Welcome to Freshman Football!

Jul 14, 2012 by Alyssa

My oldest son is now a freshman and he has gone out for the high school football team.  His last day of junior high was a Friday and the following Monday freshman football camp started.  He was excited and a bit nervous but he was really looking forward to it.

On Monday it was all about getting your paperwork in, suiting up in your new shorts and shirts and hopefully getting the coach to learn your name.

Tuesday, things got a bit tougher.  The coaches were more about I don’t care what your name is, just do what I tell you and do it with all you got!

By Wednesday, the coaches were really starting to break the kids down, pushing them harder, running them more, yelling louder and no there was to be NO whining.

Thursday was  a killer day, the kids were running more sprints than they could ever imagine and the coaches were knocking down any egos that existed and pushing the kids to limits they didn’t even know they had.

On Friday, an hour before practice was to begin, my son couldn’t even walk, let alone get himself off the toilet.  He was convinced there was something to wrong with him, every muscle not ached, but hurt.  I was pumping Advil in him, rubbing out his hamstrings as he screamed in pain. He was crying that he couldn’t go to practice and I was yelling at him not to let the coaches win.  The coaches wanted to see who was going to give up and who was going to show up in pain and make the commitment to stick it out.

I practically had to drag my son and lift him into my SUV but, he went to practice, sucked it up and never shed a tear on the field.  He did burst into tears when he got back into the car and I looked him in the eyes and said, “dude, I am SOOO proud of you, whenever you get kicked to the curb, you just get right back up and never let them see your pain.”

I’m happy to say he successfully made it through the first 4 weeks of camp and has been working out everyday on his 3 weeks off.  The pads and the hitting are coming up so all I can do is get a bucket of epson salt ready by the tub!

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