the    sides

I thought the fall was supposed to be slower than the summer?

Saturday was Cooper’s 2nd flag football game of the season. He played quarterback last year and this year he still playing a lot at quarterback but he’s actually getting much better at safety. I’m sure part of that is he has a much better coach this year.

Anyway…here are some unbiased opinions of Cooper’s football skills.

What he lacks in speed, he more than makes up for in intelligence, determination, and just flat out grit.

He threw two interceptions on offense. One of them was a hail mary pass that acted like a punt, the other one on an extra point try. But…as a parent, I was wondering how he would handle having a bad game. Would he tank? Turns out I shouldn’t have worried. He turned around and got both of them back on defense. Playing safety, he took one pick back to the house and the other one I still don’t know how he caught. It was a tipped ball, looked like a punt and was heading to the ground when Coop dove and somehow came up with the ball.

They won again (2-0) but what is cool about this team (and it’s a credit to the coach) they are focused on learning their jobs and doing the best they can. As a result of that, we saw one of our kids that normally doesn’t get a lot of attention get an interception. On offense, he had a running play that he took for 50 yards, so close to getting a touchdown.

There was a semi-tense moment during the 4th quarter. We were fairly dominant in the game and the other coach started really complaining but the truth of the matter was it was his fault. His team was unorganized and he kept harping on them and they kept sinking worse and worse.

Our team didn’t let up. We just kept scoring and driving. After the game, I heard the other coach kinda talking to their parents about how we should have let up.

I didn’t say anything but I am glad our coach didn’t let up. I’ve been on the other end - getting your brains beat out. You learn alot about yourself and your team in those moments. Who gives up early? Who keeps playing? How are you going to handle being humiliated? Are you going to quit or learn from it? Who shows up and practices the next week? You don’t like getting shut out, you don’t like being the practice squad for the other team but you can learn some things there.

The flip side is this - every time you come on the field no matter what the situation, you do your best. Don’t turn it down a notch, don’t short change your effort. Every play, every down - all out, do your best. If the final score is 45-0, good for you. If it’s 0-45, still hold your head up because you gave all out effort the whole game. Those lessons translated to the adult realm for me - 10 students to 100 students - every time you teach, do your best. Give your best no matter if it’s 3 or 300.

Our coach and I were talking after the game and he said when he coached high school, he repeated the phrase - “Take a beating, give a beating” to his teams all the time. His first year he went 2-7, lost a lot of games by double digits. He told his team - “Take the beating like a man. Learn from it. Grow from it. One day, we are going to be on the other side and we’re going to give the beating. We won’t back down. No matter who I play, I want all out effort, every play, every down.” Next year, he delivered the beatings.

But I like the fact he didn’t back the team down once we were up big. It’s a great principle - you do your best no matter if your up or down, close or far. We don’t do it to humiliate the other team. We don’t flaunt it or get arrogant - you do it because to do less would be disrespectful to the game.

Lots that we can apply to our spiritual life from that.