Ready, Set, Hike!

Even though Carter's last words to me last night were "You know, Mom, it's not too late to home school me," I somehow suspected he was still excited about school. And you can tell by his smile that he was.

As first days go, it was pretty OK for him. Part of that surely had to do with the fact that the football players got to wear their jerseys to school instead of following dress code (cool!) since they had their first game after school.
Carter made me promise I would not post any of his football pictures until the first game. So here he is above in his practice uniform. Cool that he had #80 like Cris Carter!

He likely won't ever be quarterback, but he can still play catch for practice.

I like this one. Mr. Serious "I can kick your butt" look!

In today's game against Pittsville, Carter primarily played Special Teams (kickoffs) and sub'ed in for offense and defense as needed. We thought it was cool his game uniform is the "other Carter" -- #81 Anthony Carter!

We scored first so he was quickly out there on the ensuing kickoff.

You see he is just average in height -- shorter than many but taller than a few.

Pittsville had some big guys, but Carter held his own on blocking them.

It was a back-and-forth game scoring-wise so that kept it exciting even when Carter wasn't on the field. It was very, very, very hot out, though. Really felt for the boys. Bad enough sitting in school when it's 90 degrees and muggy. But to play in heavy pads and uniforms, too! We give the boys a lot of credit!

Here he is covering during a kickoff...

And getting past his opponent in an attempt to get to the ball carrier.

His teammate Nathaniel (tallest player in the middle) is congratulated for a good tackle. You see #81 looks like the little guy, doesn't he??

We scored and led 19-18 at this point late in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Pittsville came back and, with only 90 seconds left in the game, scored a touchdown. We could not return the favor in the short amount of time left, so we lost 25-19.

Game over. Carter takes a much-deserved drink!

Despite the loss and despite the fact we practically strong-armed him into playing football this year, he said he liked it. And most importantly, said he had fun!

Let's hope the school year is the same.