by Son of the Silver Fox » Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:22 am
My sons smile!
Recently I Helped my oldest son (10 yrs at the time) print a paper he had written for school.
The title of the paper was "Proud (Of Myself)". He had written an account of his performance in a football game (NOT FOOTY) last season.
The paper brought back to me of a moment of pure beauty.
Anyone not familiar with American Football needs to know that there is NO other sport which requires the level of dedication and self sacrifice to team than American Football. It is the modern version of warrior training. (If you disagree start a different discussion). anyway...
Prior to last season "Jack" had made a choice to try to play above the level of his friends and teammates.
I coach the older boys in a program that has kids for 5 years.
I advised him that if he tried to do this that he would have to learn a new position, and would receive no preferential treatment. He also would probably only get practice time, not getting in any games would be a real possibility (10 to 12 is a HUGE difference in size and aggression.) also if he couldn't do it, he may not get a chance to return to his old squad because somebody else would be entrenched in his old position. He took a Huge gamble.
2 1/2 months before the start of the season he made his decision, and asked me to train him.
{cue the "Rocky" music folks}
all summer was spent with training, pushups, situps, running hills, hundreds of reps with a heavy bag daily.
When Weigh-ins came he was 115 lbs. all muscle, NO fat (heavier than I was at 15). still small for this dividion and he stood a full helmet shorter than the other boys.
"Ignorance doesn't suck for the ignorant they just don't know any better."