Football season is starting for the 12-year-olds. Yesterday we went to the football jamboree. After practicing for a couple of weeks, the league teams all converge in North Bend and the boys (and a girl or two), play a series of offensive and defensive scrimmages against many of the teams they'll meet again during the regular season. Here's a shot of my son and his team waiting their turn.
I recognize that look. I've seen it on his face before. He gets intense.
I didn't play organized football when I was a kid. But I did play a lot of pick-up football -- and basketball, and baseball, and whatever else was in season. Around here, I never see that happening. I mean never. In at least 10-years I've not seen a single field full of boys playing ball of any sort. Unless of course they were literally surrounded by red-faced, mostly anxious, adults enforcing rules and making sure jersey's are tucked in. It can suck on many levels.
Example: last weekend, while sidelined, one of the boys (not on my kid's team, thank heavens) was chasing another benched buddy. When he got close, he tossed his helmet and then continued the chase. Seeing the helmet bouncing around the field, one of the oh-so-serious coaches grabbed the boy by the shirt, dragged him aside, and kicked him out of the game with these words: "get off my football field". All I can say is what an a$$hol3. His football field? Really? Loser.
On the other hand, take another look at the photo. While I'm positive this adult-focused, hyper-organized, league-play substitute for neighborhood pick-up games, sucks some of the heart, and most of the fun out of boyhood as I remember it, it may also add something as well. The pressure of these games is enormous. Coaches bark orders, sing praise, growl reprimands, and parents hoot, cheer, and scowl from the sidelines. I suppose there's something to be said for getting through it in one emotional piece.
I've raised the bar further for my younger son (I was not always so enlightened with the older one). I've insisted -- and I'm serious -- that he has fun doing it and does everything he can to help his teammates do the same. Perhaps it's not surprising that the most effective argument I can make to keep him thinking fun, is that he'll perform better if he's relaxed and just enjoying the game. I even have a Yogi Berra story I pull out on special occasions to make that point.
But I wonder...
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