Samsmom: Life, Joy, Loss and Loving your Mitochondria

Oofta! This site has been neglected! My writing brain has been consumed with my side gig, writing for TWO local publications. It’s fun to see your name in print. And super fun when you get to write about the people you love.

Nod to a Phew here. And nod to a sport that has earned my respect- here is one of my latest articles:

It’s football season.

Those three words make some of us giddy; the excitement of a game at Empower Field, cheering the Buffs, or following our favorite High School player, many of us wait all year for this time.

In early August, you can find coaches Tim Sexton, Joel Diebel, Seth Guenther, Matt Reinick, Chris Gregoire, and Chris Slape on a field in West Arvada, surrounded by about 30 enthusiastic middle school boys ready to play football. They are the Arvada Youth Wildcats and they have been waiting since they made the playoffs last November to play again.

Finally, finally summer is almost over and it’s football season.

Coach Sexton watches as the boys do push-ups and burpees to warm up. “We’re all dads with kids on the team. Some kids have been playing together since they started flag football when they were six. Now here we are, it’s been fun to see the team evolve.”

Tim grew up in Arvada, played football for Arvada and went onto play for UNC. He’s known some of the other coaches since high school and played against them on rival teams. There is usual banter; Arvada vs. Arvada West, who really was the better player, and who now is better looking. But when it comes to coaching and instilling a sense of pride for their team, the Wildcats are all on the same page.

“Coaching a team, coaching kids, coaching colleagues, it’s a similar philosophy. Hard work pays off, know your goals, focus and work towards those goals,” says Coach Sexton.

Life skills are taught on this field. Collaboration and communication are essential. All players need to know not only their role but where each team member is supposed to be during a play. “Egos are checked at the door. When we’re here, we are all part of a team with one goal.”

Good coaches are fundamental to this process and the Wildcat coaches know how to balance each other out. “We have very different personalities. Some of us are tougher on the kids than others and that works well for certain players and at times we all have to be tough. We want to equip these kids with the tools to get through those tough times on the field and in life.”

Warm up is over and practice starts. Offensive teams go with the offensive coach and Defense heads off to their part of the field. Each coach knows each player and provides feedback; where they need to be, what’s not quite working and what they are doing right. Players listen intently, learning the consequences of their actions, both positive and negative.

“We want all of our players to be successful. If they don’t know what to do, we need to look at ourselves as coaches.”

90 minutes is over, and the team gathers together to talk about what went right and where things need to improve. Coach Sexton, Diebel, Guenther, Reinick, Gregoire and,  Slape call out players that had a good catch, a good tackle, a great assist. And everyone cheers for that person.

At the end of practice, these 13-year boys walk off the field carrying their helmets, they fist bump and high-five each other. They are tired and smell like 13-year old boys.

And they can’t wait for the next practice.

And that is why we love football.