First Game

I got home just in time for William's first varsity game. It hadn't really sunk in that it was the "big time" in a small town until last night when they came running onto the field with the band playing, the cheerleaders cheering, and the crowd applauding.

High school football is a big thing in our community. We have a wonderful football program that not only supports any kid who wants to play (no one gets cut from the team unless they don't show up and work hard), the fans also support most of the equipment and expenses for all the other school sport teams. There were over two thousand people at the games last night, that's about 20% of the town's population. I'm not surprised. I was working the snack bar during the JV game and it kept over a dozen parent volunteers running nonstop the entire time I worked.

We were expecting William to play center but he surprised us by playing another position. After the game he told us the decision to move him had been made just an hour before the game. Fortunately he'd learned the plays for both positions.

He got his foot twisted in a pile in the third quarter. He limped off the field where the sideline doctor looked him over, taped him up, and had him try to walk it out. He went back in before the fourth quarter and finished off the game but I set him up with ibuprofen, elevation and ice later at home. Someone asked if he we were going to take him to see our doctor but since our doctor is also the team doctor, who already let him go back on the field, I figured we didn't need to go in to the office just to have him tell us the same thing he told William already, that he probably sprained his Achilles Tendon.


We're a small school in a very large state. In the team standings we're somewhere in the middle of a thousand or so schools. We played Chico last night, who are ranked in the top 10% of the teams in California. I think you tell by William's tired by happy face that we beat'em, by a none too shabby lead!

Today, for the most part, William's been laying on the couch in front of the television, letting his foot rest while he watches the first day of college football. And pretty soon we'll be adding pro football watching to the shedule. That's our autumn.