Ready, set, Action!

Ethan has always been a pretty active kid, so this year we decided to try him in lacrosse. For those of you who aren’t familiar, you can check out the background of the game

here. I probably should have read that myself before this past weekend where I found myself asking one of the parents a few questions about the game. Too bad I picked the wrong person to ask – he looked at me like I had three heads. I openly admitted I knew nothing about the game – but ask me about hockey, rugby or even cricket and I am all good.

Lacrosse is a hell of a workout – running non-stop for the most part. Ethan loves it. He does keep asking when soccer starts again though – I think it is a bit hard to make friends when your teammates are always wearing face masks and the only way you can figure out who the kids are is by looking at their shoes. I kinda miss the soccer too (OMG did I just type that???). The parents were more laid back, and it seemed like the kids had more fun.

Lacrosse is a pretty physical game - even for the little ones. I can't even imagine how it must be when they are older. One thing I am not fond of though are the dads who scream and yell at their FIVE-YEAR OLDS during games. It is a wee bit unsettling. Of course not all the parents are like that, but there are a couple who treat the game like it is the gold medal match of Olympic hockey and their kids are earning million dollar salaries.

I really like the coach. I am not sure what happened at the beginning of the year, but apparently no one stepped up to coach, so one of the dads said he’d do it. He has openly admitted he doesn't know alot about lacrosse, but he is very good with the kids, and a couple of the dads who do know the game help him out. There is one guy in particular though to fancies himself as "coach" and he knows his stuff about lacrosse, but he has rubbed me the wrong way on more than one occasion when dealing with the kids. There is just something about this guy in particular that really annoys me. During one game he was “helping” and he picked Ethan up by the scruff of his jersey and pushed him while yelling, “run!” I was gob smacked – and my first reaction was to yell at this clown to get his greasy meat hooks off my kid. Anyone who knows Ethan knows that he is one of the most coachable kids around – does what he’s told and really pays attention. And he hustles. No need to grab, shove and yell at him. I didn’t do anything – but if he had touched Ethan one more time I was going to let him have it.

At any rate, I was at one of Ethan’s games this weekend to take pictures – it was a beautiful day, the game was outdoors (three cheers for natural light!) and Ken was at home to taking care of the other two rug-rats so I could focus on getting some good shots. I was in the players box waiting for the kids to get organized and just generally trying to figure out the best place to take pictures without getting in anyone’s way. Mr. Annoying came over to me and asked what paper I was from. I told him I was with Ethan. “What do you mean, “You’re with Ethan?”” he asked me. Funny coming from him – I’ve been at countless practices, a few games and even had the occasion to speak to him a handful of times. I told him I was Ethan’s MOM and the penny dropped. And so did his face when he realized his son wasn’t going to be in the paper (and to be honest, his son is a great player). His attitude did a complete 180, and he went back to pretending I wasn’t there. Too funny.