His First Season Of Football

**Guest Blogger**

Eric Hendrickson

9/26/20 Game 1 against - Douglass

We headed off to Wellington to play Douglass about 1.5 hours before game time not knowing what to expect.

Silas chose my highschool football number #83 for his number.

I coached the defense

Silas played quarterback the entire game.  He rushed for three touchdowns and also threw for an extra point and ran for an extra point.  On defense, he played outside line backer most of the time (we have about 15 kids that we have to rotate in and out of the game).  He made some good tackles and was aggressive.

Popee and Nanee were at the game to watch.  Stacee, Sarah, and Phoebe were not at the game because Phoebe had a volleyball game at the same time.

We won 33-26 with the other team scoring their final touchdown at the last second of the game.  Great start to the season!

10/3/20 Game 2 against - Derby

Derby is known for their football and they had beat our other Haysville team pretty easily the week before.  Regardless, we went into this game with confidence.

Silas was the team captain.

Silas ran the ball several times and was pretty effective at doing so.

Above, Silas is going out to lead block.

Silas threw a lot in this game.  I lost count of the amount of passes but figure he threw about a dozen times.  He looked really good as a passer.

We had to grind our way up and down the field converting a handful of fourth downs into first downs.

We played a good game but lost 27-13.  Silas had two touchdown runs and an extra point run.  He had 6 completions and a few passes that should have been caught.  We just gave up too many big plays on defense.

10/10/20 Game 3 against - Maize

We played Maize #1 this morning at the same time that our other Haysville team played Maize #2.  Since we only play a 40 yard field, both teams were able to play on the same football field.  We quickly realized that Maize #1 was the far better team.

They scored on the first play of the game, which the other team has done now for all three games.

Maize ran all over us and we did not have the ability to stop them.

We couldn't run much on them so we started throwing a lot.  Silas threw a lot again this game and I figure he completed 5 of 12 passes and had a few others that should have been caught.  He did throw an interception but it was on a 4th down and 12 yards to go play.  His ability to throw the ball far was impressive.  He completed one pass that flew about 25 yards in the air.

We tried Silas out on the line a few times to try something new, but he mainly played outside linebacker.

Silas played hard and made some good tackles.  Unfortunately, we lost the game 42-0.

Silas took a picture with one of the cleerleaders, his friend Caelyx, who is also his classmate.

10/17/20 Game 4 against - Hutchinson

We faced another good team today.  Coach Levi was out so I ran the offense.

We were going into a 30 mile an hour wind so throwing the ball was quite difficult.

Hutchinson kept blitzing their linebackers, which is against the rules.  I talked to the ref about it and then told the Hutch coach to stop doing, and finally was yelling at the Hutch coach to stop doing it.  Quite frustrating.

Our guys were getting pushed back about 10 yards each play.  I told them they had to stand their ground and push back.  My talk sounded good but the results weren't.

We did score a few touchdowns with Silas scoring one and a two point conversion.  On the above picture he actually reached the ball out to get into the endzone.  He also completed 1 of 5 passes (stupid wind).  We lost 40-16.

10/24/20 Game 5 against - Circle

This was the first game that they announced each boys name and they ran out onto the field.  There was also play by play announcing.

Well our streak of giving up a first play touchdown did not end today.  The weather was cold, the kids didn't want to play, which all made for a miserable day.

Silas pitched forward to our running back on a reverse.  The ball was dropped, which should have been called an incomplete pass.  Instead the ref called it a fumble.  I was talking to him about this below.

I was very disappointed in our play today.

We pulled Silas from quarterback because he had three turnovers in a row and kept complaining that his hands were cold.

We lost 42-14.

10/31/20 Game 6 against - Winfield

Our last game of the year.  It was another cool (not near as cold as the previous week) and windy day.  Of course we we were going into the wind again which limited our passing game.

Silas was back at quarterback for this game.

He did have a 40 yard touchdown run.  He also forced two fumbles, one of which our team recovered.  I was impressed with the run and his forced fumbles.

Another game, another verbal altercation with the opposing team coach.  The team was lining up their defense in an illegal formation which the director of our league did enforce.

Our defense was poor again and we gave up 30 points along with a first play of the game touchdown.  We allowed a first play touchdown in every game this season.  The score of the game was 30-6.

Silas had several fans for the game: Grandma Sharon, his 2nd grade teacher, and Uncle Dale, and Aunt Jan.

We ended the season with a team picture and a fun party at one of the coach's house.  For next year, I believe the kids that didn't want to play this year will not be going out.  This should make for a much more enjoyable season.