Not Everyone Can Win the Super Bowl

G now knows how the Patriots feel.  And the Vikings and the Buffalo Bills, too.  Anyone can MAKE the Super Bowl, but not everyone can win the Super Bowl once they get there.

It all started back in the end of July.  I had just got done doing double duty coaching little league and summer baseball for C and G.  I was also an assistant for DLG's Tee Ball team (Mom was going to coach that team, thank you very much).  I had coached G last year as a 2nd Grader in football, but only in an assistant's capacity.  Because of that "experience," I was named head coach of the 3rd Grade team this year the last week of July.  My first thought was that we needed to improve on our 0-7 campaign last year.  Well my first thought was actually how I was going to pull this off while busy at work.  My second thought, was improving our record.

What followed was three weeks of intensive coaching and league requirements.  I felt like I was on a job interview when I first met the League President on a warm summer afternoon at the field.  I grabbed the roster and the equipment bag and started doing some game and practice planning in my head as he was explaining the dos and don't of coaching in this league (Had my reputation from baseball proceeded me?).  That job interview turned into a full time job, I soon found out.

And as the days turned into weeks leading into our first game, I had a feeling that we were going to be pretty good.  Maybe even a playoff team.  We had a good QB, a good running back and a lot of aggressive kids who wanted to play defense.  G was our starting Right Tight End, and for those of you who know youth football, that's the position that the kid who can catch a pass plays.  And G can really catch a pass.  And while 87 was unavailable (Gronkowski's number is popular in our league), he was just as psyched to get 83, Wes Welker's number.

Not even an uneven performance in our first game could deter my confidence.  That game turned out to be the only game we lost in the regular season, going 6-1-1 over our 8 game schedule.  We ended up winning the coin toss to be the 1st seed and went into the playoffs as the 1st place team. 

In our first playoff game, we played probably our best game, beating a tough East Bridgewater team 26-0.  But did we peak too early?  The week before the Super Bowl was met by a Nor'easter, practices in gyms rather than our normal field, a pasta dinner the night before the game and a police escort for our team bus the afternoon of the game.

I think we probably did peak a little early.  We looked flat during the pregame warm ups.  Even our pregame speeches fell on somewhat deaf ears.  But our kids found a way to stay in the game.  After scoring a touch down in our first series, we could not get anything else going as we went into the half tied at 6.  When our opponent came out and scored a quick touch down to start the second half, I knew that we were going to be facing a tough up hill battle.  The team ended up losing the Super Bowl 12-6.  The kids made a valiant effort, we just ran out of time.

So now off season planning has begun.  Off season work outs will be instituted.  I want to do some weight training as well, but that just sounds psychotic.  I won't go that far.

Until my kids get into the 5th Grade, that is.