Bragalicious

My son is huge for his age - not fat, just a big boy. He's always been the tallest in his class since Pre-K4 and the size of his feet are almost 2 full sizes bigger than the other kids in his class. Sometimes I wonder where this came from. His father is about 6'1 with small feet and my father is actually only about 5'10. My dad does have one freakishly tall brother coming in at 6'5, so I'm guessing this is who my son is taking after (that uncle is gay though, so hopefully Luke won't take THAT much after him...know what I mean).

Last year, Luke became infatuated with sports. He played football, then basketball, then soccer and then baseball. It was exhausting. I spent a year of my life literally at the playground - but we loved it. Being a total dork myself, it's so great to see my child be a "jock", and we made a lot of new friends for both us and for Luke. Luke's own father is more of the gamer type who spent high school behind his Nintendo controllers, so the jock part is something new to all of us.

His father doesn't attend much of his practices (more like none of his practices) and rarely comes to games unless the game coincides with "his" time with Luke. Ziggy has taken over beautifully for Luke. Ziggy is at every practice, Ziggy practices with him in the yard at home, Ziggy handles his equipment (thank god, because I'm clueless), Ziggy stands on the sidelines at games, Ziggy has Luke's sports photos all over his desk at work. When I get really angry with my husband, I try to remember those moments that make me so happy with the man I chose for Luke to grow up with. Even the coaches and other parents are usually shocked when I tell them that Ziggy, in fact, is not Luke's father. I don't even know if Luke even owns a ball at his dad's house - know what I mean?

Football and basketball seem to be the two sports that Luke is really taking to and enjoys and is excelling in and has some raw talent towards. He is a coaches dream, because he's like Rudy (just a much bigger Rudy). The kid tries and listens harder than any kid out there - like he's hungry for it and wants it more than the other kids.

Last year, his football position was Center. They started him off as Center again this year because he's the only kid that learned and practiced over the year how to do a "pass spike" or whatever it's called where the Center spikes the ball to the quarterback in the air rather than just handing it to him.

Last night the coach's wife told me - "Dave (coach) said that Luke is the best center that he's ever seen at this age." Oh gawd - I was so proud I nearly cried. However, Luke's freakishly large size may dash his dreams of being Center for LSU - for now anyway. Coach pulled Ziggy aside last night and told Ziggy that due to the sheer size of my son, putting him in the Center position would be a waste of his size, so he has to make him Left Guard this year because Luke is one of the only kids big enough to handle a guard position (his friend Jonathan, the other biggest kid on the team will be Right Guard).

Fabulous. My kid gets to basically be the brut force - the hitter and the one hit. The guard's job is basically just to be huge and knock people down...but seeing that he's one of the two that can knock down and still remain on his feet, this is his new position. I mean, it does carry other skills like correctly creating pockets for the quarterback to run through and stuff like that, but for the most part (from a mom's line of vision) it's just all about being big and knocking people down.

Of course I'm all proud that he has displayed enough talent for more than one position. The coach said that once the other kids start catching up to Luke's size, hopefully by 9 or 10, then Luke will probably wind up as Center again. (According to Luke, Center is "way cooler" because they get to touch the ball every offensive play and the plays start on the Center).

But for now, it looks like I'll need to pack ice packs and be doing a lot of warm soaks in the tub - after one scrimmage as Left Guard, he has bruises up and down his upper arms. He's just so thrilled to be in the game and very rarely gets put on the bench, so if getting beaten up is what it takes, then Luke is happy to do it.

And so for the next three months, I will be totally in love with the sight of my boy in his uniform and the sight of my man being a great dad and losing my voice hollering "GO GATORS!" from the sideline as though it was a professional game.

Oh and lastly, I texted Luke's dad to tell him the Center compliment that Coach's wife told me and this was his response, "Yeah, I bet they tell every kids' parents something like that every year." BASTARD! See, he honestly doesn't think that Luke has any kind of real talent in sports and the bastard is actually very vocal about it. Our theory is that he's just jealous that his son is way cooler than him already at the wee age of 7.