Sunday, April 11, 2010

The First Big Game

Gabe loves all things sports. From a very, very young age, his love of sports was apparent to us. I have picture after picture of Gabe with baseballs, basketballs, soccer balls. And then there are the footballs.

For those of you who don't know, Gabe's dad played football for the Iowa State Cyclones. So, of course, Gabe has long waited to play on a football team himself. That long-awaited day came yesterday, with Gabe's very first flag football game.


{Above is our team, the Kansas State Wildcats. Gabe is in the first row, second from the left.}

The boys on the team are first and second graders. And with only a handful of practices under their belts, you can imagine that some of them were completely clueless.

Well, I guess I should clarify and say most of them were completely clueless...


This, mind you, is coming from a completely clueless mom when it comes to football. But even I knew that all the boys pushing on each other was not really the point of the game.They all knew that they had practiced how to block, so that's what they all did for the first several plays of the game. Never mind the fact that they were suppose to be on defense at this point...



They just all kept blocking each other while one guy ran with the ball. It was quite humorous.

When they weren't blocking each other, they just kind of stood around waiting for the coaches to tell them what to do next. Jason was recruited by the coaches to help too...



Gabe once again demonstrated his strength. He's not one of the biggest kids on the team, but he can go up against kids much bigger than him and push them out of the way. I don't understand it, but he's always been a little bull...



It was great seeing him block so well.

But then, he got the ball.

As Gabe explained to us after the game, everyone was running at him so he just ran the other way. Unfortunately, it was the wrong way, towards the wrong goal, trying to avoid the other players.

Gabe lost several yards. But, he was fast...I can say that!

And he had fun.

And when you're seven, that's all that matters in the end.

Unless, of course, you're a competitive boy like Gabe is. And then it also matters if you win or lose ;) It's funny how there is no official score kept, yet all the boys know who wins and who loses. This game finished in a tie, however.



After the game, we asked Gabe what he thought. His response, "That was awesome!" Like he said, he gets to play with his best buddies and hit people. Oh, and there's a ball.

I can see many, many football games in our future. I guess I'd best learn the rules of the game, so maybe I don't sound so clueless.


8 comments:

Kim said...

Ahhh, Spring sports! Glad Gabe had a great first game!

Valerie and Jeff said...

Love the photos and the story! Yes, they were all kinda clueless--how funny--because they were SO passionate about it all at the same time. (Very serious stuff Mom!) Great photos by the way (I was too cheap to buy them from the official photographer!) I'm not sure if I captured the grit of the game with my little camera as you did but this should make a post. LOVE the little bull blocking photo! (ha!) They do love to block don't they? Just think they can do all that blocking and chasing stuff that they usually love to torment their little brothers with but it's totally Okay here! (no wonder they love it.)

Tara Anderson said...

Hooray!!! Glad you're off to a fun season! I was always a football fan, but neither Andrew or Eli are too much into it...now I've got to learn not to be so "clueless" about music. :)

Unknown said...

You can see all their might in their faces on the picture of Gabe going up against the bigger guy. I love it!

What fun!

Julia Kulish said...

omgsh - that is too cute. I remember those metor football days - they were really fun. And be encouraged - if I can learn the rules of the game (well,m at leat enough not to yell rediculous things during the games) you can too - I was really clueless:-)

Julia Kulish said...

oops - it is really Monday - I meant METRO football - geesh!

Mei Mei s and Mayhem said...

This is a hoot!!! I love watching little kids play sports!! Looked like a beautiful day too!

Karen said...

What a sweet boy and so tough at football! I wonder if Tony knows that your hubby played at IA State. Tony graduated from there ...probably a long time before Jason. Thank you for posting on my blog. It made me feel much better knowing that others are feeling the same way. I really appreciate it.