Ah Oh! My Grandma is coming out with this post!…

I will be cheering for a new team this year – The NU Junior Miners, 8 and under.  It is the team my granddaughter is on. That’s right, I said my granddaughter.

I was able to attend the very first team practice on July 25th. It was exciting and very suspenseful it turned out..

I swelled with pride to watch our Chloe doing those running in place “down-up” drills. Coach praised her and said she was the fastest and to keep up the good work. Every 10-15 minutes, coach sent them all “to the bench” which meant run over to your parents and drink some water.

The high temp that day was 100 degrees, and it was still HOT when practice began at 6:00 pm. I was shocked to find out that practice lasted for 2 full hours – An hour past bedtime for some of those kids!

It was nearly 7:00 pm when the first kid lost it.

One of the older boys ran off the field. His parents were sitting on the edge of the field we were on. The poor kid was shaking and crying so hard he could barely speak. When he was able to get some words out they conveyed desperation and panic.

I want to go home now!” “I can’t do this!”  “It’s too hard” “I’m going to quit!” The more his parents tried to calm him the more desperate he became. These kids have run hard, and doing exercises constantly (even for water breaks they had to run off the field then back again).

If an 8-year-old boy is destroyed by the first hour of practice, how the hell is a 6-year-old going to hold up?  Well, she lasted for another half-hour before losing her mind. Shaking, Sobbing and repeating what was becoming the mantra of the evening “I can’t do this!  It’s too hard.”

I was impressed how parents reacted to this situation. They were calm and supported of their children, but wanted them to stick it out for the entire practice. They wanted them to sit (off the field) and listen and watch the team drills. No one yelled at the coaches to tone it down. There were no riots or injuries (like those soccer people always seem to have) either.

Once my granddaughter was calm and caught her breath, she was still reluctant to get back in there. Until coach started them on her favorite drill.

“Oh look! They are doing the defensive drills,” my daughter says.

“OK – I’ll try again,” Miss 51 said. Although her lower lip trembled, and her eyes had tears left in them, she put on her “brave face”, waved to us as she ran back onto the field and got into line. After her turn, she would circle back and get into another line. She made me think of the Energizer bunny – she kept going and going and going.

She managed to make it through to the end, 8:05 according to my watch. I knew she would. 

Her first game is this weekend, and I am so bummed I can’t go! I expect my  daughter to take video!!  Would it be too much to ask my Son-in-Law to call me during the game and give me a radio announcer’s version? I’m thinking, hey, he’s there watching it anyway, right?

OMG!  She even stands like a football player – isn’t that so cute?

♥  TTFN  ♥