Spring Ball!

DJ the Sports Mom
April 20, 2010

I am in Valdosta, Georgia getting ready to drive to Florida to support my dear friend who has been walking from Miami to Tallahassee since April 2. She is promoting awareness of sexually abused children and is the need for better legislation. I am going to walk the last mile and lend support to the cause.

When I boarded the plane for Atlanta, the woman in front of me was talking about her three children and their sports schedules. One of her three had decided not to play baseball this season and she is now looking for an alternate activity for him. On my flight to Valdosta, I noticed that a good number of the folks on board had on some sort of sports logo. The gentlemen in the seat next to me on the plane has a son who played baseball and two other children who are making decisions about which sport to play. He told me how much he and his wife enjoyed sports. It is not hard to believe that 44 million children under the age of 18 play some sort of organized sport here in America.

I love football! In April of each year I look forward to watching college spring football scrimmages. For the last ten years, our tradition was to have a tailgate party at The Ohio State University and then go to the OSU Spring Game. Our oldest son, Jay, played there for 5 years so the Spring Game meant the season had started for us. Now our middle son, Josh, is an outside linebacker for Kansas University and for the first time, his Spring Game and the OSU Spring Game are on the same day. As much as we love our Buckeyes, we will be in Lawrence, Kansas watching Josh and meeting his new coaching staff. I will get home from Florida on Wednesday afternoon, get a good night’s sleep and my husband and I will hit the road by Thursday afternoon to begin our 12-hour ride to Kansas.

Before we leave for Kansas, I will be taking my youngest son to a college fair. He is a junior in high school and is making his decision of where to go to college next year. He is in the middle of his track season and will miss his first spring game because of his meet on Saturday. We have to enlist the help of other family and friends to make sure Joshua Odis (I have two sons named Josh) is supported while we are away. This is the life of a sports mom.

I am hoping to make a purse with Kansas Fabric before I go and make photo pins of Josh Alexander for us to wear at the game. As soon as the Oakland Raiders schedule is released I will be able to make my annual matrix of football schedules to send to family and friends. This way, they can see where the boys are playing and they can make plans to attend a game. This also allows me to see where there are conflicts so we can make decisions about who goes to what game. This is the life of a sports mom. Let the games begin!