There are some experiences that are just more memorable than others.
It’s football season and from now until November our week will consist of practices and walk throughs Monday through Wednesday. A JV game and then varsity team dinner on Thursday. A varsity game on Friday and then a seventh grade game on Saturday. Some parents hope for losses to pile up so that the teams don’t go far in the playoffs. We don’t. It’s really an amazing thing to be there and watch these guys play. To see them struggle, to hear their name called out on the loud speaker and most importantly to hug them at the end of a long sweaty game where their eye black is smeared, their arms are bruised and their smiles are gigantic. I can’t think of a thing I enjoy more of as a Dad.
Our boys play for Skyridge High School. They play in the largest classification in Utah and it has a really good athletic program. The area is fairly wealthy because it sits in the middle of the Silicon Slopes Tech center but is not as wealthy as say Lone Peak or Draper. Which in a way is good because it is home to quite a few former BYU and Utah athletes who also played formerly in the NFL and now want to be around to coach. It also lends to recruiting high quality players because of Utah’s very liberal transfer policy. So lots of kids come to this school for the coaching and opportunities they can get here. In the last couple of years, the school’s instagram has humble bragged by posting all of the D1 schools that have come to SHS to recruit. It includes nearly every SEC, B1G, ACC, B12 and former P12 teams. As well as all of the smaller local universities. It is beyond remarkable. Even that douche bag from the University of Utah flew into one of our games on a helicopter to impress the recruits last year. Tausili is now playing at Texas and Darius will be at Oklahoma next year.
My boys are not exactly on that level but they are tough and they are persistent. So four years ago we signed them up and asked them to try. Brigham was elated, Mackay’s response was an emphatic, “Well nobody asked me!” It’s been a rough road and a tough haul. They have had amazing experiences and awful ones. For instance, Brigham was so pissed off at several of his ‘teammates’ that he decided not to play Junior year and Mackay commented on the terrible juxtaposition that he felt going to football summer camp in Cedar City only days after being on a spiritual high at EFY. I could only sheepishly apologize for their bad experiences and tell them that it would ultimately be for their good.
I think that is particularly true for BG. When he quit Junior year I expected that it was over for good. But instead that kid learned that he loved lifting weights and he hit the gym hard. He lifted nearly everyday for a year on his own and worked his guts out to shape and build his body into a really large chiseled physique. It didn’t hurt that he was 16, but man he worked so hard and changed so much that his mother actually pulled him aside and asked if he was using HGH or something. Then most of the turds on the team also quit because they saw their playing time would be minimal. To my surprise, this spring Brig came to his mother and I and said that he was interested in playing again. We told him he needed to talk to the coaches and ask if they would allow him back on the team. He did—and to their credit—they did.
We didn’t go into this naively; the idea that he would suddenly be a starter and a star was not even a consideration. He wanted the challenge and the team experience. He wanted to prove to himself that he could. His uncle Matt said it well when he congratulated Brigham and commented, “This is a hard thing you have done and it speaks to your exceptional character. I don’t know that I would have had the humility and strength to do the same as you have at your age.” Things haven’t been easy and probably never will be for this young man. But these boys are all learning things that they just can’t get at this age except by playing sports.
The problem with Skyridge being such a good football program is that it is fairly difficult to get out of conference teams in Utah to play them. Corner is always game and Bingham is cool too. But East and West won’t return our calls and schools in Logan have unplugged the answering machine. So we called Liberty HS in Vegas and Cherry Creek in Denver. Both high powered programs and not afraid of an upstart from Utah. Three weeks ago the team took a charter bus down to Sin City and Michelle, DT and I drove the 9 hours to Henderson one week after my last cancer surgery. We drove down the strip, we walked across the bridge in front of the Hoover Dam and we cheered on our boys as they won both the JV and Varsity games in solid fashion. What a beautiful place, a beautiful experience and beautiful boys. I took pictures from the sidelines with David as my personal assistant, then we distributed those shots to the parents a few days later.
We had a boy on the field for almost the entire JV game as BG plays defense and CM is an O-Lineman. I didn’t even know that Brig was playing until 20 feet away from my face he nearly sacked the quarterback for a safety and forced an errant throw on 3rd and long. The announcer called out the pressure and my son’s name. After the prodigal-son-eque experience he has been through over the last several years it was an emotional overflow that I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by. It really did make my heart swell and I cried for a moment to see him excel like that.
I can’t help but love these boys. Each day I feel like it’s growing deeper and more profound. I am learning to correct and teach without anger and harshness. Well, without anger anyhow. But I want only their best and their greatest success. I wish that I had done better to establish certain attributes in them but I have taught them the best principles I could and they are doing better than I could hope. They will be great and this little football experience is just one way of teaching them to get there.
As an aside, Creek was rivals to Michelle’s alma mater in Denver. Skyridge whipped them and she was very happy about that. Almost a little too happy.
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