Evan's West Catholic Football Season

 Evan, for the first time in many years, did not play fall baseball with his old rec team.  Instead, he gave football a try with West Catholic.  He played on the varsity green team (7th grade team) and aside from a few seasons of flag football, had never played this level of football.  He ended up learning and developing so much!  He was a starter for both offense and defense and never came off the field.  He played tight end and receiver on offense and originally started as safety on defense, but moved to linebacker and did much better.  We're so proud of how well he did!

We've always been impressed with all the things West Catholic does both on the field and off the field.  They have a jersey ceremony for the dads, a rose ceremony for the moms, and other team building experiences and masses at church.  

Their season was a little difficult because they were one of the few CYO teams that had a 7th grade team exclusively.  So, they played in the C/D division against other varsity teams that were usually a mix of both 7th and 8th graders.  And we saw very quickly there's quite a big size difference between 7th and 8th graders.  Many of the other teams played their 8th graders as first string, ran up the score, and then put their 7th graders in.  We ended up winning a few games and they really grew and overcame those obstacles as a team.  

They were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, but they had an opportunity to have an exhibition game at the Big House.  It was a late game on a weeknight where they had half the field, no refs, and played against Royal Oak Shrine for an hour.  Evan did great, but took a few big hits and ended up getting a concussion.  Thankfully it was the end of the season and he can rest and recover.  

Now on to the baseball season with winter training!