Fall Football with the Fellas

This shot of Spencer epitomizes the entire football season for us here in Monticello this year. Bring it. You want a piece of this? Buckaroos Rule! (Yeah, that's our mascot. Buckaroos. You see, it is this cowboy riding a bucking bronco... Just trust me. The local shout is "Go Bucks!" and we join in at the top of our lungs!)

Go BUCKS!

That Spencer can MOVE! He is so fast and agile he astounds me sometimes. He often sets challenges for himself at home. "OK - now I am going to throw this dart at the wall, then turn around twice, jump off the chair, do a ninja kick and catch the dart before it falls." Which he then spends an hour trying to accomplish.

Spencer was mostly on the offensive line this year. What? That solid kid? Honestly I don't think the boys across the line knew what hit them in terms of tenacity and sheer will. Spencer can wrap up and take down almost anyone, even the boy from the Towac Indian Reservation team that was about 3 times Spencer's girth. Spencer plays intense and loves it!

Spencer's team also went undefeated for the season. About half way through the kids started to realize this possibility and got really, really excited about it. The coaches wanted them just to focus on doing their best and taking it one game at a time so the coaches made a deal.

If everyone kept totally quiet about "undefeated season," and I mean total, don't talk to each other, the coaches, your parents, - ANYONE. If they did this the coaches would throw a big party and get them all a T-shirt with players names and stats of the games. I think it was like the silence of the mafia. Not a word uttered, at least not loud enough for the coaches to hear!

In the end, they did win all the games, and quite convincingly as well. We travel all over the area for games and we face some tough teams. The team worked really hard for this one and really well with each other. At the team party at the end of the season the kids each got a super cool T-shirt, donated by some members of the community, and a team picture that was amped up in photoshop and makes those 10-year-old boys look like a force to be reckoned with.

Far and away what keeps me taking the kids to practice and driving 60 miles to play a game is the great experience my children have from working with coaches. For Spencer it was Coach R.L. (Wilcox) and Coach Art (Adair). These men are wise enough to understand that they are doing so much more than teaching plays and drills. They are raising boys, helping to shape them into men who will change the world, even if it is in the small ranches and farms of San Juan County. On the field the boys learn lessons that matter even more off the field. As a mother, it amazes me how much they listen to these good men. Thank heavens for people like R.L and Art because we just can't do this job of raising families alone.

Now, the big boys. Well, at least of the elementary school. To be fair, half of the team is in Junior High as 7th graders, half of the team in 6th grade. Do you love that walk up to the line? Parker is in the front without the striped arm socks. After a while we started calling this group the Four Horseman just because they can look really imposing in this particular strut.

Parker played both offense and defense, every play of the entire season. He got worked, hard, every practice, every day for two and half months and he loved it. No one loves the feeling of a team more than Parker. He is the one shouting encouragement, slapping on the back, and cheering the loudest when someone does something great.

All of his best friends play on the team with him. This year two of his buddies had not played before but Parker convinced them to try it. They both did great and Parker got to add more fun to his afternoons by surrounding himself with everyone he wanted to play with anyway! Clever boy.

Parker played center and nose guard for most of the season. As one of our coaches said, they line are often the unsung heroes of the game. If they do their job well, others shine, if they fail at their job, everyone knows it. Parker played with so much heart this year it was just fun to watch him.

Again, what can I add about the coaches. Mike Bradford,

and Randy LaRose.

Parker is great friends with their sons, Shandon and McKayd and spends LOTS of time in their homes. Both Mike and Randy give so much of themselves to the game and kids without crossing that line into egotism. A rare quality to care so much but not for their own glory. They are tough on these kids but they also freely praise a job well done. Again, the lessons of life played out on a country football field.

And what do the rest of us do for this season? Well, all pictures here come from Jer spending hours behind the camera capturing the moments (we have about 200 pictures of this season alone). I visit with the Mom Squad and cheer at all the appropriate moments. And Whitney, plays with all her friends (who all have big brothers playing too) and snuggles with anyone willing. She is a trooper and a great cheerleader!

Goodbye smelly jerseys, heavy helmets, grass stains, and crisp fall nights under the lights. Until next year.