Stan

Thanks for the feedback. His coach seems t be teaching correct techniques. I think it is the size of some the opposing teams that is the problem outweighing him by 20 to 50 lbs in some cases. Although he get up after the tackles and seems to be ok.. Here is what has been going on. My wife and I told him that he needs to finish out the last 4 games and then decide next year. At practice on Tuesday the 12th, he had a mild sprain at the end of practice when the hitting drills began. Question was.. how bad of a sprain because we had it checked and it was negative. On Thursday, he missed because of an enormous amount of homework. I let the coach know and he said ok. On the 16th my son was refusing to get out of bed and get dressed for his game. We told him it was letting his coach down and team because they have prepared for the game. I explained that the team he was playing against has not won a game and that since he missed a lot of practice time, he may not play as much. I finally got him to the game. We were there and a few of the other team players were arriving. One boy on the other team was about 5’7 220 lb. However, he did not seem to be too athletic. This made my son seem a little tight again. I told him that he would never be able to get outside to tackle you. My son went through the warm-ups and half way through, since it was wet, the coaches tapped his angle as he appeared to be limping. As the game started, to my surprise and probably my sons, they started him at tailback. He got the first pitch and went out side for about 4 yds. On the same drive, he took another pitch and cut outside to pick up 15 and was tackled out of bounce for a penalty. We scored on the drive. Also, he made some nice tackles in the back field. We won 35-0 but after the game he did not say much. When we arrived home, he went out with the neighborhood friends and told them about the game and the other team. He seemed ok as he spoke to them. During practice this Thursday, we were surprised to see that we (6th grade) were scrimmaging an A division team in our organization (these are 8th graders but to this point has not won a game).. When they were arriving, my son came over and said he did not want play. He said he needed to get home to do homework. I told him to give it a try. Our team had the first series and the first pitch went to my son. He didn’t even get started and two of the A players jumped him in the backfield. He got the second pitch and cut in to the line and went no where. Our other back got a pitch and also did not make much progress. Later in the series, my son took a pitch and went right only to see the A tem coming in, so he revered his direction and went all the way back to the left and made about a yard but was tackled by two or three players. He came out shaking his hand and did want to go back in. He had ice on it. It appeared to be a bruise. At the end of the scrimmage, his coach said that they all did well and that they will not see any teams in their league that is as quick and big. I am not sure how it went over. On the way home, my son seemed ok. He said he has no chance on a those plays. Today, again, he complained about going to the game. I finally got him into the car as he kept complaining that this was his last game. We got the game and the team was warming up on a baseball field above the football field. As out team was ready to go onto the filed, the coach came over and said Nick twisted his ankle and it looks like he will not be able to play. The first thing I thought was the old adage –cry wolf. I went up to the hill where he was on a bench with ice and our league president. He was crying. I asked him what happened and he said he rolled it when he was coming down the hill. The league president carried him down to the filed and I sat with him on the bench. His teammates kept coming over to see how he was and if he would be able to play as did some of the coaches. His coach asked me about it. I said I was not sure that we may see at halftime. I told him that he may not think much about it but his team mates and coached know he is important and would like to see him try. I told him the coach now has to shuffle players around to fill his position. He was crying and said he really wanted to play in the game ??… Our first team went on offense less my son. The looked a little ragged as the first few pitches to our tailback that starts opposite my son was juggled and resulted in losses. The settled down and scored a TD. We tried to tape his ankle at halftime but he said it hurt too much. Our team played great defense settled and won 6-0. After the game, the coaches said they will tape his ankle for each game and a parent suggested an ankle brace. Now he is limping some. I said we should get a brace and he said it would help. So, I am not sure if he really turned it as I have not yet examined it or if he didn’t want to play. The next game is against a team that has not won game. He may actually want to play in this game, although I am not taking bets! From what I am told, all of his team (boys under 125 lbs) get to go through the same 2 day tryout next year. As I posted earlier, he missed this years 2 day tryout because he was a state baseball tournament. All first year players are usually placed on these teams because all players are guaranteed some playing time where as the other teams in our league do not guarantee time. My guess is he would rather be on a team that plays against boys closer to his own size. He probably is good enough that he would get to play a lot. But that is next year and at this rate he may not want to even go out. Today he said I guess the 2 tryout was important,,,I said it appears so but what could we do. The next few weeks should be interesting.. Stan

Please bare with me on this....it is long My son has been playing in various sports since about age 4. He is currently 11 He has played baseball, basketball, and soccer. He has advanced to the travel league for all three. His soccer team was disbanded last year. So, he wanted to play football. He has wanted to play it since age 8 but we wanted him to get a bit bigger. We told him to wait. However, we let him sign up. The players go through a mini workout in July to determine a best fit. However, during that time, he was involve din a state baseball tournament. So, they placed him on a B team in our league that guarantees play time in each half (1 qtr each). I asked what the criteria were for determining it. The coach said based on his other sports teams and word of mouth in the community. The teams are structures as any player over 120 plays line positions only. My son is 81 lbs. The coach is real good wit the team and motivates then without yelling or screaming. My son started out very enthusiastic about the game. They had him at a 5 back which I think is like an end on offence and at corner and safety on defense. The first game we played was against a team that was quite large (11 yr old at 200 lbs and a few at 150 lbs) in the first game, he did not touch the ball and was in on a few tackles. We had a bye, so we had two weeks of practice. During practice, the coach moved him to tailback. He learned the plays and made some nice runs. In our last game, to my surprise, they started him at tailback. The team we were playing was comparable in size to our team. On the first play from scrimmage he got a pitch and went around the right side but was caught from the sire. He went down and did not get up. He was hit on his arm and also in the side. The coaches went out and checked and he got up and ran came off. After one play, the coach asked him if he was ready to go back. He said yes and yes and went in. In the game he made some nice runs, some over 2 yds. He played corner and made tackles in the backfield. When we scored our first touchdown, they had him go in motion and the quarterback threw him a pass that he had to reach out to catch for a two point conversion. Well, the game came down to OT. Since we are new to football, we did not know what was going on. We assumed, as did most of the players that the same unit that was on the filed would stay. However, the coach gets to pick the players for OT. My son was walking down to the 10 yd line to watch when the coach and players were yelling for him to come back up to the huddle. They went in on offense. In the meantime, I was standing at the 10 yd line and the coach’s wife asked me if I was Nick’s father. I said yes. She said that Joe was really impressed with how good Nick has become because he never seen him in the tryouts and did not know his potential. On our scoring play, he made a block that sprung the QB free to score. We won in OT as we stopped the other team. Now the issue... He week before, on a pass play, our TE caught a pass and did not go down immediately. Two of the player, cam in and hit him with their helmets and he ended up with a small line fracture of his arm. This week at practice.. my son seemed to be limping. At the end of practice, they were going to do drills where that line up and hit each other when a coach called me and said Nick was at the bench. He said it was his ankle. I went over. They had ice on it. He was crying and said it happened early in practice. He didn’t want to stop because he said he wanted to work on the new plays (the coach has him thrown a half back pass). I took him to the hospital and it turned out to be a mild sprain. The other day, he told my wife he wanted to quit football and that he really didn’t hurt hi ankle as bas as it seemed. He said he does not like to get hit. But, I was told by our pediatrician that with the padding, at this age, football is safer than soccer. I think he is afraid in the practices of getting hit and hurt and therefore, thinks it will happen in a game. I told him if you quit now you not only let you team down but the coach. He has moved you up and is expecting good things. Also, this may have an affect if you decide to go out again for the same league (i.e. the coaches all know each other as well as players). Also, you will need to face your teammates who are in you home room in school and explain to them. (I remember as a youth, what things were like when you quit vs. if you were cut - being cut you had some leeway – quitting made for a tougher road). He has never been afraid of pain. I have seen him take a line drive baseball off of his ankle and keep playing where a lot of kids would fall down, cry and come out. He plays football in the backyard (semi-tackle) and gets pushed around more there. I am not sure what to do… …he want to call and leave a message for the coach. We told him he has to tell the coach. This is all new because he has excelled in each sport he played. Should he just quit or tuff it out for 6 more games? Stan