Football Thursday Nights

Keaton loves sports - all sports.  He loves baseball best of all, but the camaraderie of playing on a football team for his school has won his heart! 

Thursdays are Freshman Football days - he wears his dress clothes (and yes, a tie) to school.  He lets his mother bring him a sack pre-game meal so he can eat with his teammates.  He speaks in play-calling jargon to show us that he is totally a football player now!

He plays Center and Mike.  Mike stands for something - Middle linebacker is the position.  It also calls the defensive plays to the team once he gets them from his coach on the sideline.  He loves that.  His coaches love that he has the mind to grasp all the formations, keep them straight and then (and this surprises me), the attention span to remember to watch for them to be called in and not get distracted by all the action on the field.

He's still a bit awkward on the sidelines - he wants to look up into the stands to see if he can find us and to see who else is there.  He talks too much when he's not in instead of watching the game.  He has this weird habit of holding onto the bottom of his face mask ALL THE TIME. 

But he loves football.  He loves being a Central Charger Gold Teamer.  He loves his number - #56.  He loves wearing Central colors every day.  He would wear a Central Charger shirt every day if we had enough!   He loves his coaches and thinks highly of his teammates.  He is excited to go to practice and games - he hates conditioning, but he does it with a great attitude because he is doing it as part of a team.

I met his coach last night at Mini-School.  Seems like the perfect Coach for Keaton.  Same enthusiasm, seems like a good soul, straight shooter and all around nice guy.  I could be wrong, but my money is on Keaton growing up to be a high school history teacher and coach.  I guess we'll see!