The Wright Stuff: Boys of Fall

It was a new fall sport for the boys this year. Seaside Kids runs a FREE football program around here for kids starting grade 3.....which makes Cameron a year late, and Tyler a year early. However, every year the coaches make an exception or two and let a second grader join the team. Tyler has been in love with football and wanted to play football since the first moment he saw one. In his mind, he was already a professional star football player just waiting to grow up. He never wavered when we would ask him if he wanted to play soccer, he always said "no, I want to play football" - even when it wasn't an option years ago. So Ronny asked his old high school buddy (who is in charge of youth football) if they would make an exception for Tyler. They did, and lucky for me both boys were on the same team - one set of practices/games for me to rush to and from - and with Elie starting soccer this year as well I was more than grateful for that.

It started off well with plenty of opportunities for adorable photos. In the beginning, I was ready for hesitation from Cameron - I'm always ready for that with him in anything, especially something new. But when I found myself consoling not one, but two sobbing boys who were scared to go and refusing to put on their pads and helmets - I was pretty taken aback. Cameron wants to quit everything - so we've been down the "you have to finish what you start" road many, MANY times (pretty much daily). But when Tyler - Mr. "I-want-to-do-everything-sign-me-up-for-it-all-mama" - who has NEVER complained about any sports participation EVER was crying and scared to go to practice.....it felt different to me than all those other times. We spent most practices and games dealing with this....

Tackle football at 7 and 10 years old....not sure I agree with it after having experienced it. Maybe a couple years of flag football to help them learn the game before they're terrified of being hurt isn't a bad call....or maybe that's an overprotective mama thinking. I realized I'm at the stage of parenting where it's hard to know when to protect and when to let them fall. When they're little there's not a big question - they don't need to be tough all the time. When they're older they're not gonna let mom help them. But right now we're in between.

We made it through the season.... and that's about all the positives I have to say about that. When Ronny's high school buddy came over to ask the boys how they liked playing football at the end of the season they answered simultaneously - "Do you want the real answer?" and "We're not doin' that again!"

We spent a lot of Friday Nights at the high school football games cheering on our stud footballer cousin Calvin and our great friend Jeff, who took on the head football coach position this year. It was amazing to watch what a difference a positive, committed coach can do for a football program - even in just one year. It helps that he has kids like Calvinator on his team for sure!

Even though Elie had her soccer career to concentrate on, football practices were every night and games took up most all of every Saturday, so she still did a lot of cheering for her brothers. She also got to attend a cheer camp that performed at halftime of a high school game. I dubbed her "quarterback princess".

There were some bright spots in the season, however. It was very evident to me, after I would get done dealing with Tyler's baffling meltdowns, that Cameron has matured miles and miles. He complained a lot, and he was more dramatic than most of the other boys on the team - but mostly he would "man up" and do it. That's a huge accomplishment for him. He even had some tackles on the ball carrier after Ronny started paying $5 for it as an incentive. Cameron's a natural athlete - he's super fast and has great hand/eye coordination. He just doesn't have the mentality for it yet - and I'm at a loss for how to help him with that. I'm starting to think it's something he'll have to get on his own - if he ever does.