elbro, elpantz, elalt, et al,
any more "clappers packers" games yet?
i'd like to go watch one of those.
can you get breakfast burritos
on the sidelines?
Yes. I wrote a little bit about it earlier today on the
Porch. Perhaps you read it by now.
If not, I'll try to embellish a bit more here.
We didn't know anything about this team going into the game.
The week before we played that town's TEAM A and figured
that their TEAM B would provide an even worse lopsided win
for us.
In my head I had rehearsed how I was going to tell their
defensive coordinator which way we were going to run.
I figured I would tip hip off by putting my hand on my left
hip if we were running right and vice versa. Hand on the
brim of my hat meant it was a pass in the direction of
whatever hand was holding it.
Little did I know that their defensive coordinator was
already a psychic. (Just kidding)
As it turns out the pounds of beef on their front line
matched the pounds of beef on our side of the line.
They had also heard about us from the A-Teams coach and was
well prepared for what we liked to do.
Their coaches seemed to be as competitive as we would have
been if we knew we were going up against perhaps the best
team.
Actually, their coaches were a little bit over the edge.
They did a lot of barking at their kids. Their kids seemed
tough enough to handle it, though. Perhaps their parents
had bluer collars than ours. We were in farm country.
Their players seemed to do a good job at intimidating ours.
They spoke in a similar grunting fashion as their coaches.
Many of our kids would return to the huddle complaining
that this one punched me, this one tackled me, this one
threw dirt in my eye, this one did this, this one did
that...
Some how I had to tell each one of them not to worry, pat
their backs, make them feel better, pick a suitable play,
figure out where the replacements were to play, line them
up, and get them to snap the ball within 45 seconds of when
the ref put the ball down.
As the game went on I could see some of them gaining
confidence in themselves while others were getting more
scared.
We could have won the game but I realized it was over as
soon as our quarterback started coming into the huddle more
nervous than I was.
The other team had gotten into his head and he began to
panic during each play. No matter how hard I tried to
settle him down, he could not stop thinking about "Number
Eighty".
I imagine he is still having nightmares about #80.
He was a big quick tough kid on the fast lane to being the
school bully. His dad (the defensive coordinator)
probably had the kids first tatoo picked out already.
The kid was a natural born linebacker for the state prison
team.
Anyhow, we managed to get another kid to step up and go for
the glory on a beautiful 50 yard run through left tackle
spot. The play was "I Formation, Vinny Dive Left, behind
Mike".
This kid Vinny is the son of the father who is Notre Dame
fanatic. He was our 4th string running back who we only
recently began teaching the plays.
Vinny took off through a hole the size of BF Goodrich tire
and found daylight. He must have heard his dad yelling
cause he found an extra gear in that 8 year old
transmission that nobody ever saw before.
Perhaps it was the twisted evil linebacker, or thoughts of
a Notre Dame Scholarship, or the things that coach John told him to do in the huddle...
Whatever it was, that kid ran faster than ever before and
scored a dramatic touchdown run.
Every parent, coach, sibling, and relative was cheering
like crazy for him.
The game ended in a 14 - 14 tie.
Every kid gave his all.
Each coach tried their hardest to fool the other coach.
The chess match ended in a draw.
We agreed that we would try to schedule another game after
the last game of the season. We'll have to try to teach
our kids that much more by then.
We will also try to have the refs keep a closer eye and
help the other team to show more sportsmanship.
I could tell that during tonights practice that the kids
were eager to get back to them and show them the new stuff
they learned today.
-CoachClappy |
