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Jacob LOVES the game of football.  He has for many years.  He carries a football around in his arms.  He had begged us to let him play for a long time, but we always felt that it would be best for him to wait until he was in middle school.  In fact, we didn't really even considerate it.  Until last winter.  In an effort to help him be more of who he is and try things that he is passionate about we decided to evaluate the IDEA of letting him play.  A lot of prayer and discussion occurred because of our fears of the football program itself (we had heard crazy, scary stories of overzealous coaches and parents and obscene hours of practice).

All this to say, we prayed and talked about it for many hours (mostly because of the time commitment that would be required by our entire family) and decided to let Jacob play football.  We broke the news to him and he cried.  I've never seen him so happy.

I think he expected that his love for the game and his daily recess ritual of pick-up football would translate into on-field success.  He has learned that his small frame and lack of experience has required extra work and some hard lessons learned.  He discovered that working out in 100-degree temperatures with full pads on in August was not a cake walk.  He has deduced that hitting and getting hit was not all it was cracked up to be.  BUT he has shown a great deal of determination and spirit.  He still loves the game.  He loves being on a team.  He's a good teammate.  He is respectful to his coaches.  He has a lot of heart.  And when he makes mistakes (one day he was put in on offense as a sub and got 2 false-starts in a row – each a 5-yard penalty) he comes back again and fights to do better (in that same game he got a fumble recovery!).  

We have some really great coaches who are good to the kids and who work hard to teach and train.  We love the parents on the team.  Despite the 3-practice a week schedule and scouting reports and water duties and gear to wash and film to review and plays to memorize and sweat and tears and, and, and…we have really enjoyed this experience as a family.  We love sitting in the shade at practice visiting with the other parents while the younger siblings play at the park.  We love cheering our Sooners on during the games (and wearing our Sooners gear, despite being UT fans).  And we love rooting for our Big J (who is the lightest kid on the team weighing in at a whopping 68 lbs).  Our little cornerback is working on being scrappy on defense and ready to get in the game if called upon for offense.  

Football is good (especially when you're undefeated) :). 

 Getting stiff-armed!

He's the luckiest kid around because look at this cheering section!!  And it was beyond hot that day – we were all dripping with sweat.  Jacob's first game – 9/11/10 – attendees: Mom, Dad, Caleb, Samuel, Nana, Papa C, Mimi (even with a bout of shingles!), Aunt Olivia, Uncle Mike, Aunt Anne, and Uncle Mark 
Not pictured but have attended subsequent games: Pops and Auntie Audra