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October 17, 2007
School Sports
In 7th grade I was cut when I tried out for basketball. In all fairness, I should have been cut but I still hated that it happened. It was embarrassing. And I never tried out for another sport after that.
In 9th grade one of my friends overheard one of the coaches ask, "Why doesn't that big kid ever try out for anything?" I was the big kid in question.
A friend of mine convinced me to play football senior year. There wasn't really any "trying out" involved as we were a small school and everybody made the cut. I went to summer training and two-a-days.
And I quit just before the season started. I lacked the killer instinct. My helmet could not have been the right size -- nothing is supposed to be that tight. My cleats were shitty, they hurt my feet, and it never occurred to me to have mom and dad buy a new pair. Mostly I had no idea what the hell was going on on a football field. It was a bad mix of things and anyone of them would have made me uncomfortable; all together they were more than I was willing to put up with.
At the time I weighed 212 pounds and was close to 6' 4" tall. Maybe I was taller. When do guys quit growing?
Anyway, as I recall, I was the only guy on the team that weighed over 200 pounds who had passed the physical. (Later, the program would show a couple of guys on the squad that went over 200 pounds and I always wondered what my new-improved-program weight would have been. The program would also show several guys who had not been at two-a-days; where the hell had they been?)
There was one thing I was good at. Toward the end of practice we did something that required that we run a lap around the field. I, lacking the killer instinct, would always start at the end of the group but would typically finish number one or two (I remember racing one of the Blaha boys to the finish line a couple of times. I won once and he the other). I checked the play book and there were exactly zero plays that required tackles and guards to run laps around the field. (By the way, we were divided into groups based on position for this exercise. Once, one of the backs (or ends or something) ran with us and blew us all away. Showoff. If we could have caught him, though, any one of us could have crushed him.)
This is Samson in his football garb. His football career wasn't all that long as he prefers soccer.
He managed to go all summer without getting a haircut. He'd finished the school year with his hair longer than I thought the school would tolerate and he was fairly sure he'd be able to sneak a week or two of long hair past the principal this year. I was certain he was wrong and it was decided he shouldn't push his luck.
Of course, if I had hair like that I'd never want to cut it either.
Posted by delmer at October 17, 2007 9:26 PM
Comments
Hi there !
Just browsing blogs... I thought I'd say hi instead of hiding behind a computer and a IP. ;-)
I hated sports at school, mostly because ... well, because I sucked, really. I'm not really good in a team, always felt awkward.
I think North Americans have a better attitude when it comes to sports than Europeans.
Posted by: Zhu at October 18, 2007 12:12 AM
Thanks for stopping by.
Once in a while you'll hear horror stories about parents getting out of hand at kid's sporting events. A few years ago, in Massachusetts, a father beat another dad to death at a hockey game. A friend of mine coached T-ball (Little League Baseball for younger kids) and one of the dads yanked his kid out of the line at the end of the game and started telling the boy how useless he was.
Fortunately, the leagues my kids are in seem to have very few insane parents.
I see you're living in our neighbor to the north. I was in Canada (well, a while ago) one winter and noticed the kids there played hockey on just about any frozen, flat surface. Maybe you'll have a chance to suit up for a game; hockey might be your sport. :-)
Posted by: delmer at October 18, 2007 9:06 AM
Oh God, that photo! When I was in Jr high all the boys on the football team would wear their shoulder pads to school before game day, and we'd have to squeeze by them in the hallways.
Posted by: Lisa at October 18, 2007 9:31 PM
I coached soccer one summer - little girls (ages 9-12). The kids were great. Some of the parents were complete jackasses...and they were the whole reason I only coached ONE year.
Posted by: Emma at October 18, 2007 10:37 PM
MMMM Soccer, I'm sick of coaching soccer. My daughter is decent and she gets pissed at the one's who don't listen, of course so do I. I just want to be a parent watching and enjoying my kid on the field, instead of watching everyone else's.
Posted by: mikeo at October 18, 2007 10:58 PM
Lisa: It sounds like we grew up in similar small towns. Though I'm not sure that our guys wore pads on game day (Jr. High is a little bit more into my past than it is for you.)
Emma: When my eldest was 4 or 5 -- whatever the first year they can play is -- we had one day who thought every game was the World Cup. It just takes one.
MikeO: When you get that Jr. College Girl's Soccer gig, I want to be your assistant.
Posted by: delmer at October 18, 2007 11:08 PM
but daaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaad, all the cool kids wear their hair long and in their face!
Posted by: dyna at October 19, 2007 2:56 PM
That is a dead-on impression.
If I didn't know better, I'd say that at one time in your life you'd been a 9-year old boy.
:-)
Posted by: delmer at October 19, 2007 3:37 PM
Incredable what pricipals seems to be able to interfere with. As long as it is clean, let him wear his hair as long as he wishes or start "the boys with long hair movement"
Posted by: Jack at October 22, 2007 6:23 AM