pieces and ponderings

Child number 4 is on his high school’s varsity football team.  This past Friday night they had their fourth game of the season.  After winning their opening game, they had lost the next two.  They needed a win to keep up morale.  But their opponent for game number 4 was the favorite.

Throughout last week, when child number 4 would come home all hot and sweaty from football practice, I would ask how practice went and if he thought his team would be ready for Friday night’s big game.

“Practice was good,” he would say.  “I think we’ll be ready on Friday; we’ve got a plan,” he would comment, but he would not share what “the plan” was.

So Friday night came and my husband and I and children, numbers 3and 5, all loaded into our SUV and headed to the away game.  When we got there, we saw our team sitting behind one of the end zones waiting for the game to begin…the players sat in a big huddle and the coaches stood in a smaller huddle.  We went and found seats on the visitors’ side bleachers.

When the opposing home team entered their domain, they ran from their locker room down through the home stand and onto the field below, with their fans cheering like crazy.  It was inspiring…it was intimidating, and I think that was the point.

Our guys crashed through our team banner first as the visiting team, and then the home team took the field…looking bigger…looking undefeated this season.

As the game began, I thought I noticed something a little different about our team than in the previous few games…they had a spark…they had a heart about them…they seemed to want to win.

It was a hard-fought game…and our guys certainly fought hard.  They made plays that looked impossible.  They survived yardage lost on penalties and made first downs anyway.  They were enthusiastic…they were driven…they played with heart.

We fans did our part…we cheered…we yelled…we stood up on important downs and waited to see what would happen.  The cheerleaders seemed amazed because the crowd was actually cheering in response to their “cheer-leading.”

And during one of those cheering moments…as we watched one of our players run the ball AND continue to keep moving forward with three opposing team members hanging on him…the crowd went wild and I heard a young man to my right yell, “That’s my best friend!”

The cheering guy who had just yelled out the remark is a senior and he was cheering for his senior buddy on the field grinding out yardage against the odds.  He was so proud of his friend…he wanted everyone to know.  Throughout the rest of the game, I would hear his cheering…”Way to go, buddy!”…”Yeah!”

We won!  We won by two touchdowns!  Our players were ecstatic…the cheerleaders were ecstatic…the crowd…the moms and dads and friends and students were all ecstatic!  It was a sweet victory!

Our after-the-game snack at Dairy Queen was all the sweeter because of the win.  My football-playing son informed me the next day that Saturday felt even better because of having won.  I’ve tucked away some good memories from the evening’s events, and one of the memories in the fore-front is the guy cheering for his best friend.

I can be a crazy kind of fan when my children are playing sports…I can yell really loud and clap and jump up and down in the stands and feel as if I can will them to make plays.  I can be an over-zealous fan.  I’ve also been told by my children who play these games that they usually don’t hear my cheering…my going crazy in the stands on their behalf.

When I first heard this news that they couldn’t hear my cheering I was surprised…I was disappointed…surely they had heard their mom making a fool of herself in the stands…and then I accepted that ok, they probably hadn’t most of the time (I still hold out for maybe they heard me a few times) but, this knowledge didn’t stop me from cheering for them.  I still get excited when one of my kids is on the field or on a court.  I still end up on my feet about half-way through a game…yelling, clapping, and cheering.  I can’t seem to help it…it just happens that way when you are a passionate person.

So I thought about the young man cheering for his friend…being so proud of him…and I thought about my kids and me cheering and being so proud of them…and I wondered how my cheering is for those I love when I’m not seated in bleachers on a field…when I’m just going through life…am I cheering just as loudly?  Am I cheering in a way that they can actually hear me?  Am I letting the people I love know that I’m proud of them…that I think they are doing a great job?  Am I doing some cheering every day…not just on game nights?

I hope I am, but Friday night’s game was a good reminder to cheer on those around me…and to cheer really loudly so they can hear me.