Ethan played flag football this fall. I felt like I had been lax in my fatherly responsibilities after his first practice. Ethan had heard of football, and had seen glimpses of BYU games occasionally, but I think practice may have been one of the first times in his life someone had thrown a football to him.
That’s not to say that throwing and catching is a big part of the game at the kindergarten level — I think we only witnessed one successful pass play the whole season. And I have tried to play catch with Ethan lots of times with other balls. It’s just that Ethan invariably decides trying to throw the ball where dad can’t catch it is more fun than the whole back and forth thing.
After the soccer experience in the spring, we didn’t have any expectations about his ability as a football player. We just hoped he’d run around a bit and have some fun, and for the most part we weren’t disappointed.
Ethan, ready to rumble.
Oct. 2, 2002
Football at this age is pretty comical. Before each play, the coaches frequently picked the boys up and set them where they were supposed to line up. The kid chosen to be quarterback for the play would then squat on the ground behind the center and struggle through the immense communication challenge of getting the ball hiked. Once that happened, he would flee in fear of the opposite team bearing down on him — usually in the most logical direction demanded by such a situation. Sometimes the quarterback would eventually run to the outside and start back up the field.
The kids got better over the season, but there was one kid who was a natural. He probably ran for a touchdown half the times he touched the ball, and he could catch a football that was thrown to him — not just gently tossed from a few paces away. That kid’s dad must have been the real thing.
Ethan got to be the quarterback just a couple of times through the season. His first run looked like the slow motion replay. He got going in the right direction, and somehow didn’t get his flag pulled for a few positive yards. Most of the time, though, he was a bit shy of concentration.
One time when he was on defense, he was all alone in the backfield. The opposing quarterback had headed off one way, but then cut back toward Ethan, and actually ran into him. Ethan didn’t even realize what was going on.
Near the end of the last game, Ethan got to be involved in the offense again. His team had just scored, and they were going for the two point conversion (there weren’t any goalposts on the field, after all). It was a trick play: the quarterback, after getting the ball, handed it to someone else! That someone was Ethan, and he took off right up the middle of the field and kept going all the way into the end zone! And out the back of the end zone! And into the next field! And I guess someone at that point persuaded him to come back.
It was awesome. I cheered. I got watery eyes. And I thought, maybe I’ll make it as a dad after all.
Showing off his medal.
Oct. 3, 2002