Dillon is playing football for the first time this year in our local youth football league and is super excited! It was so much fun watching him and his little buddies at our kick off football camp this morning, and then he will be practicing 2 hours a day 4 days per week until school starts. Yes, football season has started in our house!
Football season in a small Texas town is absolute magic. The whole town gets involved under those Friday Night Lights, watching our kiddos uphold the community pride on a 100 yard patch of grass. It's cool! This is another one of those things that my friends from the big city and mega-size schools just don't understand. Their games may have school spirit, but ours have COMMUNITY SPIRIT! So many people turn out for these small town games across the state, most without children playing, cheering, or performing in the band. We turn out anyway because its OUR team. Those kids represent us. They work hard and we support them.
For a playoff pep rally the year Dollie was mascot in high school, we honored some of the members of a previous state championship team. Those gentlemen still got an emotional standing ovation 34 years after their winning season ended. Wow! That's legend.
Friday nights during football season, our school campuses are bathed in green. Most of the little girls at the elementary wear cheerleader outfits, many of the boys wear football jerseys, and just about everyone else at least has a green booster club t-shirt on supporting their team! Ask any Mom and see if at least 80% of the t-shirts in their home are not Boling green?? It's pretty much the same way in every small town with their school colors.
Dollie on a Friday morning getting ready for school in 1st Grade
One of the coolest parts of the season also is seeing the circle of life kinda thing in a small town like ours. Today's high school kids who play, cheer, and perform in the band are heroes to the little kids coming up behind them. These teens who will play and perform under those iconic lights with hundreds of people cheering them on take time to teach and motivate the younger kids who look up to them. What an awesome life lesson to learn to work hard and earn the adoration of others, only to use it to inspire someone else. In addition to interacting with them at the games, the cheerleaders hold a mini-camp ending with an awesome Friday night pep rally which is the highlight of the summer for many little bulldog girls. Some of the cheerleaders along with some of the boys and high school coaches also come out to coach at our football camp and stop by the youth football games to give encouragement.
I was so struck by this cycle as I watched our camp today. I remember most of our current high school cheerleaders when they were sporting those first cheer outfits in kindergarten and the boys when their biggest catch on a Friday night was getting a plastic souvenier football. Wasn't that just yesterday?
A particular high school senior football player this year was exceptionally good with our little boys this morning. As he ran drills with them, had them barking like big bulldogs, and they hung adoringly on his every word... I remembered him when he was missing front teeth and running around the stands at the Friday night games with DJ. He will be one of team captains this year, one of the heroes to Dillon and his teamates. Dillon will be running around the stands with his buddies as this young man plays, trying to catch plastic footballs and dreaming of the day they can take the field themselves. Sappy me... almost made we want to cry.
DJ and friends grew up watching the games, and then it was finally their turn to take the field...
DJ making a tackle in 7th Grade
Dollie played multiple sports and even won the spot to be "Spike the Bulldog" one year during her high school days. What a terrifically FUN year that was, attending cheer camp at Texas A&M, performing totally rockin skits at pep rallies, performing on the field with the cheer squad, interacting with the band and players, and being an absolute star celebrity to the younger kids (I'm not kidding, she had to have a cheerleader body guard to keep from getting mobbed!). All this just about made up for having to wear that heavy thick suit in 100 degree weather!
Dollie as Spike
I remember my high school football games with friends in this same stadium. Now getting to watch my own kids and their friends (many are the children of my own classmates) play under the same lights is a real treat.
My babies 2008 - DJ Playing, Dollie Watergirl/Manager,
and Dillon - whose story is yet to be written
As I look backwards when going through this a second time with Dillon, it's also fun to glimpse into the future. I see the cool Moms and Dads I'll be working with in Booster Club 10 years from now. These adorable little cheerleaders in training will be our beloved high school cheer squad. Hopefully Dillon, Tommy, Colby, Nick, Xavier and their other buddies will play together through youth league, junior high, and one day run onto that high school field together under the lights. They will hold hands as they take the field as captains. They will hear the roar of their proud community behind them. They will sweat, and hurt, and bleed, and be victorious heroes for a few nights of their life on the field. I hope in turn they will reach down and encourage some little 7 year old boys at football camp one day too.
No comments:
Post a Comment