No Pain, No Gain

This morning, as the 10-year-old rolled out of bed with a few moans and groans, I'm pretty sure he grasped the meaning of the word "conditioning." Honestly, it could have been worse, says the mother from the sidelines...

Last evening was Carter's first practice with the Rapids Raptors. He was quite nervous on the way, not knowing what to expect. When we got to the school, hubby had me stay in the car. We didn't want Carter to be embarrassed if I was the only mom there. But sitting in the car, I saw lots of moms walking their sons to the field -- and not coming back.

Our plan was to run a few errands and then sneak back to the practice so Carter couldn't see us. It is a known fact that boys often become drama queens about perceived injuries, etc., when their mommies are around. As it turned out, there are hundreds of parents who are oblivious to this -- or just choose to ignore it. When we got back to the practice, I kid you not, there were about 200 parents there on the sidelines. When they had a water break, Carter bolted to his Gatorade, drank it and ran out to the field, unaware we were there. I was OK with that -- especially when the one coach yelled, "Alright, kiss your mommies and get back on the field!"

As far as the practice itself went, the kids (enough for 5 5th-6th grade teams, I think) rotated by groups to do different drills -- passing, running, rolling, handoffs, etc. I call it "conditioning in disguise." Although it didn't seem like much, Carter was sweating a lot (which, he was happy to realize, made it easier to get the tight helmet off).

This morning he was aching in his back, his legs and his mouth (where the mouth guard caused a blister). I said each day it will feel a little better .... until next week when he actually gets hit!

He's still pretty excited about it. There are quite a few kids he knows from school and baseball so he should end up on a team with somebody he knows. The next three nights are sort of like tryouts, where all the coaches will be observing and making notes before the "draft" at the end of the week. ... And parents like us will continue to spy from the sidelines.