Jared's Basketball Game

Here's a photo of Jared in today's newspaper. Sorry the quality isn't good; scanned newsprint doesn't produce a nice clean picture.

I think he's trying a combination of sports: basketball and the high jump.

Jared and his fellow Grade 8 team-mates from Athol-South Marysburgh Public School managed to work their way up to the semi finals last Thursday (Feb 26th) in a tournament held at our local high school. He had many bumps and bruises and scrapes develop from that day. When this kid plays a sport, he puts his 117% into it!

I don't think he got his flexibility from his Momma....if my leg ever got that high, I can pretty much guarantee it would be by accident! And I'm pretty sure after the leg came back down, I'd be sitting in ER waiting for X-rays and a cast!

Anyways, as the day wore on, Jared was becoming exhausted from his full efforts. He was rarely taken off the court to have a rest on the bench (much to his delight), and as the day progressed, I could see his patience starting to dwindle. He had experienced a full day of skiing in Oshawa on the Tuesday, and then on Wednesday he spent the whole day at Loyalist College in Belleville at a school program. So by the time Thursday rolled around and he got to the fourth game of the day, he was a bit on the "short fuse" side. He didn't feel the referees were paying close enough attention to the fact that the opposing team had elbowed him in the face and were playing a little more "aggressively" than our team was allowed to play. He stood on the court and looked over at me with his hands in the air as if to say, "Did you SEE that??? Are you just going to SIT THERE and not DO ANYTHING, MOM?" Well! What was I to do? My boy needed me! I just jumped on the court and grabbed the referee by the throat and said, "HEY! I'm a pitbull with lipstick and my son ain't happy with your ability to ref this game!!!!!" hahahhaa..... JUST kidding! I motioned my hands downward to Jared as if to say, "Just calm down and play the game". Nope. Wasn't gonna happen. Jared likes his sports, but he DEFINITELY likes fair play, and when it appears to him that things are a little dirty or perhaps a little one-sided, then "Mr. Oh Come ON!" appears. The coach recognized that Jared was just about to, shall we say, boil over; so, she called him to the bench to have a rest from his 117% efforts. His coach and I chuckled in the hall about it afterwards and I thanked her for noticing his "I'm-getting-a-little-ticked-off-here" attitude and giving him a break. The game was seconds away from ending anyways, but it gave him a chance to, hmmm, let's say, "catch his breath".

All in all, it was a good day and our school has always been chosen as most sportsmanlike at any school event. We have good kids and good teachers. I love my little ol' country school..... even if the other schools call us 'hicks'. Yes, that's right. We're southern County. We're Rednecks. And we're proud of it!

And Jebby, Mommy's proud of YOU! XO - Ya' dun gooood, son!