FOOTBALL ....YOU BET!

football season (for our lil' guys) is over

...for now.

 

that first week when there is no practice,

no game,

no walk through...

it's an adjustment!!!

you kinda give up your soul to football season! haha.

well not your soul, but definitely your life!

and every bit of it is WORTH IT.

 

i am a first year mom.

not to say i am the least bit unfamiliar with football.

i grew up watching my brother play year after year,

playoffs, allstars...you name it.

i sat at his practices and flirted with all the boys,

just as i see all the young girls out there doing ;)

its fun becoming a mom and getting to

look back on that stuff!!

and yet kinda scary at the same time that i have

a daughter who will be that age soon. hmmmm.

anyways. moving on....

 

my son played his first year on the starts team,

as well as my husband "Coach P" coached for his first year.

though i didn't get to make it to many practices due

to my work schedule, i was there as much as possible.

 

IN THE BEGINNING

 

i told my husband
"if he gets hurt i'll be the crazy mom running on the field"

....he made fun of me.

of course. lol.

i was worried, thinking of my little 7 yr old boy

going up against these big 9 year olds!

fast forward 5 months...i'm not the least bit worried.

 

i knew from the get-go that my son would be the kid

crying over the equipment. he is smaller and has always

had issues with clothing irritating him.

so, this was my resolution:

 

and i quote:

"you can either be the kid who cries cause

his helmet is too heavy...

or you can be the kid who doesn't cry cause he was

used to wearing it, your choice"

 

 

he made the right choice ;)

thats him in his NINER jersey wearing his helmet around

the house. even folding his laundry with it on.

(YES i would highly suggest this to any new moms/kids

who are looking to play football...he even had incentives)

 

the jamboree went well...i think.

i can't really remember as it was sticky/humid and

we were busy running from one spot to another.

 

 

before i go further i'd like to introduce the coaches:

 

Coach Feltner, Coach Lopez, Coach Gonzales, Coach Saldivar & Coach Flores.

2012 Galt Jr Warrior Starts

 



 

in the early part of the season, there was a pool party

and ice cream buffet. the kids had a blast!

 

Here are the 3 coaches that attended:

 

(NINERS!!!)

 

 

you'll notice by the pictures that these coaches

were more like family.

they yelled at each other with "passion" as they like to call it,

and they would "make up" by saying "i heart you" to each other.

it was that dysFUNctional relationship that you just

couldn't stop watching LOL.

but as much as they yelled with "passion", they equally

yelled with spirit, excitement and love for these kids!

the hours these guys put into the team,

the dedication, the love, the support...

its amazing.

i think all too often we as parents, sit back and watch from

the sidelines and enjoy everything we see,

but, we forget what goes on behind the scenes!

these coaches are dealing with crazy boys who have the

attention span of a .....squirrel!

and yet they show up practice after practice,

game after game,

and they give it their all.

so i'd like to extend another

THANK YOU

to the coaches on all teams.

you are really helping raise young men to be strong, disciplined

and well behaved. they will never forget you.

 

and of course to our FANS....

 

YES i call these our fans.

and YES i am related to most of them LOL.

these are the young ones that were at every practice & every game.

supporting their dads, brothers & cousins!

and while they mostly played in the dirt or ate lots of junk food,

they also helped fill up our stands with tons of noise.

so THANK YOU to all our fans (big and small)

 

here are a few miscellaneous photos:

 

 

the boys wore pink socks all of october to support

breast cancer awareness.

 

above: the boys were getting ready for their playoff game

 

above: a favorite among everyone.... lifting of the helmets

during the star spangled banner.

 

IN THE END

 

we finished our year STRONG.

the boys made it to the division championship

where they played the lodi colts in an amazing game.

it was a heartbreaker thats for sure.

every boy walked off that field crying.

they played their hearts out ending at 31-25...

a last minute touch down by one amazing kid on

the colts sealed the deal.

i know every parent our there was proud though.

 

they had their award banquet 2 weeks ago,

it turned out perfect!

the head coach took his time to talk

specifically about each player

as they then shook their hands and handed out awards.

 

 

the coaches all got really nice plaques, jackets and bags

as thank you's from parents and other coaches.

most of which would not have been done without

the team mom leslie. she was behind the scenes taking care

of many many things throughout the season ;)

 

and then we have the tackle oops i meant "flag" football game....

it was supposed to be coaches against varsity but it

turned into an all age game

 

 above: coach ricci with the ball

& coach p pushing over blocking younger kids

 



 above: coach gonzales, always coaching

 

 

that game was hilarious.

there was so much cheating going on it was ridiculous lol.

but they all had a great time, thats what really matters :)

 

and a few more pictures:

 

 above: starts at practice

 

 above: family

 

 above: my loves

 

above: my 2 handsome boys

 

so if you made it all the way through this post,

thank you. lol

thanks for hanging in there while i ramble on.

i have had many parents (especially moms) approach me

and ask "isn't it too dangerous"

to that i say "not to me" because simply, it isn't.

i watch my boys wrestle and fight 100x harder

than what i have seen during football.

i've seen them fall off things, hit their heads, punch

each other...just about everything.

and they are resilient.

i'm not saying its completely safe cause yes they can get hurt,

but i never expected my daughter to break her arm

by doing a simple cartwheel, and yet it happened!

 

we can't teach our kids to live in fear,

we have to let them be boys!!

 

i'm SO glad we got involved with the galt warriors program.

i hope this post has done them all great justice as they deserve.

can't wait for next year!!

 

 

.erin.