Football Fun! And YES I Spoke!!

So I thought I would just update on the situation from yesterday with the coaches. But first I want to talk about a concern brought up by one of my loyal readers. Ian said "In previous posts I read about multiple concussions. Are the effects from that worth continuing to play"? To answer this and clear the air, yes J had a severe concussion his freshman year from an incident he caused at a *no pads* practice where he tackled an upper classmen and caused himself a severe concussion. He was hospitalized for the day for observation but had no lingering effects from that. He has had a couple of hits to the head in basketball both times resulting in a broken nose and it was said by the Dr at the time *possible minor concussion*. SO when he had his physical this year the Dr said IF he had another major concussion he would likely be done with football for good. Our state has really beefed up the laws in this area and only allow so many concussions before automatic disqualification. At the first game of this season J had that episode where the EMT thought it was a concussion but also found his blood sugar to be low, and stated that too could have caused the symptoms that he was having. So after a trip to the ER and much research I found what I think is the real problem he experienced. I believe he has hypoglycemia, after the coach described his symptoms that night I thought about how almost every night after practice J would have that *ghost eyed* appearance and often be lethargic and a bit sickly feeling but always equating it to just hard practice. At that point I bought him some special protein bars and have been making sure he eats well before games and practice. Low and behold NO problems since! Literally he has felt great and had NO ghost eyes after practice or games! Until today...Guess what he did...Did not eat his protein bar and BOOM he had ghost eyes, although he said he did feel fine. So at this point I will continue to watch him of course and he himself is being very cautious in what he does.

 Nice tackle!!

So moving on to today. I feel like I should also say that part of the reason I am hesitant to say anything to the coach is because I am President of our school's booster program so I try to mind my P's & Q's better than I used to ;) So tonight I had my weekly meeting at the school and talked to J after he got out of practice and he said that nothing else was said today about the trip. So I asked him what his plan was and he said basically he intended on seeing how the next couple of weeks play out and if they are still holding their winning streak then he will stay for his team, but if they have been losing he will not miss the trip. So me I was a bit frustrated just because I hate waiting! I'm such an impatient person!! Then while we were finishing up our meeting the coach walked by and I just instinctively hollered to get his attention and asked him if he had a minute to speak with me. He said yes sure he did. So I basically told him I was a bit upset with how things went down yesterday and I didn't know what he was trying to accomplish but I think his plan backfired because now J has a sour attitude towards football. And I told him that I thought it was low to throw in his face what the coach did to him last year because that caused him a lot of heartache and cost him his Varsity letter. Coach responded to say that J would not lose his letter this year and I told him well it wasn't just about lettering it was about being dropped to the JV team as a personal vendetta by the coach; and he (coach B) basically told J that it was justified thus sealing how J felt about the situation from the start; that he wasn't worthy of playing on the Varsity team. Coach responded to say that was not his intention, that he did not know ALL of the details of last years deal but he was simply trying to tell J that if he chose to go on the trip he would forfeit playing time because he would have to move someone else up and that person would have to be up to par but he didn't think it was possible for anyone else to fill J's shoes. And he said the reason J doesn't play on JV and never will again is because he's a starting Varsity player because that is how important he is to the team, that they need him there. So I told coach that he did not relay this to J in the right manner, that J was taking it as he was dispensable and not cared about. The coach was truly apologetic about that and said that when he approached J yesterday it was because he knew he was scared to come to him about it cause the Ag teacher had told him so and when he first started talking to J he didn't really want to talk back about it. He went on to say that he didn't want J to feel like he was being forced to choose and choose football over FFA which may lead to a resentment towards football so he tried to say it in the manner of if this is what you chose this is what we will have to do to fix the problem. I explained to him that J is the kind of kid that needs to know he is needed and respected and that he would not have answered back to him yesterday because he would see that as arguing or being disrespectful so therefore he doesn't speak. And this I know because that is how he is with everything, the way I taught him to be but he never got the part about it's okay to *talk* about a problem just don't argue with an adult...Anyhow the coach feels extremely bad about making J feel like this and is going to talk to him about it tomorrow, he also said he is the one who told J to wait and see how the next couple of games play out, if they are winning then they surely need him if they are losing then don't choose football over FFA it wouldn't be worth it, and J said yes coach did say that.

Start of Saturday's game

 Paving the way for our running back!!

Onto the game played this past weekend and yes I do mean *weekend*, what should have been Friday night football turned into Friday and Saturday night football!! We started out the first quarter of the game strong and scored a couple of touchdowns but then in the second quarter they kind of fell apart, it was like nobody was in sync with the other...At halftime the score was 21-14 with the other team in the lead, but during halftime a storm rolled in and the game was rescheduled until Saturday afternoon.

J Breaking up a pass~!!

He did it!! WHOO HOO #22~!!

 INTERCEPTION BABY~!!!!

Saturday afternoon these boys were on fire and so pumped when they got there. We had also planned a tailgate party last minute so that they would have food to eat after the game since it wasn't scheduled therefore no parents were bringing anything. They picked up the game at the 3 quarter and let ME TELL YOU! They brought it, and I mean BROUGHT IT!!! WOW it was an amazing game to watch they literally held the other team from scoring at all for the whole second half of the game and we ended with a score of 44-21!! YEAH BABY!!! It was such a victory for them!! They have now a 2-0 record so far and are facing a tough opponent this Friday night...It's going to be a nail biter for sure and I can't wait!!! 

HOO-RAH!!