Football Season, set, hut 1, hut 2 ...

You can tell when football season arrives in Maryland by the smell in the air. It isn't exactly the just-washed scent of new rain, nor the pleasantly earthy smell of early decomposing leaves. It is those smells combined with extraordinarily stinky socks. After a week of thankful rain (we've been dry as a bone like the Georgia Wards!) Saturday's temperatures soared to nearly one-hundred and the humidity was stifling. Neither reality did anything to stop football from proceeding on schedule. For both E (in the orange and blue of Watkins Mill High School) and Mohawk Joe (in the green and yellow of the Montgomery Village Chiefs) Saturday was the first scrimmage of the season. Both played center, a position which both they and their coaches acknowledge as "central" to the success of the game. The center is the first person to touch the ball on each offensive play and at the quarterbacks cue the center must move the ball smoothly into his hands. Failure to move the ball at the exact moment will result in an off-sides penalty for the centers team; failure to move the ball sloppily is either the beginning of a poor play or worse a fumble.

Football is serious in Maryland (if you've seen Remember the Titans you will understand HOW serious). Coaches drill both sport and life skills, especially the importance of education. Get in a fight at school, you're benched. Get poor grades, you're benched. For high school players like E study hall isn't a suggestion, it's mandatory. Joe's coach asks each player and parent for a school report prior to each game. Didn't do your homework, you guessed it, you're benched.

The Ward-Anderson family loves football. We love the coaches who love our kids and we love to watch our kids play. They're good because they work hard at it, they are dedicated to the game. E not only plays, but she also volunteers as a coach for a beltway team (like Joe's), she is also Joe's personal coach, explaining why he is the starting center this year. He is following in his sister's big (and quite famous in these parts) footsteps. Yep, we love football ... well everything except the stinky socks!