Football and Joshua

Tonight Joshua finally understood more about the joy and pain of sports. He scored his first touchdown ever. He also started at quarterback and was the featured player. He must have run for close to 150 yards. Took some good hits, made some good tackles and at one point came out of the game totally winded.

His touchdown came on an 80 yard quarterback bootleg. He faked the handoff to the right and then turned left and outran everyone. One guy, the best player on the other team caught him, but Joshua put a little move on him and was gone.

Later he almost broke another one, but stepped on the out of bounds line. Eventually, his team lost 20-18. If they had scored on one of their three two point conversions they would have tied. They had the ball late in the game and one of their players had a long run but was tackled.

Many of the kids had tears, it was tough on them, but a character builder. He'll be sore tomorrow. I tried to encourage him and remind him, he never would have thought he would be a starting quarterback. I was proud of him.

I must admit as a parent and coach you get so wrapped up in the game, you forget it is about growing the kids into young men. Winning isn't everything, but . . .

There were some poor calls by the officials and the timekeeper was atrocious. But I learned they really are flying by the seat of their pants. So, I will try to write some rules for managing the clock. Because at times he never turned the clock off, then during the last quarter he stopped the clock after every play. The kids were exhausted by the time it was over. Also, the officials were high school kids who really do not know the rules, which is not fair to them or anyone, and makes the entire game very frustrating for everyone . . . since they don't know what to do and what to look for.

Anyway, Joshua did great!! He gave a great effort and is learning and growing. I know this will add character to him and years to Debbie and I.