I see potential

When I was a school teacher I remember talking to one of the football coaches after the team had lost in the playoffs. We were talking about the possibility that the team could win a state championship the next year, which they eventually did. The coach didn't doubt it would happen because he saw potential and knew the boys would improve.

I thought about our conversation this week. At the time we spoke I had my doubts about what he was saying. Since I'm not an experienced coach, I couldn't see what he was seeing. I did have the ability, however, to recognize promising writing ability in certain students, but that is off subject and a thought for another day.

The reason I thought this week about my conversation with the coach is that I got home from work early on Monday and tossed the football around with Paul Ivan. I couldn't believe how much he had improved from the beginning of the year. Then again, Paul is a lot like Brandy. His effort and commitment are always impeccable.

Here is one example:

During his first game we were shocked to see a ball flying through the air right to Paul, who was wide open. The ball hit him in the chest and bounced to the ground. The crowd gasped, then many people yelled out encouraging words and the game continued on.

When we got home, Paul asked me to go into the backyard with him to throw him some passes. He had never tried to catch a pass with shoulder pads on and wanted to practice doing it so that it wouldn't bounce off his chest again.

As far as I know, he didn't drop another pass the rest of season. He even hauled in one pass while covered by three defenders. (He wasn't triple covered, but this is 7th grade football. Sometimes the spacing on the field is a little odd.)

I guess this post is a way to tell Paul how proud I am of him for his commitment to teamwork and improving himself. He has learned a lot over the past few months. And he has kept his grades up and not shirked his responsibilities as a deacon at church.

In fact, his sister was recently talking about some minor problem that could have been resolved with a little service and without hesitation Paul Ivan said, "you should have called the deacons."

Well, football season is over for middle school. Now we'll get to see how our young deacon takes to basketball. He made the team yesterday.