AJ's Adventures

AJ decided to follow in his older brothers' footsteps and to play football this year. He spent a lot of time out in the backyard with his brothers in preparation. It was his first year ever playing football. In middle school here they have two teams per grade.There is an A team and a B team. This way, more boys get the experience of getting out on the field. It is also quite apparent that there is major differences in the size of boys his age.

AJ played on the B team. He didn't get a lot of playing time but he didn't seem to mind. He played hard every time he set foot on the field. He did great in practice as well. He even scored a few touchdowns at practice. I asked him what his coaches said about it. He said they just yelled at the defense for letting him through.

Here are a few photos of the AJ's adventure playing football. I love my #19.

Of course they have cheerleaders for middle school B team football. This is Texas after all.

The football season ended on high note with his team finally winning their last game. He loved it and can't wait for next season to start.

The same week that football ended, cross country started. AJ is a natural  runner. He is fast and he can run forever. We were really interested in how he would do in competition.

His first meet he wasn't familiar with the route and it kind of threw him off. He placed 39th out of 200+ runners.

The second meet he was better prepared and was astonished when he jumped up to 29th and placed 1st in his school. I think he will to improve as he continues to train and gain experience.

The problem is that in high school next year, football and cross country are at the same time. He will have to choose between the two. I asked him what he was going to do. He said he wanted to play football because cross country hurts. I said, "And football doesn't?" He replied that football hurts on the outside and cross country hurts on the inside. Being a runner myself, I know exactly what he is talking about.

He has a few more cross country meets to go. We'll see how he does. In the meantime, we'll just enjoy the run (pun intended).