Those Darling Kickball Players

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Sigh. It's just been so fun, especially since the pressure of testing has been missing. Today we had a fifth grade kickball tournament and I laughed my head off, both games, while pretending to referee between home and first. To be clear, I wasn't laughing at the children. I'm not into ridicule. I was just enjoying seeing them figure things out in a different setting. I love how the children coach each other. There are these really athletic, been-doin'-sports-since-diapers, competitive children yelling orders at kids who've never kicked a ball in their whole lives! Kids who have the guts to play, but they have no clue how this game works or what the rules might happen to be. The vocabulary alone can be overwhelming to a non-sport sort. One girl was up to kick. She tried. Her shoe flew into the air. She tried again. Strike two. She went behind the backstop as her classmates patiently explained she had to keep trying. It was still her turn. She mustered and went back to home plate. Got a foul. Gave up for good this time. We all pretended it never happened. One boy was wearing jeans a few sizes too large. I say large, but that was in the waist. As far as length goes...pretty much high water. White socks. Glasses. Such a doll-love him. He kicked fairly well, surprising the whole outfield, and made it to first base with both hands never leaving his waistband, avoiding disaster. Soon after that, he slid into home scoring a run while his shoe came off, but not his pants! After that, he just dropped out. All done playing. Hanging out on the sidelines. And then he decided to randomly catch a foul ball. A very shy, reluctant girl was coaxed into kicking. She made a couple of attempts and finally performed decently enough to run to first. Lucky for her, they overthrew and she made it fair and square. A boy started to coach her and she next made it to second. And then she decided that was enough kickball for her. She walked toward me so I tried to urge her to head back to second for the next kicker and she refused. "I'm tired." That's all she said. So proud of her. In this case, getting to second was like qualifying for the Olympics. She's an amazing person and sometimes I think God might love her best. One of my favorite things, this is going to sound horrible, was the two jocks that smashed into each other as they both tried to catch the fly, both dropping it, and both blaming each other, complete with sour faces and growling. The testosterone was everywhere. Such boys. It wasn't all Bad News Bears. My class actually won their first game and we tied for the championship. Everyone cheered for everyone. Nobody laughed or teased even when students chose to up and quit, even after making it clear to second. Part of the joy of the afternoon was seeing how readily they all accepted the faults of each other. "Oh well. Let's move on." I learned a lot today.