Our entire reason for traveling to England (London at Night, Me & Louise, Sherwood Forest and Harry Potter!) was for Cole to play Football. Part of being a military brat stationed overseas means not having a lot of local Football teams to compete against. It means traveling all over Germany, to other military installations, and sometimes it means traveling all the way to England to play against the airforce team at Lakenheath.
The boys, and coaches, traveled via bus. They even boarded the chunnel at Calais, the bus taking up most of one car, and then they got to wander the train. This is on my bucket list. Even after Cole described the 35-minute journey as “boring”.
They traveled the whole night, and part of a day to get Lakenheath… about 20 hours. Just in time for a practice, dinner and sleep. Saturday was the game. Our team played hard! Cole especially was on point and fought hard. The very best part of the game was watching Stuttgart hold Lakenheath at the 1-inch line for 4 plays, preventing a touchdown & forcing a turnover. I beamed with pride & hollered till my voice was hoarse.
Sadly, the Panthers lost the game. Even sadder… that turned out to be the last game of Cole’s season. The next weekend, away without me, up at the Ramstein semi-finals game, Cole got hurt. As always, Cole played hard. According to Dave, he played extra hard. And it showed. The entire teams hard work showed. Stuttgart beat Ramstein, on their home turf, for the first time EVER! I’ve watched the winning clips over & over. I am SO proud of the entire team!
Cole hobbled off the field and Dave drove him home to me. Our special forces friend bandaged him up, we loaded him with ibuprofen and ice, and tucked our boy into bed. The next day he couldn’t stand. Off to the ER we went, thankful for an old pair of crutches courtesy of Soren.
X-rays determined he didn’t have a break, but showed an awful lot of blood pooling in his ankle and foot. Blood that showed up as a wicked bruise on day 3. While the Doctor didn’t say the tendon was torn, he strongly hinted at it. Now, a week into the injury, and Cole still hobbling in pain, I’m fairly certain his tendon is torn (the MRI is this week). My heart is breaking for him. Because.
Today the Panthers are playing in the Division 1 playoffs! This is huge. Enormously huge. Of course he’s going. Of course he’s suiting up. He is part of the team. I just wish, with all my might, he could be out on that field. Cole, more than anything, loves being on that field.
Cole is number 69:
Look at that happy grin as he gets a congratulations from the Lakenheath coaches!
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