Anyone else very happy when the final whistle blows at the end of high school football games?
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Well I'm a baseball coach who happens to know football so I coach it as well. I've had MANY of my baseball players play football as well. That includes bench guys and studs. As for being happy when the final whistle of a high school football game is over all I can say is that it depends on whether we have won or lost. 
You have to live your life without fear. My son didn't play high school football out of fear of injury preventing him from playing baseball. He injured his knee playing baseball and missed the summer and fall.
My son plays because he loves the sport and I will not take something he loves away from him, even if I preferred that he not play. He carried the ball 37 times on Saturday in a game against New Jersey's largest high school. The team trainer threw him in an ice bath immediately afterward, estimating that he'd been hit about 100 times by defenders. Add in that he's a middle linebacker leading his team in tackles over the past two years. Lots of collisions. I understand that injury is a part of any sport, but the danger is more obvious and often in football.
My son played nosetackle on his HS team. He loves football. At a little over 200 pounds he was far smaller than almost every guy he battled on the other side of the line.
I will admit to every single play saying to myself "get up, Jeff" and then breathing small sigh of relief when he got up off the turf.
He had already committed to his college baseball team by the time football started his senior year. His college coaches were great about it. They told him to go play, and win the title that eluded the team the year before. (His team ended up losing a heartbreaker in the state final
After the last whistle in that title game, as the team gathered to cosole each other's tears in the middle of the field, I remember thinking "Well, he survived the season with no injury."
He never considered not playing that senior year. I just don't think you can live that way. Maybe I would feel different had he blown out a knee or something.
But the risk of injury was never far from my mind all year, I can assure you. I think it comes with being a dad!
I will admit to every single play saying to myself "get up, Jeff" and then breathing small sigh of relief when he got up off the turf.
He had already committed to his college baseball team by the time football started his senior year. His college coaches were great about it. They told him to go play, and win the title that eluded the team the year before. (His team ended up losing a heartbreaker in the state final
After the last whistle in that title game, as the team gathered to cosole each other's tears in the middle of the field, I remember thinking "Well, he survived the season with no injury."
He never considered not playing that senior year. I just don't think you can live that way. Maybe I would feel different had he blown out a knee or something.
But the risk of injury was never far from my mind all year, I can assure you. I think it comes with being a dad!