After 8 years of playing against the other neighborhood school teams, the 7th grade is finally together. The first game at home is a big one -and comes with a pep rally! Football boys march in like middle school royalty around the gym giving high fives those student on the front rows of the bleachers that line the square. Dancing and chants and speeches accompanied by loud music and cheers from the middle school faithful. It was a sign to be hold - nothing like what I expected a middle school pep rally to look like.
With our 7th grader being the oldest, his firsts are our firsts. By the time our 1st grader gets to middle school, we should be pro's. But this day, our first pep rally, I we had no idea what to expect. I arrived first. Nana picked up the youngest. They sat on the other side of the gym. My hubby can't find me and just finds a seat. The joy of being in a small town is that you are never without a friend close by.
After the spirit competitions, awards for the best "Hip-Hop" dressed, and speeches from the athletes, we moved to the field. By game time it was a mere 90 degrees. Families gathered on the old rickety bleachers at the grass field behind the middle school. The visitors sat on one end and we sat other other, with only one set of bleachers at the middle school. Now that our boys have grown, parents have to move up a few rows to see the game over their heads. The days of sitting in our bag chairs watching them pull flags are over.
These boys are big and at times it seems the boys they are lined up against are even bigger. Sometimes it's all this momma can do to stay on the benches and not share my thoughts (brilliant and insightful as they may be) with those boys. This day, it seems that they didn't need my advice...
The third game of the season and the first at home, the boys walked away with a 44-0 win.