My Daughter's Football Career

So my daughter, Anna, is 13 and is a football veteran. She's played for five years, began when she was 8. Last Saturday, she was knocked out cold and was unconscious before she hit the ground. Needless to say, I'm glad I happened to be sick and therefore unable to witness it.

Anna's football led our family to all kinds of changes. My husband's undergrad was in Sales, and when he began coaching Anna's team he realized how much he loved working with the kids. It led to a very nice midlife crisis where he changed careers, went back to school and got a Masters in School Counseling. He's a school counselor now, and we owe it all to football.

Anna has been a natural athlete since day one. I've not known her to look unnatural at any sport she's tried. The hard part for a girl is when your passion lies with full-on tackle football. When they were 8 it was no big deal, but now the boys are outgrowing her by leaps and bounds. She's an awesome hitter, (and I made my husband promise me she'd play ONLY DEFENSE this year), but we've known it's been coming to an end for some time.

Poor kid- she's having a hard time with it. But it's been a fun, fun ride for our family and I'm glad she's played 5 years and been knocked out only once. And I'm also really glad I wasn't there for it. ;-)