Repete is playing tackle football this year. He has been begging for 2 years to play. He is in 4th grade this year, which is the first year that he is allowed to play. The league has four divisions, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade and 8th grade. 4th graders are allowed on the 5th grade teams. They participate in all the practices and play at the games. What tends to happen during the games is that the 4th graders get in their 10 plays (minimum number of plays for each team member during a game) at the end of the game. 5th grade kids can be quite a lot bigger than 4th graders. It seems there is a lot of growing to be done in that one year. Repete is one of the littlest guys on the field (and one of the fastest).
The kids are taught that if they get any sort of injury, from a jammed finger to a broken bone, to just lie on the field and "play dead" till the coach comes out and checks you out. We have a kid lying on the field after every other play or so.
On Saturday after a good tackle that the crowd cheered loudly for (I don't pay much attention to the game. I try, I really do. I marched in the bad through high school and part of college. I went to a lot of football games. I still don't understand the game and only have a few basics down. I know when something good happens (usually), but other than that, I just listen to the crowd and keep to myself.) All the kids on the field took a knee while the coach checked out the injured kid. None of our team had their numbers facing us so we didn't know who it was. Pretty soon the coach called for one of our team dads. He's a nurse at the hospital and has taken to carrying a first aid kit. He ran out of the field and soon was on the phone. Still we don't know whose kid is down. But I have an eerie feeling when all the little teammates start looking towards me in the crowd. The teammates on the field were sent back to the sidelines. And Repete wasn't with them. So I wander down to the fence to be a little closer to the action and Repetes teammates are yelling that it's Repete, and he can't feel his legs! ACK!
Now, I used to be a medic. So I have already figure out that there is some concern on the field regarding that. I can see that the nurse (and now another dad from the other team) are having him squeeze their hands and then push and pull with his feet. It's time for mom to step in. The other dad on the field turned out to be a trauma surgeon at the hospital. So Repete is well attended at least. I got there and the coach and nurse said that when they got there he was twisted up like a pretzel and told them that he couldn't feel his leg. It also turns out that no one has asked him what happened. No one is talking to the kid anymore. I asked him what happened and he told us that he got hit in the thigh and his leg went numb below the knee, but he wasn't hurting at the moment and was no longer numb. It was clear that he was scared out his mind!
The doctor thought he was good to walk off, if *I* was OK with that. I also asked the nurse to cancel the ambulance. But by then we could hear the sirens. So the coach carried Repete over to the ambulance. I let the medics check him out. The doc came over to make sure that they knew he was cleared to move! They gave Repete an ice pack and I walked with him back to his team. The crowd and both football teams cheered and clapped when they saw him walking back. His brother breathed a sigh of relief as well. He was pretty worried. But Repete was simply embarrassed now. Too much focus right on him.
The coaches did every thing right. They protected him in case of a serious injury and followed all the steps they should in order to have the best possible outcome. The only thing they could have done differently was to talk to Repete just a little more. I think it would have cleared up panic before an ambulance was actually called. But it's hard to complain about being overly cautious!
Repete was back at practice on Monday. He was timid about tackling, but got back in to the swing of it all in short order. Every single tackle on the practice field was praised by the coaches. I think they are a little relieved as well.
He really is a good football player. The kid is like velcro. He grabs onto a guy and doesn't let go. He's little, so he doesn't always take the big kids down right away, but he does slow them as they drag him down the field! He has a good arm, and runs fast, but what amazes me most about him is his spacial recognition. He calculates where the kid with the ball will be running to and heads him off rather than following him. I hope he has many many years of honing the skills. He sure enjoys it. I'm not sure I can watch though. My heart has had enough...
