Are you ready for some Football!!!

I was visiting teaching Amy Sorenson and I brought up the subject that I really want my children to be active in some type of sports so they can have a good time plus be healthy. She suggested that I look into football with Syracuse city. The football league starts kids playing football at age 7. Luke actually brought up wanting to play football several times with me, but I think it was because he really wanted to wear all the gear not because he wanted to actual play the game. Luke is all about the uniform.

When I found out that they actually did have a program that he could play, I asked Luke if he was really interested in playing football. He answered with a resounding "YES". I told him that it would be very hard and that football isn't like all the other sports he had played previously. They were really going to make him work. I tried to scare him a little so he knew that it wasn't going to be easy. But, that didn't deter him and said he was very excited to play.

Honestly, I didn't even know how much of a commitment football was going to be. They had drafts and expected a 100% commitment from the boys once they were on a team. We are the Syracuse Storms. Football has been our life for the past couple of months. They practice Tuesday thru Friday for about 2 hours, and then they play a game on Saturday. We have gone to almost every single practice because we wanted to support Luke and know how he is doing in practice. Jordan has been really committed to football and has even offered to take stats for the games.

Overall, the season has had a lot of ups and downs. We haven't scored a touchdown the entire season. We still have one last game, so I am crossing my fingers.

The first game we played was a rough one. We played against Bear River. They must have been on steroids because they were HUGE. Luke was playing Center and was against the "X" man. He weighed about 105 pounds compared to Luke's 60 pounds. He rammed Luke over every single play. After the first hit, Luke was terrified and was crying saying that he didn't want to play football anymore. I felt really bad because he was getting pummeled the whole game. But he finished the game and was a good sport. After the game, I asked him what he liked about the game he said "Half Time". I just laughed. This poor boys first experience with football is getting tackled by a boy who probably looks like Goliath to Luke.

After that experience, Luke had a lot of head trash. It effected his practices and the coach finally had to switch his position because he was too scared. Since then, he has had some good moments and not so good moments. But, overall I think he will have good memories when he thinks about football. One thing that I have been amazed by is Luke has been doing football for a month and a half and he never once whined or complained about going to practice or going to a game. That is amazing because I have whined and complained several times about how I wish football was over because it has been such a huge time commitment for our entire family.

I don't know if he will want to do football next year. He is really a tender hearted boy and hitting and tackling people is really against his nature. Jordan and I have really tried hard to get him to believe that it is O.K. to hit people hard when you play football. It is the only time he is allowed to tackle someone and he won't get into trouble. But, he still has a problem with it. He wants to be everyone friend, not the guy who tackled and hit them. But, I am really proud of him for completing something that has been hard for him.

Here is a couple of pictures that Lindsay took of Luke playing football. They are amazing!!!