A Little Bit More Football

Tonight was William's awards ceremony.

Here are a bunch of the team. They called each kid's name and they went up, shook hands with the coaches, got those little certificates they're all holding, and stood up on stage until everyone's name was called. They were supposed to dress up for the occasion. Most of the kids took a "Define 'up' " attitude toward the request. As you can see William, in the black t-shirt, didn't get the memo at all.

It was even worse when we first arrived. He was wearing a white t-shirt with a giant hole in the side. I mean giant. You could have passed a small pig through it. I hadn't noticed until we walked into the brightly lit auditorium. He'd worn it to school all day and hadn't once noticed the extra "air conditioning". He asked his dad to run him home to change and still he only managed to upgrade to a complete t-shirt. Sheesh.

Last year William was one of a handful of kids to get extra recognition and a trophy. The coaches voted him "Best Lineman". This year the coaches had the players vote and William won another big ol' trophy, again for "MVP - Lineman". He tried to race up and back to his seat quickly but at least he remembered to shake the coaches hands this year (he forgot last year). I yelled for him to pause so I could snap this photo first.


It was the last trophy left on the table. Before announcing his name the coaches said lots of nice things about how this player was a "fine young man" and "will do anything you ask him to do" and "always puts 100% in everything you ask of him" and stuff like that. I teased William afterwards, saying that when I heard all those great things I thought "Well, I guess William's not getting a trophy this year!". I mean, at home if I ask him to take out the compost I practically need the United Nations behind me to convince him it's a reasonable request.

Nah, I know he's a good kid. A great kid. (although it's true it's like pulling teeth to get him to do his chores.) I think it's really cool that he was recognized by both his coaches and his team members. I'm a proud mama.



He's got a little (little!?) football shrine in his bedroom. I told him if he keeps this up we'll have to buy him a larger shelf to hold all his awards.