It was a great experience for my son who had never played before. He had always wanted to play. In fact, I had actually signed him up twice for rec football, but at the last second his mother said "NO!". This year was different. For whatever reason she relented and allowed him to play. She refused to go to the games, but she let him play nonetheless. He loved every minute of it even with the added workload of playing two sports. He also just received his report card and made the Honor roll. In fact, 4 of my 5 football/baseball players made the Honor roll. Good grades is something that I stress for all of my ball players.
I had one goal for his participation in football and it was to increase his speed. While I can "make" him run sprints during our baseball workouts it simply isn't the same as working out with the football team. I could get him to run a few sprints, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to really push him. Amazingly, while in the atmosphere of 40 kids in pads running for the majority of practice he never once complained. Sprint, sprint, sprint! It was awesome watching his speed increase throuhout the season. He noticed it as well, so the season was a success!
Only six 7th graders made the middle school football team and five of them were "mine". That was also very rewarding.
Gotta post a pic! Sorry!
