When little Johnny was born I asked myself the question – “I wonder if little Johnny will be a young athlete like I was?” I think every parent asks themselves something similar. Will he be smart and go to Harvard like I did? Will he love motorcycles like me? God I hope we have something in common. Now it goes without saying, he’s my baby, I love him like nothing else in the world. Whatever he does in life I’ll always love him. But come on, we all think it. Will he be like me?
For me that “like me” was either an athlete or techie. I’ve been blessed to get both. Yep, I have two boys, each of which share a common interest with me. It’s fantastic and I feel very fortunate. But we’re talking about my young athlete here. When did I know he would be the athlete? Early… very early. I don’t think Johnny was more than two years old when I could see his interest in sports. He loved his soccer ball. He loved it ALL. He was always asking me, “Can we play… please please please can we play?” He was, AND IS, relentless. To this day, when we are sitting down to dinner, he will ask if we can go play. I’d be shocked if a dinner went by when he didn’t ask me to go play.
But when was the moment when I thought Johnny had something very special? When Johnny was five, my wife and I decided to let Johnny play a local soccer league for the little kids. You’ve seen them, these little kids running around more interested in the clouds overhead or the bird singing in the tree. I must admit it’s cute. Since I played the game, I thought it would be a good opportunity to give back so I decided to coach the team. My wife was the assistant coach. It was a blast. We had these little kids running drills, or should i say trying to run drills, to give them the basics.
It’s game time. Now these kids have never played a game of soccer before, and it showed. Except for one, Johnny. He tore it up. Complete domination. I’ll never forget that day. Johnny got his 4th goal. I turned to my wife, she was already staring at me. I said under my breath, “this kid can play”. She said, “I can’t believe what I’m seeing”. It was a fantastic moment to say the least.
It didn’t end there. I promised myself I’d let Johnny find his own way when it came to sports. He tried it all. Football, baseball, basketball. It was more of the same. He was a standout. He is an athlete.
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