Oh my goodness, to be a teenager, is all I can say. Not enough credit is given to these young gentlemen and what they go through for the love of their sport. Yesterday, we were at another football camp for Baby A, this one at Texas Lutheran University, TLU. As one might have guessed, not all colleges can afford a "bubble" like UT has, to practice out of the sun. I guess the idea of having these camps early in the day is also a strange concept because this camp started at 4:00pm, and the sun couldn't have been much stronger than it was. It has been a consistent 106 the last few days, and I see no reason why it wasn't that hot yesterday.
We got there maybe a little too early, but after getting caught in a 45-minute traffic jam while running errands in the morning, Wife wanted to leave extra early, just in case. It is nice that Wife was off on Friday (she is working 4 10-hour days per week, while it is summertime), she got to go with us and cook in the sun. Turns out TLU is only about 45 minutes from the house, so leaving at 1:20pm had us there almost at 2:00pm. We sat in the car, luckily, we found a shady spot under some trees to park since we were some of the first to arrive. We sat in the car for 15 minutes, maybe, until it looked like more and more kids were arriving, then we went into the building the kids were going in, to register, and get his cool school souvenir workout shirt. We were then told it would start around 4:00pm, the notice of the camp starting at 3:30pm is to give time to come in and sign up and register and all that. We went back and sat in the AC of the car for another 15 minutes.
Eventually though, we had nothing to do but go sit on the grill that was those bleachers, I know what a brisket feels like in that slow smoke when it goes in the grill now. We did have a couple of big umbrellas, and they do really help, but it still sucks, no matter how you cut it. The boys finally got going at 4:00pm and everything went fine. We were not allowed on the field, like at UT, where I was within ear shot of Mijo and able to capture plenty of video. We stayed sitting in the stands, watching from afar. Mijo said he preferred this camp, it felt like he got more "training" from the coaches. All these camps say none contact, but the lineman drills, by design, have to have contact. He went head-to-head as a defensive guy, which is new to him, he has been playing offensive lineman most of his playing time, but it was suggested he play nose guard (defensive lineman) because of his height (Mijo is short for a lineman, in college, offensive linemen are generally over 6ft 3in). Still, few are going to be stronger than him lower body strength wise, so he can still contribute positively on the field.
While all these "warriors" were fighting it out on the field and going hard, I was about having a heat stroke just trying to stay awake sitting in the stands. Even with an umbrella and our stadium chairs, which have back support and a slight cushion which keeps our butts off the aluminum, I was still miserable. We had a little cooler with drinks, and we both had about 3 drinks in the 2.5 hours the poor boys ran around in.
Afterwards, I asked Mijo how he felt, if he was banged up or tired, and he just flatly says "why, we didn't do anything but run around a little?" Like I said, "to be young..."
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