If any of you know us, and it's likely you do, you know just what avid sports fans we are. Never a Sunday passes when we are not in front of the boob tube watching some football. All winter long, you can find us up at the university cheering our beloved Aggies on. And Super Bowl Sunday should just be considered a national holiday already; it is in our house.
(I ran out of sports, so I had to use football again...)
Okay, fine.
So none of that is true. We pretty much NEVER watch a game, unless "our" Sproat/Jensen family has us over for their fantabulous Super Bowl party ("I'm only here for the food." -- name that movie). And while I was a cheerleader in high school (Go, Panthers!), most of my sports enthusiasm died when I graduated high school. I can get into a game when I personally know the players, though. Especially when I birthed one.
Which brings us to the point of this post: Tee Ball.
Our super sporty little James (only slight sarcasm here; mostly he's too young to be judged either way) is playing tee ball this summer. Although soccer was a fun experience, the scheduling was stressful, and because of this we figured we would end up nixing tee ball in the end. But peer pressure and my fond childhood memories won out, and here we are. And quite honestly, it's been pretty fun.
Somehow I managed to volunteer myself as a co-coach of sorts, and while I didn't really mean to, it's kinda fun. The coach seems to be a good guy and a baseball-lover, but I'm not sure he has much experience teaching littlies. That's pretty much where I came in... helped him break things down to be digestible by virgin-tee-ballers, practice the basics in age-appropriate and fun ways, and (apparently my cheerleading gene didn't die out completely) cheer and hooray and rev the little guys (and gal) up so they'd have a super duper fun time.
He told them to stay back while the batter hits; I made a more concrete "line" for them to stay behind. He explained that you run from home to first to second... etc; I had them practice running with "go" and "go" and "go" and lots of high-fives at the home-plate finish line. He told them they should cheer on their fellow teammates; I instigated a (probably annoying, once all kids have had their turn) fun little chant ("Na-than! Na-than! Na-than!" etc.) to make the batter feel special and supported as well as to keep the team involved. I must say, I'm kind of a fun helper-coach. :) I especially love that the kids look to me with anticipation when they're up to bat... waiting for the chanting to start before they go. Hehe. They're just a little bit adorable, these kids.
So yeah. Tee ball.
Tonight is another practice/game (both, really), so I should probably go. Our little star athlete is getting his pre-game rest in. Being a baller is pretty hard work, you know...
Go, Dodgers!! :)