A Special Opportunity

Just when we thought our 6th grade the football season was over, an amazing opportunity was presented by one of our coaches. Through some contacts we were able to play one more time as a team. This time on the indoor field at the Minnesota Vikings practice facility, Winter Park!  This was really a fun event which allowed the kids to play indoors on the artificial surface. We played our other counterpart in the league who were also the league champions for the season.

Prior to playing one of the Vikings players, Jarius Wright, came out and talked with the kids about playing football, leadership and handling adversity. The kids, parents and coaches got to bombard him with questions. I found myself asking who's idea was the "Duck, Duck, Gray Duck" touchdown celebration? He did say that he calls it "Duck, duck, goose", he's from Arkansas so I guess that's okay, and it was Kyle Rudolph's idea. Other questions ranged from who his favorite players are and what he'd be doing if not in the NFL.

After meeting Mr. Wright we took to the field for a scrimmage. I took my turn as play caller today and even worked in a few new plays and were able to do something other teams weren't able to do to the league champions, score touchdowns. In fact we put three on the board namely from a little misdirection and adding some intricacy to our "pound the ball" oriented offense. Although I was impressed on the first series that we were able to make some first downs using our traditional scheme. The other team does have marked talent in their running game so they put up a good number of points as well. Admittedly, more than us, but I was happy to see that we were able to put up a good fight after being away from practice for three weeks.

After the game, the coaches and players were able to tour the rest of the facility. Namely the weight and locker rooms. Ending the event, the kids got to run around on the field one last time and were treated to tickets for the following day's game against the Baltimore Ravens.

We all had a lot of fun getting to run around one last time for this season. Being able to have this kind of event made the season truly one of a kind!