Back to School and other

This week the kids come back to school in most of the Peoria area. It is always a hectic week as we get back into the school routine. It will be especially challenging for our family as our daughter has had her driver's license for about a month. We will have about three different things going on and two cars to get us there so I see plenty of logistics ahead for our family. As I sit on the front porch there is a knock-out game of Basketball going on in our driveway. It seems that the kids always sense that school is close at hand and they have only a few treasured nights of play left.
Today I did my annual talk to the JFL Football Coaches of Central Illinois. I have spoke for the last 13 years to this group of adults who are about to embark on a season of coaching young kids in the great game of Football for the upcoming Fall. I enjoy this very brief time with these people. They always have me talk to first year coaches. I try to expound to them the importance of making Football a positive experience. I truly hope that they realize the crucial time that they are dealing with these young people and the game of Football. A youngster can have a great experience, or a horrific experience at that age. It was kind of a bad thing that I walked into the meeting before mine and they were doing a exercise on sportsmanship and not running the score up, etc.. They gave the coaches a scenario where a team was continuously on-side kicking and was putting a pretty good whipping on a team. When asked about this most of the coaches felt that this was ok and it was the other teams job to adjust and react. In my mind I thought; "is the game being properly taught if we continuously on-side kick?". I sure wish there could be a system where kids do learn the game of Football and the adults egos are still satisfied.
This Friday is also always a big night as it is the inter-squad scrimmage for most high school teams. This gives the coaches a chance for their kids to perform under the lights and hopefully get some of the pre-game jitters experienced so opening night is perhaps not so daunting. I enjoy this tremendously. It is a good warm-up for Friday nights to come. I truly experience the whole Football experience in the Autumn. High school Football on Friday, college on Saturdays followed by the NFL on Sundays. My weight usually sky rockets as I indulge in a lot of snacks and tailgating while watching this. Thursday night College Football is also a big hit if I can jam four nights of football watching into my schedule.
This realization that football is right around the corner makes the start of the school year much more bearable!