, so I hope you are up for it!  For those of you that don't know, my son plays Pop Warner football on the Midget team.  Don't let the name fool you, this is the oldest and biggest of the Pop Warner teams.  Next year most of these boys will be in high school.  They have a weight limit at the beginning of the season of 160 pounds and once they certify, they can gain a pound a week.  So, here we are a few weeks into the season now and the team we played today looked enormous!  Will even said that a few of them were pretty scary!  Anyway I am getting ahead of myself.  We left a bit early because as Will was putting on his uniform socks, one of them tore.  So we had to go to Sport Chalet to pick up a new pair.  Amy and I were a bit nervous about Will being late.  Not that he would ever be late to the game, Coach Mark wants us all there 1 hour and 15 minutes before the game is suppose to start!  Joel was telling us we would be at the store in less than 10 minutes (by the way, it didn't happen), and we would have plenty of time to be there before "first jack."  (The team starts warm ups with jumping jacks exactly 1 hour before the game.)  Even though we didn't make it to the store in 10 minutes, we did make it to the field before Will was even supposed to be there.  Took a bit of skilled driving through the Long Beach Towne Center to avoid traffic, but in the end Amy and I worried needlessly.  So once at the game, we set up our umbrella and chairs and watched the end of what I think was a Pee Wee game.  They are a couple of years under us.  Hard to imagine that Will was that size when he first started playing tackle football.  Our boys played an undefeated team from Canyon Hills, apparently this team went all the way to Florida to play in the national championships last year.  And I can tell you they didn't get there with good sportsmanship. Our guys are well trained to be respectful on the field.  They have to call their coaches "sir" and they always help up the opponent or pat them on the back for a good play.  This team we were playing would slap our player's hands away when we would offer them.  They were arguing with the refs and shouting at the parents on our side when they did something good.  I thought it was just sad.  Their coaches obviously allow it, if not promote it.  They scored on us right away by getting an interception and running it all the way back for a touchdown.  Quite a blow to our guys.  This is only our second game of the season, we won our first game, but we also (if they would have kept score) appeared to win all of our scrimmages.  We managed to pull it together though and get our heads back into the game.  It really pumped them up when our QB successfully threw a short pass and one of our players converted it into a touchdown with a 45 yard run after the catch.  So now with the score tied, I can hardly keep my seat.  We are back on defense and while everyone was doing a great job, I was really only watching my son, he plays strong side outside linebacker.  He was in on most of the tackles, and many times he got their first.  So exciting!!  Then in the second half, one of our players kept running the ball and moving it down the field.  The other team was getting angry and after the whistle blew, one of their players hit him (our running back) in the lower back with his helmet, right in front of the ref (and us).  Of course the ref didn't see it.  Shortly after that, the fourth quarter started and they switched sides.  Amy and Joel walked down to the other side of the field where the plays were going to be happening, Will was playing tail back (his other position), he took a hand off and ran about 40 yards for a touchdown!  It happened clear on the other end of the field from me, but I had to jump up and down and do the happy dance all by myself anyway!  After that, the Canyon Hills team were moving the ball down the field.  Defense was working hard, but the other team would manage to get 10 yards by the 4th down each time.  Then something happened and our defense really started to turn it on.  They were stuffing the runner, sacking the quarterback and most importantly keeping them from scoring.  We were wishing for time to go faster and kept staring at the scoreboard clock!  It was a nail biter all the way until the end.  So now I sit at home and wonder, why is it that we get so excited when our kids do something great? It is not like we really had anything to do with it.  He is the one putting in the hard work, proving himself on the field day after day, why do I feel like I was the one who scored a touchdown?  I really don't know, what I do know is that I was really proud that we have a classy team.  Even in the parking lot there were still some of the Canyon Hills players and parents hanging out and as my son walked by, he told the guy closest to us, "Good game."  Now, that, I guess I can puff up about, I have raised some great kids.