The beginning of football season is always exciting for me. Not that I am that great a fan, but it is a tossup week to week whether I am going to get smooshed on the sidelines because I am watching the game through the viewfinder on my camera instead of paying attention to how close the play is to where I am standing.
But this week was a rare treat. I know, scrimmages aren’t ‘real’ games, but I – and others on the field – learned more than at probably any other game that will kickoff this year.
You see, while I was watching, I saw multiple instances of coaches, assistant coaches and officials stop the play to explain what was going on, why what the player had done should be done another way, and how to handle it next time.
A coach ran onto the field, halted the play, saying ‘sorry, first year here,’ and repositioned the youngster into the right spot.
Another player was coached a time or two on how he should make eye contact with the official just before the ball was snapped. How his arm should be forward to match a leg. By the time coach was done explaining things, even I understood it. And I am a football moron.
One thing that was just as fascinating was the older official coaching a younger one. The younger guy had officiated basketball for multiple years, but this was his first game in his first year of football.
He was learning what the calls were, what they looked like, and sometimes what the rules were. He made some calls and was learning the hand signals pretty darned fast.
Then the older official resumed his spot on the field (I think he was a line judge? Is that a thing?) and another more experienced official came over to the sidelines and took over the coaching of the neophyte. That fellow had a giant B on his jersey, but he said it wasn’t for Boss.
The thing is, whether it was a coach, coaching players, players coaching players, or officials coaching each other, everyone on the field at both scrimmages I attended were there for each other, to make each other better, to make their team better.
They do it for the kids, for the schools, for the sport. They do it for all the right reasons. They do it for the love of the game.