Nick, I have been there

Monday night football, Spain Park vrs Hoover, big rivalry. It was a hard fought game and the final score was 7-6, in Hoover's favor. The first string players from both teams stay on the field, but there were substitutes going in and out. Monday night I saw something that took me back to 46 years ago.

My oldest grandson, Nick, plays half back for the Spain Park Jags and this is his Junior year. He has been trained to block and run, and I have seen him do both. But Monday night Nick was on the kickoff receiving team, two positions up from the return specialist. This is not a position that normally receives the kick off, but on Monday, Hoovers kicker didn't kick it as deep as he normally does and it went straight to Nick. Now, when you are receiving a kickoff or a punt there are certain "rules" that need to be observed, the first of which is concentrate on the ball and nothing else, not the two huge defensive players bearing down on you, with full intentions of making you lose your concentration and possible causing some pain. I know we have all seen this happen to the best college and pro players, the ball went into Nick's arms and out thru the bottom, a fumble. Another Spain Park player recovered the fumble and a Monday night "disaster" was avoided. Keep in mind this "disaster" will be nothing compared to the errors that will be made in one's future, but for a Junior in high school , it can rank up there as the worst nightmare imaginable. If you have trouble understanding that, listen to Brad Paisley song about writing a letter to himself when he was 17. It does put it in perspective.

Nick, when I said I have been there, my results were much worse. My step-father was career Air Force and for a while we lived in England. While I attended a US high school on one of the Air Force Bases, we didn't have an "American" football team because there were very few other US HS team to play. We did have a English "football" team (soccer) and we played the local British schools. I must admit that I thought I was pretty good because I was first string full back (goalie guard). My job was to help keep the ball away from our goal, the goalies job was to keep the ball from actually going in. Now saying I was pretty good is like saying you are a great quarterback in a high school that has a total of 200 students, I was a big fish in the smallest pond you can imagine.

Our first game taught us all just how good we were....we lost 12 to 1...this is soccer, where 5 to 1 is a runaway game. The school we played scored 11 goals and they were given the 1st, by me. It seems the entire game was played on our end of the field and I was running myself to death when I saw the ball rolling toward me and made a great kick to get it back down field. It was a great kick but "down field" was behind me. I saw our goalie dive to block it but he couldn't make the play. So thanks to me, they scored their first goal. I was so embarrassed that I took the easy way out, I ran to the sidelines and pulled myself out of the game. Coach sent in my backup and then let me sit for a while..I actually wanted to hide. Kind of like the Alabama player who came off the bench to tackle the Rice player running by the bench with the ball and heading for a touchdown. He tackled him (he didn't even have his helmet on) and immediately got up and tried to hide and disappear behind the other players on the bench, that was how I felt. After a few minutes Coach came over and asked if I was over feeling embarrassed and was I ready to go back in, I did. Like I said we were slaughtered that first game. After the game Coach asked what I had learned that night; know where our goal was, which way I was facing and do not get embarrassed, just do not make the same mistake twice. We played that same school toward the end of the season, I was still first string, I didn't score a goal from them and they beat us 2 to 1. You would have thought we had won the super bowl.

Nick, if you were able to shake it off, like all coaches tell their players to do, and get ready for the next play, I am proud of you. If it took a few minutes, I know what you were feeling. I love you, Papa