I'll admit that some things come very easily for Mr C. He gets a lot of recognition for things that he barely tries to do such as great grades, academic success, high test scores, and other honors. He's worthy of the praise he gets for those things, but the effort involved does not require much from him. Of course, we are very proud of him for these things, but we've come to expect them from him.
When it's come to athletics, things don't come as easily for Mr C. He's a kid who is very coachable and loves the rules of the game, understands the nuances, but physically he does not dominate the sport or the team. Give him an opportunity to play and he's a great team player. He's just not the star. That's why we were so proud of him for playing Freshman Football this fall. He trained all summer in the weight room, he learned to hit and block and run, and he gave it his all in scrimmage and games.
For the spring, Mr C has had it as his dream to be on the Golf Team. Because you are required as a freshman to play a spring sport at his school, most teams are non-cut sports. You can play baseball or soccer or run track and be guaranteed a spot on the team. Not so with golf. There are only 13 spots on the team for Freshmen thru Senior for both the JV and Varsity teams.
We discovered that this means you have to be pretty good. Not great, but good enough to contribute to the squad in tournaments and show potential to get better at golf. Mr C has been playing golf since he was about six. He spent about six years playing in a summer golf league and he and his grandfather have spent many days on the course. He loves the game and knows the rules and the etiquette required to play on the best courses.
The only thing going against him this spring was that he's grown nearly six inches since last summer meaning his clubs he's played with for the past three years are now to small and it's still winter in the Midwest meaning he's barely touched his clubs for about six months. To overcome the first obstacle without spending a fortune, we've "borrowed" clubs from both dads and great grandpa's bag (maybe Moms' favorite 7 wood too). The second issue of little practice time has been overcome in the last three weeks because the weather has been stellar so Mr C has gone to the driving range almost daily and played about six rounds of golf. Answered Prayers.
Amazingly, the only glitch in the past few weeks was the fact that Mr C broke his Driver four days before tryouts. In half. Destroyed. Thankfully, when we went to the golf shop to see what could be done with our broken Driver (nothing), the lady who was helping us look at clubs showed us a used driver and offered that we could borrow it for the next week so we wouldn't have to stress over tryouts. Answered Prayers.
Last Monday was tryouts and Mr C came home a little defeated. He didn't have his best round of golf. The driver was causing him problems and he was nervous and striking the ball too hard. At this point, he was a little discouraged figuring he was cut. We told Mr C that we were so proud of the effort he'd put into making the team and to not count himself out. We were sure that the coach would take the whole situation into consideration including the two weeks of practice, the practice round, and the tryout round. Mr C had given his best.
It was the longest evening of Mr C's life spent waiting for the email from the coach with the team roster. He tried to distract himself with homework, television, anything that would get him off the computer and the email that never seemed to come.
Finally at 10:00 p.m,. we convinced him to look one more time to just get it over with before bed and then not think about it again until morning. Thankfully, there was an email from the coach and Mr C's name was on the list. He made the JV Squad. He was only one of only three freshman to make the team. When he saw his name on the roster, he jumped up and yelled "thank you Jesus." You know what: he really meant it and so did my husband and I as we uttered silent prayers of thanksgiving for giving C this opportunity.
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