Landon's first year of Tackle football

Whenever anybody asked me what I was doing the answer was usually the same....Landon has football. Landon playing tackle football was a real eye opener for me on what my future with three boys is going to hold. Two hour practices everyday until school starts then two hour practices three times a week when school starts and games on Saturday that can be anywhere from two to three hours.

The Erie nine year olds had two teams this year. Since this was Landon's first year he was on the team with all the new kids. One thing I learned is that there is a lot of politics even in little kids sports teams. Travis and I not knowing this were out of town in Utah on vacation during football camp as most other parents of first time tackle football players were not at the football "camp". Actually, it was more of a tryout. Long story short the "seasoned" coach got to pick his team first leaving everyone who was new or not as practiced for the second team. It wasn't that our team didn't have talent. We did, a lot of the kids were really great, Landon included. It was more of a size issue. You can see in the picture below my 60 pound Landon was holding off 100-150 pound opponents. Usually our biggest kid was smaller than the other teams smallest kid.
The good news is Landon gained a lot of experience this year. On offense Landon alternated between running back and offensive line. (Again, a 60 pound offensive lineman? Tiny but mighty!) On defense he played outside linebacker. Another fun thing is that Travis was able to help coach when he was in town and really helped the kids learn how to tackle effectively. One year down #? to go? (Landon is #41 with the green long sleeve shirt under his jersey)