Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Ready, Set, Hike!

Let me preface this post by saying that having to pay to play sports is something I anticipated before we moved here. The last thing I expected when we moved here was how much we were going to have to pay for our kids to be athletes. Since Teenager started playing soccer/t-ball when we lived in North Carolina sports have always been very inexpensive if not free. Then we moved to Indiana...the days of inexpensive sports are now a thing of the past. The athletic club that runs all the sports in this town is expensive...and they require parent participation. You can "volunteer" to work in the vending area, field maintenance, team mom or you can coach. (Can anyone out there really see me being a team mom? Me neither.) To which I replied, "You mean I have to pay a hefty registration fee...and then I'm not even going to be able to sit and watch him play?!" I guess Husband will be doing the participating while I'm doing the watching...
Last night was Bear's first football practice...good times indeed. Thirteen 8 year olds dressed in shoulder pads, helmets, mouth guards and cleats. Truly an amusing sight. The coaches are intense but good. Bear seemed to pick up on things quickly...but he's afraid to square up with someone. Seriously, I'm not crazy about the fact that we paid a hefty registration fee, bought pants, cleats and pads so that my precious baby will let players run right past him for fear of being knocked down. **Sigh** I tried to explain to him that he won't get hurt if he's trying to tackle or is being tackled (and that we'd fix it if he does get hurt) but it did not calm his nerves. Hopefully as the season progresses he'll be more inclined to square up.

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