Football
Trevor has been wanting to play football since he was 5 years old. I was none too keen on having my little boy tackled so I managed to hold him off until this year. I finally caved and let him play. This was after some chats with Ray. Trevor can be a little, well, I guess stereotypically boy. He wrestles with his friends, he likes being physical, he likes sports. He likes video games, but would much prefer to be playing war or soldiers or something. Don't know where all that came from since I am pretty pacifist. Some things are just nature, I guess and it takes very little nurture to spark it.
ANYWAY-- we signed him up for our local football league (it's a little like the Little League). Trevor has been anticipating this camp for a month. It's a mini camp- one week of two hour evening practices that condition him and teach him a little about football before the season starts. All excited, he goes to the first practice. And is DEVASTATED. On the field- kids from 5 years on up to 7th grade. Lots of swagger, kids saying "f-this" and "f-that". Coaches with pants hanging off and one with a Philly blunt hanging out of his mouth swaggering around the field, posturing and smoking it like he's smoking a joint, yelling at the kids. They show no mercy on the new kids, everytime Trevor did something wrong, they made the whole team drop and give them 25 push ups. When this happened to them once, a kid turned to Trevor and said "Fucker" and, though Ray heard it from the sidelines and he KNOWS a coach heard it, no one said anything to the kid. Had I been there I would have ripped the kid a new one, but I wasn't there. I would have said something a LOT earlier than Ray but Ray was a little skeptical at practice. He was thinking "Wow, it's been a long time since I was out of football. I forgot how they toughen the kids up." He just thought this was all part of the toughening up of the kids. It wasn't until Trevor came off the field, managed to make it to the car and then started absolutely bawling that he realized that maybe this wasn't typical football. (Later I was like "Really, Ray? You thought a kid calling a teammate FUCKER was normal toughening up of kids?"). So Ray and I discussed it after Trevor went to bed and by then he was as livid as me. I mean, Trevor declared he would NEVER play football again, that he HATED it. From one day! After asking for YEARS to play! I was as upset as him. So Ray sent off an angry email to the county football league, he skipped sending it to just our local one. And he got a reaction. They were horrified by what they heard. They recommended we try another local league next to us and they sent out an email to everyone about coaches expected performance on the field. Next time we checked out the local camp, that smoking coach wasn't there. It was being run much more smoothly. We still didn't stick with it.
So this week he agreed to give our neighbor league a try. AND IT WAS GREAT! He was so nervous all day. He wanted to try it. He wanted to like it. But he was terrified of being treated like dirt again. But he went to the camp and came bck last night absolutely glowing. He was so excited. The kids were nice, they helped him out. The coaches were friendly. Not to say it wasn't a tough as hell workout and the coaches expect a lot of discipline. It's not easy. But they treated him with respect and the kids acted like teammates, not competition. Such a different attitude. He is so excited to go back to camp today. And I am so excited he likes it!
ANYWAY-- we signed him up for our local football league (it's a little like the Little League). Trevor has been anticipating this camp for a month. It's a mini camp- one week of two hour evening practices that condition him and teach him a little about football before the season starts. All excited, he goes to the first practice. And is DEVASTATED. On the field- kids from 5 years on up to 7th grade. Lots of swagger, kids saying "f-this" and "f-that". Coaches with pants hanging off and one with a Philly blunt hanging out of his mouth swaggering around the field, posturing and smoking it like he's smoking a joint, yelling at the kids. They show no mercy on the new kids, everytime Trevor did something wrong, they made the whole team drop and give them 25 push ups. When this happened to them once, a kid turned to Trevor and said "Fucker" and, though Ray heard it from the sidelines and he KNOWS a coach heard it, no one said anything to the kid. Had I been there I would have ripped the kid a new one, but I wasn't there. I would have said something a LOT earlier than Ray but Ray was a little skeptical at practice. He was thinking "Wow, it's been a long time since I was out of football. I forgot how they toughen the kids up." He just thought this was all part of the toughening up of the kids. It wasn't until Trevor came off the field, managed to make it to the car and then started absolutely bawling that he realized that maybe this wasn't typical football. (Later I was like "Really, Ray? You thought a kid calling a teammate FUCKER was normal toughening up of kids?"). So Ray and I discussed it after Trevor went to bed and by then he was as livid as me. I mean, Trevor declared he would NEVER play football again, that he HATED it. From one day! After asking for YEARS to play! I was as upset as him. So Ray sent off an angry email to the county football league, he skipped sending it to just our local one. And he got a reaction. They were horrified by what they heard. They recommended we try another local league next to us and they sent out an email to everyone about coaches expected performance on the field. Next time we checked out the local camp, that smoking coach wasn't there. It was being run much more smoothly. We still didn't stick with it.
So this week he agreed to give our neighbor league a try. AND IT WAS GREAT! He was so nervous all day. He wanted to try it. He wanted to like it. But he was terrified of being treated like dirt again. But he went to the camp and came bck last night absolutely glowing. He was so excited. The kids were nice, they helped him out. The coaches were friendly. Not to say it wasn't a tough as hell workout and the coaches expect a lot of discipline. It's not easy. But they treated him with respect and the kids acted like teammates, not competition. Such a different attitude. He is so excited to go back to camp today. And I am so excited he likes it!