Your Mom and I attended Grandson Mitchell’s high school football game on Friday night. Mitchell is a junior and he plays “alot”. He is listed as a tight end on offense and on defense he plays “defensive end”. His Middleton team does not use the term “defensive end”. One end on defense is the “Rush End” and the other is the “Stud End”. Yep, Mitchell is the Stud End. So our Grandson is a “stud” of some sort.
I have long told the story of my high school football career from years ago. Like Mitchell, I played end on offense. I caught a lot of passes but never a touchdown. There were a few close misses but alas, never a touchdown.
Friday night, the Middleton team was on offense and driving in the 2nd half of the game. Mitchell was playing tight end. I don’t believe in premonitions (maybe sometimes wishful thinking), but on a 3rd down play I was thinking about how fantastic it would be for Mitchell to catch a touchdown pass. The quarterback dropped back and threw a 15 yard pass over the center of the field. No. 39 grabbed the ball and ran untouched into the end zone. Yep, Mitchell had scored his first high school touchdown. He did what I was never able to do. He will never have to lament about “what might have been”.
Middleton is unbeaten this season. The final score was 40-6.
After the game, we met up with Mitchell. I thought he would be “gushing” about the touchdown catch. The first thing he said was “did you see the bone crushing tackle he made on the punt returner after a Middleton kick”. Yeah, the touchdown was nice. Really?
I suspect Mitchell will score more touchdowns over the next two years but he will come to appreciate the significance of his “first”. I never got to experience my “first”.
Obviously his Mom had done a great mentoring job!
Love,
Dad