Nates Football 2010

Football season is now over for Nate and Justin. I include Justin because he always coaches Nate's football team. Justin is a great coach. He is really positive with the boys and is able to keep his temper in check.
Their team had a great season only loosing to one team and thus placing second. Nate struggled the first couple of games because he plays quarterback and didn't really like getting creamed by some of the big guys. It took him a little while to learn to deal with the pain that is associated with the sport. I was surprised with some of the bruising and swelling he would have after a game. He played really well most of the season though. I am afraid that he gets his mental game from me however, and was his own worst enemy when it came to playing teams that had really big kids or that he had heard were really good. If it was a game that he knew had a bad record, he was a completely different player and had all the confidence in the world. It will be interesting to see how he does over the years as he matures. I always struggled mentally with sports and would talk myself out of winning. I hope he can overcome that better than I did. I am just now starting to believe in myself when it comes to competing even though I really only compete with myself in races now. When I first started running 5k's I did worse each race for my first three races and became very discouraged because I was training harder for each subsequent race. It has only been the past couple of years that I have reversed that and started beating my own time with each new race.
Overall, it is just nice for Justin and Nate to have that bonding time that playing football has given them. Now on to basketball which Justin is also coaching because Nate's coach quit on the morning of their first game. More father-son bonding time which, at this point in Nathan's life, is so important.