Football (Football Mom, Friday Night Lights, Football is a way of Life). Football is taking up all my free time. The request for volunteers pour in on a daily basis. I had NO idea anything could be more intense than being a soccer mom. Now I know.
The awesome part, well parts, is that we are building an all-new friendship circle and family. Even awesomer is that Cole absolutely loves it & is shining. He is a new, much-less-surly, loveable, but smelly, boy. Manboy. He is huge! Even without all that padding. Not that the padding is working 100%.
Saturdays game was a tough one. The opposing team traveled all the way from our base in Lakenheath,England, that’s 18 hours on a bus! Those poor boys could barely keep their eyes open at the team dinner Friday night. Thankfully they seemed much more rested for the game.
Cole played first string that day. First string varsity! I’m impressed, he may be a Junior but it’s also his first year playing football. Cole was ecstatic. He got to be in for every defensive play. And he did good. Maybe a little too good.
Near the end of the game Cole tackled a Lakenheath player, a good, clean tackle, but the other boy landed on top of one of our guys. Just the wrong way. The field was immediately quiet as coaches from both teams ran to his aid. The football players on both teams took a knee and watched anxiously. Usually, after a minute or two, the injured player gets up and resumes play… or worst case scenario, hobbles back to the bench. Not this time.
This time the on-scene krankenwagen (ambulance) was called in and we all held our breaths as they administered first aid. Pretty soon it was obvious the boy was not getting up. Fairly soon after that, his leg was splinted and the gurney brought out to the field. My heart sank.
Thankfully the boy was moving & gave a wave as they wheeled him away. Shortly thereafter play resumed as well. Shortly after that Cole took a helmet hit to the thigh & hobbled off the field himself.
Happily, Cole was okay. In fact, with his adrenaline pumping he was okay enough to go back in and join in the last handfuls of play. The Panthers winning easily.
Cole & I checked with the Lakenheath team to find which hospital the injured player was in (the Stuttgart area has five different hospitals, each with their own strengths, people are taken to the best-for-their-injury hospital not the nearest one). We know how terrible German hospital food is, and we wanted to bring him dinner and our apologies. It was a clean hit, but it never feels good to land someone in the hospital. Luckily, he was being discharged with a bad sprain!
Still, his leg can’t have felt good. His injury required a hospital trip. Cole came home with us, but after sitting in the car he had a very hard time standing on his leg and bearing any weight. That boy is too big to carry! Of course he asked, he even tried to hop on my back. Like I can piggyback a moose!
Thank God for Dane. Dane ran and got a wheelchair and joyfully, erratically, wheeled Cole around the store. I’m not sure who giggled more, Cole, Dane or all the people we passed.
Leave A Comment