It was a warm summer afternoon and as we pulled into the parking lot, I could tell that Josh was excited. As soon as I turned off the engine, he bounded out of the car and headed for the ball field. Upon finding his team, Josh joined right in and started tossing the football around with his teammates.
Two and a half years earlier, while still living in Massachusetts, Josh handed me a football one day and said we were going to play until he could catch the ball every time I threw it to him. It turned out that football had become the game his friends were playing at recess and my son, who had never shown any interest in the game prior to handing me that football, spent eight hours that weekend working on catching the ball and running routes. Within a week, he had gone from the kid who was always picked last to the kid who got picked first almost every day.
Josh started playing football every chance he could. When we moved to North Carolina, our neighbor and his sons would end up playing a pick-up game with us every weekend. The kids in the neighborhood played fall, winter and spring, so when signups started for the Carolina Copperheads flag football league, Josh was the first one in line to sign up.
Continue reading →
