A Sporting life

For some 18 years now we have been there on the sidelines for the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
We have watched and cheered and tailgated and wept and gotten sore bleacher butts, we have sat outside in sub-freezing wind chills, or parked our lawn chairs under beach umbrellas while temps soared over 100, we have sat in the rain, sat in our cars, slogged through the mud and even let the snow pile on our heads during countess games, matches and competitions.
We have filled more coolers and water bottles than we can count. We have made sandwiches, and snacks. We have eaten all three meals of the day on the sidelines. With the other parents, we have watched game films, gone to banquets, and drank beers in parking lots. We have iced injuries, applied heating pads, administered ibuprophen, and even taken a couple ambulance rides.

It started with the Rockies – our daughter’s rec softball league. We parents got so involved as spectators that I invented a flip-chart score board just for us silly fans. Then Ferris started playing soccer… and baseball. When he moved on to Pop Warner football, she joined the colorgaurd at high school. Then she finished up and went off to college and he began high school wrestling. It’s always been something. We realized we have been to almost every high school in a 50 mile radius.

We had a couple years there where we would go from a football game, home to pack another cooler, let the dog out, then off to the color guard competitions which would go on into the night. Sometimes the entire weekend would be spent at sporting events. I served on the Pop Warner Board of Directors one year as VP of Concessions. This basically meant we (my inducted wife and I) ran the concession stand for the entire season. This meant working all weekend –5 games over Saturday and Sunday, slinging dogs and making fries. We made 10k that season – it practically killed us… and we had a blast.

Over the years we have met and come to know the parents of so many of the athletes in our town. Walking into our local sports bar is like walking into Cheers. Last night we hugged two old coaches at the bar and had drinks with another football parent while having hot-wings, waving and nodding to countless basketball, football and wrestling kids as they filed in and out. We parents are comrades now – we see them in the grocery store and in line at the bank. My wife and I have been touched that all these folks have accepted us without question or judgment over the years.


It’s been quite a run… but it’s over now.
Our weekends will be free, no more fund raisers, no more uniforms to wash, no more games to watch.
It is slowly dawning on us that we sat on our last bleacher this past weekend.
It’s the end of an era.