My son is a football player. That's not something I thought I'd say again. I know he played flag football A LOT when he was little, but he got so burnt out on it, I thought it was done. Little did I know.
When we moved to Illinois, we decided to let Joe play football. We asked the neighbors that we met in the summer where we should go to enroll him and they all said the Buffalo Grove Bills were the best. They were right. The BGB program is serious business.
After we spent a small fortune and gave Joe the requisite lectures about being serious, practicing, and not being able to quit, we let him go. The first week, Jon was out of town and I went to Joe's practices while Joci played at the local park. Joe fell and hurt his ankle. He sat out for awhile and so I approached to see what was going on. He was in pain, he started to cry. I held it together and said that he had to try and work through the pain as there was no swelling, etc, his ankle looked okay. One of the coaches walked up and asked if he could help. He was very kind and I spilled that we had just moved, lost my Dad to cancer, and that this is a big change for Joe and I couldn't let him quit. The coach told me that he didn't want Joe to hate football and that I should take him home for today and see how he would feel the next day. He said that they would take care of Joe and teach him football. Later, we found out that coach was to be Joe's coach. Coach Krames. Apparently, he had traded for Joe to be on his team and promised the other coach that he would mentor him, and he soooo did!
BEST COACH EVER! Never mind that my kid hadn't really played, ran a little funny, was a bit slow, quiet, and let's face it, not very athletic. He chose Joe because he was willing to do anything the coaches asked him to do and he had heart. He turned Joe into a football player and taught him what it was to be a part of the team. He even stepped in and gave him pep talks about getting his homework done and making the sacrifice that it takes to achieve excellence. Did I tell you that I love Joe's coach?
I'm so proud of my son! When he first came home with major bruises and I would get upset, he would beg me to let him play. He was excited and involved. He made lots of new friends, and he stuck it out even when he really didn't want to at times. He's not the last one in the field run anymore, and he's really, really good at his position, which is Right Guard. He still wears his BGB football jersey every Friday to school even though the season is over. Heck, he still wears that thing 2-3 times a week.
In the end, after all the bruises, tears, hours of practice, and straight up attitude, Joe's team won their Superbowl. I have never yelled and screamed so much in my life. Our team party is this Sunday, and I think Joe has literally asked me 10 times to make sure that his jersey was clean for it!
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| He's so proud of those bruises! |
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| Joe with the Superbowl trophy. |
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| Jon was a great Assistant Coach for Joe's team and so proud of Joe! |
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| I love this picture of the team right after they won the Superbowl. The only thing missing is Jon. |
