This blog has often been fraught with praise for my daughter and descriptions of the times my son and I have spent together.
Looking back, I realize just how much I haven’t sung his praises.
My son is an amazing kid. He loves football, and every day he gets a little bit better at it. His massive frame belies his wonderful heart and generous, kind nature.
He’s a gifted offensive lineman in football – so much so that after 20-odd seasons of coaching, he might be the best lineman I’ve ever coached.
That’s quite something to be able to say and something that makes me, as his father, very proud.
I write this a day after one of his winter flag-football seasons wrapped up yesterday in the coolest way possible.
Now, some context for you: in flag football, there is no blocking or tackling or contact of any kind at all in flag football, so Cole’s massive size and strength advantage means nothing. He does, however, know the game very well and plays quarterback for me in these seasons.
Yesterday’s game was a wonderful case in point for how good a player he has become. With two and a half minutes to play in the game, he led the team down the field. Faced with a second down on the other team’s 20-yard line, he ran – RAN – for the winning touchdown.
The kid who is twice the size of everybody else out there rumbled past all those smaller, more agile players and found a way to win.
My pride could not be quenched. I was joyful at what I had seen.
The best part is that he LOVES the game so much that we began officiating flag-football this winter as well, with the idea that it’s a solid part-time job that keeps him around the game throughout the year.
It’s time I talked about him a lot more. That kid fills me with such joy that it’s hard to fathom. I was sitting on my couch last night and I was reflecting on the amazing sense I get from him.
He was named the Most Valuable Lineman on his Lakeshore Cougars bantam football team – and did it in his first season as a bantam player, when typically, first-year players struggle to even compete. He’s 6’4 and will probably top out at about 6’7 or 6’8, according to the doctors. If there is any justice in the world, he will be named a league all-star next weekend at the league’s annual awards banquet.
But time will tell on that one.,
He’s hoping to play college football in the United States one day and nothing I’ve seen to this point ought to preclude him from that dream. His work ethic is improving every day and his Sports-Etudes training has paid off in spades.
He also loves basketball – and is a great big man with a surprisingly deft passing touch. I hope you, dear readers, will follow his journey along with me as it happens. I invite you to follow a gifted young athlete as he makes his way through life, one challenge at a time.
Atta boy, Cole.
‘Bout time I told you.