Oktoberfest Football Tournament

October 4 was the Oktoberfest Football Tournament. Nicknamed the "Mud Bowl!"

I woke up Saturday morning and it was already pouring down rain. The weather reported it would rain ALL day. I woke up my son and asked if he wanted to play football in the rain. He said, "yes, the professionals play in the snow Mom." I should have told him, but the professionals make a million dollars to play in the snow, but I didn't!

It rained hard during his first game and it was cold too (about 61 degrees.) I stood watching all the children playing and wondering how many will be sick tomorrow. Some parents were saying how nice it was to have rain, because last year it was a lot colder and snowing at this time! I thought to myself, are they all crazy! These are just children 7, 8 and 9 years old. Apparently they didn't care that we parents had to sit in this wretched weather too!

My son's team lost their first game, which was sad for the team, but good for the fact we only had to wait in the rain for one more game! We waited a little over an hour for the second game. While waiting, there was chatter about a possible third game! I prayed they were wrong, because I was cold and my feet were already soaking wet. I couldn't help but think about all the scrapbook pages I could have be doing instead of standing in this miserable rain, but I stood there smiling and supporting my son.

He claims he loves the rain and it is his favorite kind of weather. When it rains he is always running outside to play. Therefore, I didn't have to worry about him during the football games, because I knew he was LOVING every minute of it! Only once did he say his hands were cold, but otherwise he was fine.

When the second game finally started it was over before I knew it . They lost again! To my frustration my son had hardly played, and I had no idea why. I became a bit angry for having stood around in the cold rain only to find he didn't even get to play but a few seconds. I built up the courage to ask 1 of the 4 coaches why he didn't get to play as long. The lame reply was, "I don't know!" I may not know much about football but I do know that those coaches played favorites. They were always screaming at the kids clearly indicating they wanted to win the games but were unfortunately too blind to see beyond the fact that their own son's were the reason why they were losing the games.

Overall, my son and I had sat in the cold wet rain for about 5 hours. I was happy it was finally over, so we decided to celebrate and went out for pizza. We celebrated for him because he had a good football season, and secretly for me because it was all finally over!

Now that football is over it means no more rushing with homework and sitting around at my son's 90 minute practices 4 nights a week! Only two more soccer games this season. Yahoo! Then the only sport my children will be attending is karate. It is one day a week, after school, on their short day, which works for me. It will be nice to have a break for a while.

Wouldn't you know, my son wants to play basketball now! Will he ever stop! The last day for sign up is tomorrow. I think I will pass on it for now.