Son Invited to Try Out for a Select Football Team...
 

Here in Tejas, select teams can sometimes be nothing more than money making scams - we see this a lot in soccer. Football is a bit different. We got an invitation from his coach inviting him to try out for a select 7 on 7 team that plays only tournaments. My first question (as always) was if he wanted to - he jumped at it. My second question was 'how much?' - turns out its minimal, $15 a game to cover field and ref fees. Our Son even offered to pay for it himself out of his grass cutting money - I think I can cover the cost.

He has high hopes to earn his Eagle Scout rank, play for Texas Tech and get an Mechanical engineering degree. So it begins...

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Great job Dad!

I really have nothing to do with it, it is all him. He loves the sport and has a desire to be the best. With anything I always ask "How involved do you want me to be? Do you need me to push, motivate or get on your case?" He lets me know what he needs from me and I try to comply - I don't want to be that Dad that pushes his kid to hard to where it isn't fun for him. So far he digs sports, scouts and school - piano, not so much but tough cookies kid!

Geez, where does he find time to play video games?

Sounds like you have a rare kid.

He wants to go to Tech? Why not A&M or t.u. ?

Max is 10 right? Awesome that he is achieving his dreams/goals in sports. Sounds like you're doing this right - supporting him without undue pressure.

Would you consider Max to be mature for his age? Compared to his friends & peers? I ask this because it has become very clear to me that the kids that excel in sports at this age group tend to be the ones that are the most mature. When my son was 11 and playing in Pop Warner there were several kids on the team that were already growing facial hair. You could see in the way they carried themselves that they were making the transition to young men. They just 'got it' and made short work of the less mature kids.

My son just made the transition to Pony baseball (13-14 year old) this fall season and the differences between kids was eye opening. Zack is average height (5'4") and weight (110) where some of his 'mature' teammates were 6' and 180 lbs. One 14 year old is 6'1" and 230 lbs... At some point in H.S. they will all even out maturity wise.

For some reason he really dislikes UT and A&M - I think because they have such a following here with a bunch of his friends, he wanted to buck the system. We watch TT play on TV last year and he gravitated towrds them.

He asked me if Tech had a good school for engineering, I told them they did but were known for the fantastic looking girls that went there. Anyone who has ever been to the A&M or UT campus and then went to Tech, you would agree. I guess that was enough to seal the deal...

His teachers and coaches have told us that he is 'wiser' then his peers. Some of the things he says tend to blow you away. We have noticed that he is very confident and outgoing in public. Mature? Physically maybe so - he brags about a few hairs on his arm pits! As for emotionally mature? More so then other 10yr olds that I have noticed. He gets pretty pissed at his friends in Scouts and on teams when they are messsing around and not listening.

He is very coachable, never complains and listens intently. He is the kid that you love to coach or have in your class.

He sounds like his father's son. Sounds like a really good kid!

Not trying to change the subject, but how is your daughter doing?

That's great
The team building and sportsmanship he learns from football will stay with him for the rest of his life

Here's an example of what I am talking about. Zack (#13) on the left with a 'mature' teammate - notice the upper lip hair. This was in '08 Pop Warner and the 'mature' kid was slightly shorter than Zack but 25 lbs heavier. He hit like a freight train and had very fast feet. He played both ways as starting offensive back and starting MLB. He was a man playing with boys...

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Not saying its impossible... But its very likely he will have to choose between scouting and football at somepoint... It just always seemed to me like the more a boy got involved in sports the less he came to scouts. 2 reasons for that.... 1 is time... Football demands lots of it. 2 is that scouting is not always looked on nicely by others your age. Guess it depends on your region but 'round here I caught relentless hell for it...


Let me know if you have ANY questions about scouting

Sidney J.
Eagle, April '09

He interviews with a few troop leaders in January. We have 7 troops in our immediate area - a few are very hardcore Eagle producers while others have a solid blend. All the troops save one are Scout lead. He visited with and camped with a troop a few months ago that had some scouts that played Football, Baseball and some did Band. The recent crop of Eagles had a few that were lettermen, a couple in competitive bands as well.

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In 1st grade and doing amazing. She rarely gets any grade below 100 and when it happens she is pretty tough on her self. She spends about an hour to two every day reading. She loves to have me quiz her on mental math problems as well. She is testing for a G&T program - she reads at an 8th grade level and comprehends at same.

She does art class and Piano after school, plays soccer. Check out her crossed fingers in the photo above! We never knew she did that untll we got this photo series done. She lead her team in scoring this year but prefers to play defense.

We are blessed. They are good kids.

We have a few around here that are "Eagle producers" as well. Stay away from them... They slam **** together and don't actually focus on learning the material. My troop made a lot of eagles as well... We just did it in a longer time frame. Finished at 16y/o instead of 14y/o. So really look at the troops and you will be able to figure out what is going on.

You gotta watch that boy led crap too... My troop was supposedly boy led. The scoutmaster wouldn't support me on any decisions or help me maintain order... If I finally said eff it and did something without his approval b/c it needed done I got called on the carpet.

Just go to a few of the meetings and watch what is going on Mike. You will be able to tell what is going on. Talk to several of the older boys in the troop. They will tell you what is going on as well.

Way to raise 'em Lubey!!!

I saw one troop that was boy led, the scoutmaster is a friend and we did scouts when Max was a bear and his a WII. The troop was a mess and I agree, if the scoutmaster is total hands off then some of the kids get on a power trip and loose respect.

The troop he likes is only about 30 scouts - they produce about 4 to 5 Eagles a year which is a small % compared to some of the mills around here. Most of the Eagles seem to be 16. I think there were 1 or 2 that were 15.

I am not a big fan of some of the Eagle Projects I have seen - most seem to be stuff that is built which I guess is OK. Max will love doing that but I would like to see something more towards a sustained community activity or something like a "helping Hands for the Elderly" or something. A project that isn't so much a physical structure and more of a community benefit - maybe thats the liberal coming out in me?