A follow up to the football post from the beginning of the season. It is now the end of the season, or almost there. David Taft is done, Mackay has just won his first round in the playoffs and Brigham is sitting on a two week bye before his team begins their playoff run.
Let's begin with David. On the first day of 4th grade flag football practice the coach cornered me and another dad and informed us he would be traveling to Wisconsin for a few weeks. So we were it. I have a tendency to take over, and take over I did. I built a playbook the boys could study, I hollered and cajoled kids into doing things they never thought they could. We had a tremendous amount of fun. And we won games. On the first practice we huddled the kids up and asked them what they wanted for a mascot. "The Jets!" "The Saints!", "The 49ers" ... then the spark of inspiration hit. "The Slimey Pickles." "That's it. That's our mascot and will be forever." We took that Pickle moniker and ran with it. Everything was about the pickles. From our Pregame Pickle Pump up Playlist, to Pickle Sixes, to the Most Valuable Pickles awarded at the end of each game. Our plays included the CocaCola, the Sam's Cola (a fake), the Quebec (a QB sneak), the Pitchburgh, and the Dallas Dive. It was amazing and a ton of fun. 8-0, undefeated and most all games were not even close. Even the epic clash with our cross town rivals - The Trashcans.
DT has really taken to football. Like REALLY taken to football. That kid carries a football everywhere. We throw it almost every day. He talks about it. We watch many games together. We study it. He sleeps with his football. He could be a good QB or a great receiver. He is a pretty amazing, smooth athlete.
Mackay is the one I am surprise by. When we decided to do this, we asked Brigham if he would like to play tackle football, now that he is in 9th grade. He'd been interested back in Florida but we had hesitated and figured he'd lost the desire. But he said yes. So we signed BG, CM and DT up. To which Mackay responded, "Nobody consulted me on this!" Fair enough son, but you are the one that needs to play. The first day of tryouts were amazing. A kid half his size and weight took Mackay and drove him 10 yards away from the QB dummy. He had no idea what he was doing or if he even wanted to be there. But then he was put on the 8th grade B team with Coach Crane. What a perfect match. He has blossomed. He is a Right Guard and beyond sold on being an offensive lineman. Just a big tough kid that loves this game. He is now driving kids bigger than himself 3 yards back and counts up pancakes at the end of every game because he loves that stat.
His coach approached me during a game the other day and asked, "How tall are you? And his mother?" "Mackay has gotten so much better over the course of the season. Please get him on a weight lifting regimen during the summer because this kid is big enough and good enough to be a real player in High School." It was a tremendous compliment.
It is a nice feeling to see you son get out of the truck and walk up to his team with gear in hand and see him immediately pulled into the conversation and an arm put around his shoulders.
BG: The world is not big enough for this young man. As a 9th grader who is new to the game, he hasn't gotten many opportunities to play in the games. Skyridge is currently ranked 98th in the country, per Maxpreps. By 9th grade they expect kids to have been playing for 3-4 years and they kind of know who their athletes are. So BG sits on the sideline for most games. I've seen him get a few tackles, and play several series. He has been to almost every practice and is terribly energetic in cheering on his teammates. His body is changing. He spends many a minute every night, shirtless and standing in front of a mirror; very impressed with his progress.
In the last game, Jan and Brett came to watch. BG got in towards the end for a couple of series. He was playing NG on defense. The coolest thing I saw was that even though he never got the tackle, he was the second or third defender there. May I remind you, he was the NG and he was the second guy there on pass plays to the sideline or over the middle. He has some sweet hustle if he wants to. Both Brett and I were really impressed.
But the thing he likes the most out of this experience is the social aspect. He is a zagazoo right now-at home. But he has found a tribe and the idea of being on a team just excites him. And for me, the sight of him wandering around the track at a varsity game with a gaggle of kids in Skyridge jerseys, makes my dad heart happy.
This has been busy. Like for two months straight we had three to four games every Saturday, including BYU home games. It has been good and I'm grateful to be able to watch them do this. And now that they know a little bit about what is going on in the game, they find it more interesting to watch. I have two season tickets to the BYU home games this year and one of my secret pleasures is being able to take a son with me on a dAddie dAte to the game. Just the two of us for a couple of hours sharing something that both of us enjoy. It's like a little piece of heaven for me.
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