Football Season Has Begun!

The month of August has always been fun for me as I was growing up as well as now as an adult.  I can remember as a kid and a teenager that in August we all started gearing up for 4 months worth of Sunday and Monday nights of a great American pass time.  For some it is Baseball, but that is not what I have grown up with as a tradition.  What pass time am I talking about one would say? Why football!  I grew up with being surrounded by football fans.  It seemed like every guy in my family from my Pops to my Father all loved to watch football.  We all love the Washington Redskins and to us there really was no other team.  No matter how the Redskins are doing we love them.

I know now that I have pasted on that love of the game to my son.  This past week has been very interesting and busy for our family.  Alex came to me at the beginning of summer and told me that he wanted to play football.  We are in Texas and although I have lived in many places I have never seen a sport that is so supported by everyone than it is here.  High school football is a very big thing here.  Every high school has a huge stadium that makes me think of a college stadium.  The girls attend a high school that has a jumbo tron screen to show all the plays. Here we have two types of football for the kids that are in Elementary school through 6th grade to play.  Flag football or tackle football.  After doing our research it was recommended that if my son wanted to play football in Junior High and High school that he should register with the Boys and Girls Club for their tackle football program.  That they have wonderful coaches that will teach the kids not only the fundamentals of the game, but also that it is about having fun as well.

So August 23rd came and Alex and I went to the Boys and Girls Club and we registered him for tackle football.  They we had to sit and wait for the draft to take place.  Alex was chosen for the Bucs and we are very happy with this.  The Coaches for the Bucs have been coaching for the longest time here and are a great set of guys. Coach Nicks is the head coach and he is great with the kids.  Coach Coke coaches Defensive Line and then we have Coach Locke that is the Assist Coach.  I was worried in the beginning because Alex has never played before and most of these boys have been playing since they were 7 years old.  All the Coaches assured me that I had nothing to worry about and that they would make sure that Alex learns all the fundamentals and most of all has fun.

Alex started practice last week.  His first day they went over the basics and the boys did conditioning so they did not use pads at all.  This continued all week although they did add the helmets on the third day.  During the first two days the coaches looked at the boys abilities and ran them to see how fast they were and what positions the coaches felt that they would excel at before making their decisions on Thursday as to what positions they boys would play.  The Coaches have decided that although Alex is a big boy that he is very fast on his feet so they put him in as Right Guard. Alex will be playing both sides of the ball, meaning that he plays both offense and defense.

One thing Alex has learned in this past week is that football is very physical and I believe he has learned about muscles he didn't even know he has now.  Although he is sore, that soreness will where off the more in shape he gets and the more he plays.  The team plays their first game on Saturday, September 25th.  So this year I will not only be rooting for the Redskins, but I will also be rooting for the Bucs and their girls high school which we are at every Friday night the Bull Dawgs.

Happy football season everyone!