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March 11, 2004

Have I mentioned what an athlete I am not?

One of life's greatest miseries for the athletically stunted is school sports. I was the kid that the two team captains fought over who had to take me. I was the kid that opted to run the mile BACKWARDS so that the gym teacher would waive the minimum finish time. I was the kid that preferred to walk the perimeter of the sports field in lieu of participating (yes, this was a choice).

I remember in ninth grade, playing tag football with my class. The totally, like, oh my God, popular girl was team captain and she willingly picked me to be the hiker (I should have known something was wrong with this scenario but I was just so thrilled to be acknowledged that I think I would have happily picked her boogers for her). They took a ten minute time out to explain to me what exactly a hiker does (all that perimeter walking and all). Here is what she said. "All you have to do is bend over and hike the ball through your legs when I say HIKE". Oh, and, "you also have to stop the other hiker from getting to the ball". Shooooot, that sounds easy. Gimmee that ball. So, I take the ball put it down on the ground like I was shown and then look up, in perfect form. And have a heart attack. The opposing team's hiker was Melanie S. who easily outweighed me by 200 pounds (NOT an exageration). And she was grinning. When my quarterback said HIKE! The mountain began to stomp toward me, my hearing shutdown and I could only see Melanie. I handed her the ball and returned to walking the perimeter.

I was always jealous of kids that played school sports. I wonder at what point does a kid become athletically stunted? I tried out for the swim team in ninth grade and lasted all of about 1 month. The practice began in February in an outdoor, unheated pool. I whined to my mom that it was just too miserable so she let me quit. So when I had children, I decided to encourage them to play at least one sport. But then I saw how freaked out the parents were about team sports and decided that I did not want any part of that either for myself or my boys. I decided to wait until they were old enough to make an informed choice.

That would be now. I am a newly minted little league mom. The saddest thing was having to sign a form that says I agree not to curse and get violent or interfere with the players/coaches/other parents. I signed Jake up no problem. He is easily the most athletic of all of us. Eli refused but I couldn't figure out why. I decided not to push it and my neighbor worked on him. On one hand, I really need to get him to be more active. He is very into reading and computers (sedentary). I am afraid that if I don't push him (and this is what I told him), there will be some mark missed and then he will be a grown up like me, who just simply does not enjoy team sports. Does it matter? No, but it just gives him one more social outlet. On the other hand, I think it is perfectly okay to not play team sports at all. But, one day after sign up closed he had a change of heart and we were able to sign him up anyway. We have already had a skills clinic and both boys had a blast. Being the small community we are, they know every single kid on all five teams in the 7-9 age group. We don't know the final team selection yet but it should be interesting. One of those moral dilemmas that can't be answered - should brothers that fight like cats and dogs be on the same team or opposing? I will let you know.

Posted by DebC at March 11, 2004 12:11 PM

Comments

There is nothing wrong with sibling rivalry. It builds charactor, gives you bragging scars and will, later in life, provide you with exaggerated tales of abuse by brothers and/or sisters.
Soccer mom's and little league dad's, whew, that's another story and I'm not going there.

Have fun, Dad

Posted by: Dad at March 11, 2004 02:35 PM

I hope the boys have good experiences. I have been a baseball and football mom for years now expect the last couple. The boys always had fun and I ABSOLUTELY loved it. I LOVE football and baseball. Randy hated sitting by me because I get VERY involved with the game. I never cursed or said anything bad or mean, but I was a HUGE cheerer on person,LOL I know thats not good english. When football season comes I'm the one jumping up out of my chair and yelling at the TV. LOVE it. But the last couple of years we haven't played any sports mainly because Randy's out of school working full time,Brandon now would rather come home and work on his truck or sit in the back yard and shoot his 22 and Matthew,he's tried playing sports, but he gets such BAD Headaches we just decided to not do them for now. He hasn't been getting them as much anymore so hopefully he's growing out of them.BY the way for who ever hasn't heard, Matthew broke his arm last Tuesday in PE playing ,what else, Football,LOL.

Posted by: Kim at March 11, 2004 05:25 PM