Run With The Fishes

There is a scrimmage tomorrow, so today they practiced some special teams. Kickoffs in particular. The kids looked lost out there. Nate was on the front line, receiving and gunning like everyone else, on kickoffs. If nothing else, he sticks to his blocks. The one time the coach did a surprise onside kick, it basically stopped at this on kid’s feet and he sort of stared at it. Nathan ran over and dove on it and covered it up. That was one of his two highlights for the day. It was a little funny. The kid was clueless. About like me if someone had just dropped a live grenade at my feet. Total loss as to what to do.

They also practiced some team defense today. There aren’t enough kids to practice offense and defense, so you just focus on one each time. Today it was defense. They lined Nathan up along the left side of the defensive line, but not on the line. I guess it would be an outside linebacker type spot. Told him his job is to take on the fullback or to cover the short left side of the field on passes. There were two or three kids on the offense (qb, rb, maybe a wr) and the coaches played offense. There are like 4 guys helping coach, so they were a formidable O-line. Nathan’s other big highlight was dragging down the running back about 3 yards deep in the backfield.

I think Nathan is well on his way to being that under-sized scrappy kid, which is a great position to be in. If you fail everyone forgives you. You were outmatched to begin with, there is nothing you could do. If you succeed, you are a little mighty mouse, and the other team’s fans are disappointed that they let the little guy make a play.

Nathan ran his sprints with a different set of kids today (not the one slower O-linemen) and he SMOKED em. Out of three 20-yard sprints, I think he won every time.

There was a play where he was the last man back, and took another bad angle and the running back ran right past him as Nathan dove at his knees and missed. All in all a fun if unspectacular practice on Nathan’s end.

Day Five

Coach gave out a handdrawn playbook to all the players on Tuesday. Today they tried out some of the plays. Basically they are all runs to the side, with one exception. The backside tight end breaks out into a pass pattern on one play (two if you count when they run to the other side). So they ran the offense all day, meaning Nathan played defense. He had a sidekick today though. So it was 2 on 9. or maybe 2 on 11.

I think they have enough kids this year to have some kids sit out, but the plan is to have some be full time offense, some be full time defense, and the rest switch. Nathan, apparently, will be full time defense. He’s actually excited about it, and here’s why:

He’s finally found a job on the team. Left Defensive End (give Josh credit here). With six kids blocking two, Nate managed to get to the qb before he threw the ball. Then the coach told the offense that if Nathan sacked the qb, the offense would be running laps and the two defenders could drink the rest of the water. That really fired Nate up. So he started wiggling through the line and getting at the runner, and then getting at the QB while they practiced their TE pass play. He never did sack him, mostly just because he didn’t know how. The kids are still bigger than him. It would be like me sacking Dante Cullpepper. Nate would grab him by the legs, and the kid would throw, then gracefully accept that Nate was tackling him, and fall over.

So we worked on driving through the qb instead of falling at his feet. and slapping the passing arm right around the elbow as you wrap him up around the chest. Nate’s pretty excited, because he’s found a spot where he can do something. And for the most part they can’t outrun him.

Nathan just started tackle football. Even though he is the smallest guy on the team, he seems to be having fun. They have been practicing for a couple of weeks now and Nathan has found a nitch. Greg described it best over at the fantasy football forum we have setup.

He’s finally found a job on the team. Left Defensive End. With six kids blocking two, Nate managed to get to the qb before he threw the ball. Then the coach told the offense that if Nathan sacked the qb, the offense would be running laps and the two defenders could drink the rest of the water. That really fired Nate up. So he started wiggling through the line and getting at the runner, and then getting at the QB while they practiced their TE pass play. He never did sack him, mostly just because he didn’t know how. The kids are still bigger than him.
So we worked on driving through the qb instead of falling at his feet. and slapping the passing arm right around the elbow as you wrap him up around the chest. Nate’s pretty excited, because he’s found a spot where he can do something. And for the most part they can’t outrun him.

All of the little brothers and sisters were playing in the dirt, and one of them wasn’t minding his mother. So, the mom told Greg to “just spank him for me”. This happens on a regular basis. Not from this mother, but from many of the parents around here.

It might just be a regional thing (maybe a southern thing, or maybe just an East Texas thing?). Whatever it is, spanking seems to be pretty common practice around these parts. We had to sign a form saying the school did not have our permission to spank. Although, if either Nathan or Zoey did something that warranted swats, we might have to rethink that position. It is always weird when a parent tells us to just spank their child. We never do. A) We don’t even spank our own kids, why would we spank someone else’s? B)We really don’t know the parents or their kids very well.

It’s not that we don’t approve of spanking, for some parents it works. Spanking just doesn’t work for us or our kids. When Nathan was little all you had to do was look at him like he was in trouble and he would start crying. Now, we just take away privileges. The one time I tried spanking Zoey (she was about 2), she just laughed like she was having the greatest time. And apparently Allison likes it so much she asks for more.

Day Four

It was family day at the old Ball Park as we all went to practice.

Fresh from a trip to Academy Sports during our Dallas visit, Nathan was ready to go. New cleats, new shoulder pads, new pants – new man! With pads closer to his size, he can actually lift his arms up over his ears now. After practice he said he can run and catch better today.

Coach was late (fixing a kids helmet), so one of the assistant coaches had some of the kids run routes and some of the (bigger) kids practice the fundamentals of getting into the three point stance. It’s clear why Nathan won’t make a great receiver this year. He is a _small_ target. Of the five routes he ran, the first two throws (by the coach) were way off. Then he caught one on his chest, and slid for the final two, catching one, and bobbling the other.

Here comes coach. Time for practice. Today they practiced defense. Unfortunately Nathan became the sole offensive lineman. When they did offense, they made him the sole defender. That only lasted for about 20 minutes, however, because today the coach brought a playbook. And there were enough kids to run both sides of the field. Offense and Defense. So Nathan was switched back to defense.

He played on the end of the line first. At least he’s stubborn. We sit at the fence, and they play at a baseball field WAAAY back at the back, about center field. Two other teams practice at the same time on the same field, closer. So it’s hard to really tell what happens. Half the time, nathan would be the only guy that would stand his man up and not give up field position. THe other half, he’d wind up on his butt. He’s already the smallest kid, so when they sent two blockers at him, he didn’t do so hot.

Then they moved him back off the line to an outside linebacker/corner/safety type position. He did OK, I saw him make one tackle out of maybe 15-20 snaps. At least half the time the big running back can just run through everyone without anyone tackling him though.

Nathan can get to the runningback, but most of the time he would get beside him and then be sort of behind him. I think maybe he’s taking angles like in flag foot ball where all you have to do is reach out and grab him. So we’ll work on running through people so he can make tackles.

Poker night at the Ward house.
Draft – Running backs were in high demand (3 dollars for Kurt Warner – will it be a bust or a bang for Ben)

Allison was in a weird mood most of the weekend. Waking up at 2:30am and screaming for an hour. She usually does wake up around 4, but goes right back to sleep. I guess it wasn’t a big deal though, because most of the guys were still up! playing board games.

Zoey lost top front tooth while reading the Junie B. First Grader, Toothless Wonder book.
Nathan is all geared up for football

These weird
lovebugs surrounding our house and the roads.

Day Three
It rained before practice, so it was hot _and_ humid. Yippee!

They didn’t wear pads/helmet today. They did some shorter sprints (20 yards instead of 40). Then it was off to learning the basics of the running offense. For about the first 3rd, Nate played at the end of the O-line while another kid sat out. Then they switched and Nathan sat out for about 10 minutes.

Basically the kids are all lined up on offense, and 2-3 coaches are playing a stationary defensive line. They eventually realized they could just put Nathan on defense too. So he spent the last half of practice as the lone defender (not counting coaches).

Looks like he will have to make his mark on defense. It’s cool to me though. I really like defense more than offense anyways.

Tuesday it’s back to pads.