Football

As I mentioned in a previous post, Noah played football for the first time this year. Ever since he was four years old he has been asking me if he could play. I kept telling him that he had to be 8. Well, now that he is 8, he got to play. We are in the Cyprus district and the 8 year olds are called Gremlins. We got off to a bit of a rough start because we had signed up late, there were some equipment issues, and confusion as to what team Noah was on and who his coach was. Once we got that all straightened out, it turned out to be a great experience. It was definitely a huge time commitment. They started practicing a month before school started for 2 hours five days a week. After school started, it was 3 days a week for 2 hours. Game days were every Saturday. Noah was lucky to have some of the greatest coaches. I was so impressed with them and how they treated the kids. It wasn't just all about winning but playing together as a team and treating each other with respect. They gave the kids so much praise. Each kid got multiple opportunities to play in each game regardless of their skill level. Each week at the first practice after game day, the coaches would choose 2 kids who they felt did great in the game and they would give them a wristband. They were so excited each week to see who would get it. Noah ended up getting it a couple of times and he was so happy. It totally made his day. One of the team moms embroidered Cyprus Pirates and the players name and # on a beanie and a towel. The coaches and their wives did so much for these kids. They really acted like they cared about each player. Unfortunately, our team lost every game except for the last. Even though they kept losing, I noticed improvement with the team each week. Most of these kids had never played before. It was so awesome for them to win their last game. It was so close and iffy for a while but they won 19-12. What a way to end the season.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

On Friday night, we had the team banquet. It was held at the West Valley rec center. They really did a good job putting it together. They had a slideshow of the team playing while all the kids signed each others jerseys. The dinner was catered by Fazoli's. The room was decorated so cute. There were small treasure chests and pirates on each of the tables and at the front of the room they had the trophies, a gift bag, and photo for each player. After dinner was over, they presented the trophies. When they called Noah up, he shook each of the coaches hands and the coach said, "Johnson was our most improved player this season. He came out a little shy and nervous to hit and by the end, we had him hitting." Noah was so excited that they had said this about him. They each got a gift bag filled with goodies, a DVD with game photos set to music and a cute picture frame with an action shot in it. Noah was so happy and proud of himself. I'm glad he got the chance to play and I'm sure he'll play again next year. Here are some photos from the banquet.