Like a mighty phoenix shaking his newly birthed feathers and awaiting to strike fear and potential to the landscape, so too does this new Javalina hybrid come from a magical realm to change the game. Imagine, if you can amongst a field of skinny white boys from the rich schools and the always tenacious black kids who dominate anything with a field and measuring devices from the other side of the tracks, a beast easily outweighing the class by a solid 40 pounds of muscle but fast enough to hunt a lighter faster foe and conquer it. I can see it playing out in the near future, this Javalina in a bobcat costume feasting on Eagles, and Panthers, and Tigers, oh my.
Seriously, it wasn't that long ago that I was envisioning our big ham of a boy just turning to computers and maybe band to avoid anything resembling a sweat, but suddenly he "woke up" and became this weird mix of testosterone and mouth who insists on constantly interacting physically for everything. Even if he is just having a conversation with me, he will get close enough so he can be punching me in fake jabs and hooks until he lets that one punch "slip" and he connects a little too hard. It pisses me off, but I understand he is not cut of the same material as Boy. Boy never needed to be physical, this monster does. I say monster because he is like a swarm of bees when he comes at you, hit him harder and that just gets him smiling that now he can hit even harder, ughh. I am more like Boy in that I don't enjoy this kind of what I call "grab-assing".
But to the point, Javalina has been participating in track and field in both the discus and shotput. Natural for him, as a big boy and a lineman, even the coach told me he is probably the strongest 8th grader from the kids that play football and are in sports. He also said he is turning into quite a leader, helping to hold the offensive line together during the hard times when they experienced too many losses, but I guess now that he has lost those 35-40 pounds, he has been asked to run. He had said no because obviously, he isn't going to be the fastest, he is just too big, but we kept telling him it would be good for football. He might pick up tips to make him faster, which is his one fault that I see on the field. He didn't pursue and take down people from behind. If he could get that extra bit of speed, I am sure it would make a difference in getting to the quarterback a couple of times. So we will see, he is signed up for the 100m and 200m dash. He said he was nipping at the heels of the slowest skinny boy on the team and that is with 3/4 hightops and baggy shorts.
I expected this guy to be my doppelganger and just be content as a husky guy in the band, but he is out here trying to break the mold and make himself an athlete amongst athletes. I love his character and enthusiasm.
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