Welcome to Texas Football

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before on the blog or not, but my 11 year old son has decided that he wanted to play tackle football this year. On one hand this isn't a huge surprise because he has shown interest in it previously when he was playing soccer and we shared the youth football team that was all in pads and helmets. On the other hand it is surprising, because I'm not sure that he has ever watched more than twenty minutes of football his entire life combined. I don't think he can name more than two positions or tell you how the game is scored. He did play some flag football through the YMCA a while back, and maybe he has some lingering affection from that time.

So this weekend he had try outs for youth football. This was the final weekend for tryouts. It lasts three weeks to get all of the kids in. Now don't get me wrong everybody gets put on a team, but this is Texas and we apparently take 6th grade football pretty damn seriously. Try outs lasted two hours Saturday. After registering, he was weighed in, interviewed by coaches of every team individually, ran a 40 yard dash in which his time was announced to the crowd (yes, the crowd), caught a pass, threw a pass, tackled a dummy, and then was finally sent on his way. The next day the coaches from the different teams get together and draft their teams. They only get to keep two kids from the previous year so I guess the teams change regularly.

Much to my dismay, I've also come to find out that the teams practice two hours a day four days a week. I'm having a lot of trouble with this time commitment that they are expecting. I already know my kid's going to have to miss practice every Tuesday for dance class. I guess I'll have that conversation with the coach today, as practices and conditioning are already starting. I might not actually mention the words "ballet" or "jazz dance".