You must be thinking, "Woman, where are you going with this?!" Well, we have a Bo in our Castello, except his name is G.I. Joe. Let me tell you how, "G.I. Joe Knows..." came to be...
G.I. Joe has played baseball since he was 5 years old. He's very good at it too. Then a couple of years ago, he said he wanted to play football. Me heart stopped! My first thought was, "My Baby is going to get killed!" Turns out, he was very good at it too. He enjoyed it too. Much to mom's dismay. But he was asked to play in an AAU baseball team and he was thrilled about it. So football got put in the back burner. PRAISE THE LORD! \o/ After two seasons, of playing year round baseball, he went back to playing just little league. YEAH!!! No more traveling ball.
Now that he's a homeschooling high school freshman, who's enrolled in an umbrella school, he's not allowed to play for the local high school. We opted not to enroll him through the county because we didn't want him to graduate with a GED. As as student who is enrolled in an umbrella private school, he will graduate with a scholar diploma.
Since the umbrella school we enrolled with doesn't have an athletic department (no sports offered), that meant he could only play little league. Well, actually we could find any sports and be on a traveling team, but that's not cheap. It cost lots of $ and that's not a road we want to take.
So began our search to find a private school that welcomes homeschoolers. After many calls and inquiring with friends, we found a local private school, that is homeschool friendly. I called them up and asked if they had a baseball team. They told me yes, but during the Spring. Being that it's the fall season, they were offering soccer. The athletic director told me if he's interested in playing we'd love for him to come and play on the team.
After discussing it, G.I. Joe decided he wanted to play. Mind you, he's never played before. In order for him to play, he needed some soccer gear and a sports physical. All this by Monday's practice. Little did I know that the team had been practicing for two weeks already. So he was already behind schedule. Off we went early Monday morning. We bought his gear and got his physical done all by 2:30p. Practice was at 3p. Good thing the dr.'s office was close to the school.
He showed up early for practice. G.I. Joe is a friendly enough guy. But this was the first time he he would be with a group of youth that he doesn't even know. Well, turns out two of his friends from church started attending that school. One is a soccer player and the other decided to play this year for the first time.
G.I. Joe was tired by the time practice was over. Conditioning for soccer is different than for baseball. Before he left, the coach mentioned that all the players had run 5 miles during the week, so G.I. Joe had to run 5 miles before the first game on Thursday. So he had 3 days to run 5 miles. He's never even run 1 mile. My poor Baby! But he lived up to our family motto, "Max out or black out!" HOOYAH!!! He ran 2 miles on Tuesday, 2 miles on Wednesday and 1 mile on Thursday (game day). Mind you, he had practice on all those days (except Wednesday it's church day). He ran his miles at home.
Game Day was on Thursday. He didn't expect to even play cause he had joined the team late. So he was surprised when they called him over and told him to go in for someone. When I saw him in the field, my heart stopped. I mean, I knew he was going to play, but soccer is such a "physical" game. I didn't want my Baby to get hurt! But let me tell you... he held his own. WAY TO GO BABY!!! He almost scored a goal too! YEAH BABY!!! I should mention that we lost the game. I'm not trying to give excuses. The other team was better. We have some players that have never played before... including G.I. Joe.
When the game was over, we all went out to eat dinner. While at the restaurant, the coach came up to me and told me, "I thought you said he'd never played before?! He's a natural!". I thanked him and told him, it was true, G.I. Joe has never played soccer up until that week. When I went to sit down with some of the other moms, they made the same comment. Needless to say I was very proud of him. But then again, I'm always proud of my children.
Warming up a little before the game...
I believe this is the first time ever he's had an even number.
So, now you see why this week I was reminded about the Nike, "Bo Knows..." commercial. Except that (since this is my blog) I, saying... "G.I. Joe Knows... baseball... football... soccer...". I wonder what he'll try next?
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