I had one of those moments that makes me proud to be a teacher today.
I'm the 7th grade B-Team Coach. We do not cut anyone from football, so what that means is A-Team takes what they need, approximately 40% of the players, and the rest are on my team. This is made up of a few players who have played football before, but mostly students who this is their first time in an organized team sport. And then there is my student who is Resource. Oh, and I am supposed to make sure that all of my students have equal playing time.
Resource, for my non educator friends, is what we call the Special Education students. Now this particular kiddo is very high functions, but does have an IEP with some behavior goals. Before every game he comes up to me to clarify that he is 3rd string X receiver, and that his only responsibility is to block. He gets very excited when I affirm that he is correct, and gets ready to go in. Every practice and every game, I put him in for a few plays to make sure that his parents get the pictures of him in the game, and he gets the time allotted for him.
So there we are at practice today, fresh off of our loss to Hopper. I had all of my receivers lined up running routes against a Defensive Back and a Safety each (1 guy vs 2 for my non-football friends), when my student walks up to the line. He went out for a pass, and to my surprise, the Quarterback threw to him, AND HE CAUGHT IT! Without missing a beat, he turns up field to try and get to the endzone. All of my guys on defense dove at his feet, doing their best to make it look like they were really trying to get him. When our receiver finally made it to the endzone, he was greeted by the entire team where they did a Touchdown dance!
I did not coach these young men to do that. It was never mentioned previously. The decision to make one of their teammates feel like a superstar was one that they came up with. I know Christina tells me that it’s about building better people, and not necessarily about building better football players, but today I think I did both.
