No win for the Eagles after all! Boooo! They played in 30 degree weather Saturday night in Bellevue only to lose 54 to 0. It was a massacre, as all the games played by all the teams against Bellevue have been this year. I really wanted them to score at least one TD, but it just wasn't going to happen. That team is like a machine. The coach told Larry that the same group of kids (about 25 as opposed to our 13) have been playing together for 5 years with the same coaches. Kinda explains a lot. I was amused as the announcer would say for our team, "Now the defense is taking the field." Uhhhh, our defense and offense ARE THE SAME KIDS! It's more like, "Now the defense is the offense." We only have two extras. I wouldn't be griping about that fact except that when our original team split they took more than their share of kids and left us with so few. Moving On....The kids received medals for making it as far as they did, and they will each be getting a trophy at the awards ceremony. Sam seemed pleased with his medal. He knew the odds going in. The other team was a great group of boys that not only did the traditional "good game" hand slap at the end of the game which is expected, they also came back over to our guys at the end of the medal presentation and congratulated them again. It was really nice to see that they did it without any prompting and our boys enjoyed the camaraderie that came with a pat on the shoulder, high-five, or fist bump. Our guys were even able to say, "Good luck in the championship next week" after being treated with such respect. So I will label that Bellevue team as Good Sports instead of Little Twerps, which was their name before the game. I know, they can't help being good, but it's hard not to be bitter when they look like a professional team decked out in Under Armour gloves and gear. Half of our guys showed up in short sleeves and no gloves (30 degrees, remember) because no one cared enough to make sure they were dressed suitably before they left the house. Thankfully, they had coaches that cared and time to run purchase some thermal shirts before the game.
So, this is the end for our little rag-tag team. We will still have the awards ceremony, possibly we will build a Christmas float for the parade, and Larry and I are hosting a cookout soon for them. It is bittersweet because as happy as we are to be getting our evenings and Saturdays back as a family, we will also miss some of the guys that Larry has had so much responsibility for these past four months. They need a positive male influence and Larry is really great at that. So the season is over but hopefully the relationships are not.
