Friday Night Fun

This evening was wild and crazy with the Hubbard gang. Ryan had his last football practice of the week. Brad got Ryan all geared up and took him out to practice tackling. Ryan played flag football the last two years with Upward, but nothing has prepared him for the world of tackle football.



It definitely took him some getting used to. He took a couple of really hard hits and was taken down hard at the beginning of practice. Brad and the coaches worked on encouraging him to press on and fight back. I got to the field about a hour and a half into practice and Ryan was discouraged. I could see the look on his face emanating defeat. I gave him a small hug and told him to do his best. The two boys would lay down on their backs and the coach would blow the whistle. The two boys were told to tackle each other until one boy was down or the coach blew the whistle again.



I won't lie, it was hard for me to watch. We now raise boys in a society where they are told that they can't fight, they can't wrestle, they can't be tough boys. Then we throw them on the football field and let them go crazy.

The first two boys that I saw Ryan go up against took him down easily.





Then Brad told him to ask the coach if he could go up again a boy named Brennan Mason. This boy really impressed Brad. Brad and Brennan's dad had been talking on the sidelines during each practice and Brennan had played with the team last year. I could tell that Ryan was scared. The first time the coach blew the whistle Ryan just froze. The coach went over and encouraged him and the next time Ryan jumped up and Brennan took him down quickly.



The third time the coach told Ryan to keep going and not stop. Ryan gave it everything he had and hit Brennan hard. It actually made me jump when the two boys hit the ground. I didn't get a picture and am kicking myself for it. The coaches went up to Ryan immediately to make sure that he was ok. Brennan walked over to Ryan and shook his hand and told him that Ryan had made his head hurt. I went to check on Ryan and he had tears in his eyes. I asked him if he was scared and he told me no, he was happy.





Brad came over and smacked him on his shoulder pads and gave him a big pep talk. It was really moving to see.



I left the boys at practice and went around the elementary school to my cousin, Brittney's new classroom. She will start teaching 3rd grade in one week. She only has a few days to get EVERYTHING done in her classroom. Her classroom is really large and really old. Brittney is so creative and has so many things in the works to spruce up the room. I helped hang red paper for bulletin boards along two walls. I can't wait to go back and help again tomorrow.