While the media rants on the depravity of teenage America, a bunch of athletes sacrificed a Sunday of late sleep and free time to inspire some local kids last week. After watching Proctor football win an inspirational game against a terrific Tilton School squad, the Kearsarge J.V. program was treated to an afternoon with their heroes. In the words of the Kearsarge program director, "
Our young athletes
were awed with Proctor taking Tilton in their house, and then equally
so when these same (as the boys call them) ‘Gods’ walked onto our Wildcat field!!!!" They mingled with the young boys for a picnic.
They shared some iced cream.
"The boys ate in the
bleachers, sitting among each other, with no distinction between the programs.
The ease of our boys and the appropriateness of yours was impressive."
Proctor players coached Kearsarge kids on fundamentals. "I have been involved with
youth programming in some form or another for nearly 25 years. Sunday was,
without a doubt, amongst the very top experiences I have witnessed."
"Our athletes are so
completely pumped as a result of this experience. Though they are already a successful
5-0 team, they left the field yesterday with even more confidence, passion, and
desire to improve. Furthermore, I believe they have a keener eye toward their
future, and are beginning to now envision themselves as high school players, a
short two years away."
She continues, "Coach Kershaw established
stations for our athletes, teamed them with like-position players, and your
boys ran the practice. I took pictures throughout, and was thus fortunate to
observe the interactions between our athletes first-hand. As a secondary
educator, I was impressed with the Proctor boys' ability to on-the-spot observe, analyze, and articulate meaningful feedback to 7
th grade youth.
Each Proctor player committed every minute of practice to coaching, and our
boys had an atypical 100% attention span! AMAZING!"
"The reality is that
the vibe, the infinite smiles, the laughter, the energy, the reciprocity, the
gentle banter, the innocent questions, the ease, the learning, and the shared
passion for football were experiences to which language does not do justice."
"After this, Alex
Richichi established an impromptu Field Goal Kicking Station, where boys
from both teams tried their foot at kicking ~ some for the first
time. It was clear in this moment, what a safe environment your boys
had created for ours. While I would have expected particular boys to hold back,
they actually responded to the prompting of the Proctor boys to ‘just try’.
There were a lot of ‘misses’ followed by tons of non-judgmental and supportive
laughter. A great time was had by all, and I was grateful for this positive
reinforcement of safe risk-taking. Coach then asked the Proctor boys to observe
our JV run their offense. They had a lot of good to say, and our boys thrived
on their compliments and internalized their suggestions."
Proctor boys joined the seventh graders in a shirts & skins touch football game.
On a Sunday when teenagers could have slept late and hung around campus, these boys chose to help twelve-year-olds learn and love the game of football, and to dream of playing on a team as talented as Proctor's. The program director declared, "It is my hope that your
boys left us with the internalized joy that comes only from giving of one’s
self. It certainly seemed to have been a reciprocal experience."
You can be certain that it was!
