Sports

Sports are very important for the development of the whole person. Team sports and individual sports, each has it's own pluses. People ask me all the time if I was athletic when I was growing up, and the answer really was no. I didn't do much at all...I danced quite a bit in high school, but although that is physical, it isn't really a sport. and looking back, I wish I had. 


There are many things that I wish I had done earlier in life, especially my passion of weight training, but I didn't so all I can do is go forward and enjoy every moment I have left!


This is the philosophy that I have held onto for most of my adult life, I only have this one life on earth, and I never know when it may end, so I don't plan to play anything "safe" or be "proper" or make sure I am "wearing clean underwear in case I get into an accident"...ha ha! What if I just happen to have NO underwear on and I get into an accident huh? LOL!


My mother gave me my zest for life, for enjoying every single experience, (some better than others), that I can.


Some things I still want to do are take a hot air balloon ride; go back to Italy for longer than a couple hours (yes, I took a train there from France once just for pizza and gelato); scuba dive in the Caribbean (I am a certified NAUI diver); oh my, I am off track...


The picture above was taken on Saturday, May 12. These are the seniors on my son's lacrosse team. My son, Cooper is the red head crouching down in front, with the blackened out mouth guard to look menacing. 


I am the team mom, and have been for two years. I make sure all the players and their families know where to be and when. I assign people to bring food and water, make sure we have scorekeepers, timers, equipment set up and tear down, and transportation home. I really don't need the extra work, I am busy enough, but it ensures I am involved in my son's passion.

Above you can see the entire team running to the goalie. If you notice the score on the board, it is 11 (home) to 10 (guest). We were the home team and had just won the game at the very last moment.


We are near the end of the season, this game determined if we would go to Treasure Island the following weekend to play for the #1 or #2 spot in Northern California, the NorCal champs.


The guest team scored 7 goals the first quarter, in fact we were down 5 goals when only 10 minutes were left in the game. We thought we lost, there was no way to recover.

The parents around me were holding their breath. Some very very sad. This looked like it would be the last game they ever watched their son's play, we would end the season right there that very day, in only ten minutes. I heard one mother saying she would never see her son play lacrosse again. Another said she would never see these guys together again, and was already planning to get them together in the summer, when they all came home from college. I had tears in my eyes, but it could have been my allergies.


My son is going off to college in the fall, and will be on the Chico team, but it will be different, I cannot go to every game, or even many of the games. Actually, I haven't gone to every game he has played at this level, my training and competitions got in the way many times, but David went. To all of them, he never missed one in 5 years.

Somehow, we won this game, scored 6 goals in under 10 minutes, it was unheard of. I got a headache from jumping up and down and screaming so much in the hot sun, parents lost their voices, the noise of the crowd was amazing. The entire team and all the family membres lingered on the field for a long, long time dumbfounded. It was a game that none of us will ever forget.


We go to Treasure Island Saturday, May 19. I have already planned my training to get my German Volume Training in, then zoom home to get to the game on time, I will not miss this one. Then in two weeks we play for the State Championships, against the best of the best from Southern California. I have our hotel reservations already, we will be there two nights and I will have to find a gym there, I can manage.


Below is a 30 second video of the winning gaol, scored by Cooper! The fast pace of the video showcases the excitement of the entire game.




I will miss organizing my guys, and how the parents depend on me for all the information, but there will be another team mom, who can take my place when my son moves on, on to college and me on to my own hobbies.

If you have kids, be sure you support their sports and encourage their physical passions, it creates a confident and healthy soul. Get them involved and pay attention! Show them how important it is. It will develop their self esteem, their physical being and also help them stay focused on more productive things in life and not get sidetracked the way they can at this age.


Wish us luck on Saturday! You can find us in the Gaelic bar between games....