The Last Game

As hard as it is for me to let my kids grow up and leave home I need to remind myself that it is also difficult for them. Of course they're excited about all the new prospects in their lives, a new school, living on their own and moving on to the next phase of their lives but at the same time they're leaving their own friends and for some of them they're definitely moving out of their comfort zone. Last night was probably the last "official" football game that Alex will ever play in his life. He isn't planning on playing football at the college level and last night they lost in the quarter finals of CIF but Alex played a perfect game last night and he felt good about himself. The rest of the team however just couldn't get it together and Scripps Ranch played well so after a valiant effort they move on and we don't. I picked three of Alex's better tackles to share with you. They never threw a single pass Alex's way so there was no opportunity for a glorious interception like last week but oh well.

The video clip above was the very first tackle of the entire game and of course it was made by Alex. If you look closely you can see that Alex lifts that boy a couple of feet into the air. I love it. I show the slow motion clips because it goes so fast in the original video that it is hard to see anything but in the video with the sound you can hear Ben yelling in the background, "that's my little brother".

This tackle was one of his better plays during the game. He landed on his right arm and after he got up you can see him favoring it. He shakes it off and carries on but this morning he has a major case of road rash.

And finally, this tackle was appropriately the very last tackle of the game and it was voted by some as the best tackle of the season. It was made during the final seconds of the game and he broke up the pass. Since it was their fourth down we took possession of the ball. The coach pointed out to Alex that because Alex allowed us to regain possession of the ball and we still had lots of time outs he was able to put in three seniors who hadn't played yet and so they too were able to get in some plays in the last game of their high school careers. That was pretty cool. In the picture at the top of this posting the team is having their final speech. The parents were all at the gate trying to get onto the field to hug their boys but the wise security guard held them off until the coach was done his speech. He said that he'd coached before and he knew that the team needed this time to themselves. Ben and I had sneaked through another gate but we could also tell that it was a solemn moment so even though we were on the field we too waited until they had had their time. When they broke up we all walked up to them and most of the boys were just bawling. Even our tough Alex had tear filled eyes. It was a special moment. You could tell that the tears were not so much due to the fact that they had lost, but rather they were due to the fact that it was all over. Most of these boys have shared a very tight bond for the last four years (which to them probably seems like their entire lives) and now it was over. We all stood to the side and gave them a long and sincere applause. What a good bunch of boys.