Get well soon

Yesterday, my son, Anthony, had his first football scrimmage against Valley HS and Green Valley HS. He plays on the Freshman team at Las Vegas HS. Anyway, this scrimmage was the first test of how well all the kids play under pressure and gives the coaching staff a better idea of who belongs in the starting positions versus the 2nd and 3rd string. Anthony did really well and had some excellent blocks and tackles. He is a 1st string defensive lineman. There is talk of moving him up to the Junior Varsity (JV) team after just a couple of games, but we'll see. The coaches were trying to give all the kids a chance to play. Pretty hard, seeing that we have over 60 kids on the team. We were up against Green Valley and it was nearing the end of our scrimmage so the coaches put in our 3rd string quarterback. This kid was very small and skinny. I had never seen him before but I could tell that he didn't have a chance. He was too slow on the snap and couldn't run very fast. In fact, I turned to my friend and said that this poor kid is going to get his ass kicked. She told me that during practice, Anthony got a good hit on this kid and made him cry. After that incident, the defense wasn't allowed to touch him during practice. Back to the scrimmage...on his first play in, he tried running the ball and was tackled. On his second play he again tried running the ball. I remember thinking that this kid runs like a girl and shouldn't be running the ball. He's too slow! He was sacked by three players and didn't get up. Oh my God! He isn't moving. Everyone stopped. His father was on the sidelines taping the whole thing but he was on the opposite side of the field and couldn't see past the coaches who were now surrounding his kid. His mother didn't move. After Anthony got hit last season, I know the shock and denial of seeing your kid getting injured. You look on, thinking that he is going to jump up any moment. He just got the wind knocked out of him, right? I sat watching, reliving, hoping. They didn't remove his helmet. Oh no! Is it a neck or back injury? What's going on? I see one of the coaches on the phone, presumably calling for an ambulance. Dad walks slowly onto the field then puts his hand on his head. Mom comes on and looks as if she's crying as the coach grabs her hand. We learn minutes later that he suffered a compound fracture to his femur. You hate to see this happen to any child. Anthony told me that all of the players he knows had a feeling this would happen to him. They couldn't believe he was playing football. I give him credit for trying. I'm so sorry that his first experience ended this way.


Chris and I put this arrangement together this afternoon and we all were going to go to the hospital but found out that he wouldn't be out of surgery until 6 p.m. and I'm sure he would still be asleep long after that. I told Anthony that we'd have to visit tomorrow morning. I hope the flowers last until then.




I started this shawl yesterday because my shoulder was hurting too much while knitting and I wanted to see if crochet would aggravate it. I thought how much the colors reminded me of my sister, Sherry, and that I should send it to her for those cold Ohio nights. Funny thing is that she called me today to tell me that her husband got a job in Coral Springs, Florida and that they're moving in the next few weeks! Perhaps a charity could benefit from it. I'm sure if I thought hard enough, I could think of a friend who could use a "hug".