Last September I put on the old kicking shoe and wrote a post about it.
After preaching today, my dear wife, Carrie, and I went up to the football field. With a few balls, a tee, and a kicking shoe, I put those ingredients together for a few minutes and had a ball doing it.
This week will mark the 30th anniversary of the longest field goal I ever kicked in a high school game. It measured 38 yards. Not much of a kick. Still, no one at my old high school, I work there now, has ever made one farther than that kick I made at Clarksville in 1985. The statute of limitations on me wanting to hold the record has long gone. I would be delighted to see a young Cougar break that record! I would come to the field and shake his hand! I would tell him I am proud of him and proud that I was there to see it!
Today, I equaled that 38 yard kick. Carrie documented a bit of the action.
It was a lovely day to be swinging one’s leg. Though I don’t have the stamina I once had to kick for hours at a time, I do take a wee bit of satisfaction in knowing I can still throw on my kicking shoe at 47 years old and take two steps and kick a regulation football over a goal post that is ten feet high and forty yards away when I feel like doing it.
This is one I made from 40.
This forty-yarder, regardless of my coaxing, missed…barely. Heck I was just glad to get it close.
I know I wrote a post recently that featured the positive season the North Harrison Cougars are having. That makes coming out and swinging the old leg that much more fun. I couldn’t tell you how many balls I have seen fly over these goal posts that I put into the air. I loved doing it so much. I still do. I wish I had a little of the old pop in the leg that has found a way to leave me, but I am not complaining. I’m just explaining. Maybe after the season, when the field is a little bare, I will head out on occasion and kick a little more. I will pace myself. I know my Mother is reading this and shaking her head. She will tell me I need to act my age. I will answer her and I tell I did exactly that. I kicked 24 balls and that was it. I made most of them. Including the ones that I came out there to make. The ones from 38 and 40.
That is what rendered me this:
If I hadn’t made those kicks, the pleasant look on my face would have never been realized and I would be downstairs on the elliptical instead of enjoying writing this. It may be me against me…but I still have a competitive streak.
Oh, by the way…my College picks this week included 9 winners and 3 losers. The season total is 40 for and 17 against.
Oh-oh, The North Harrison Cougars beat the Eastern Musketeers Friday night by the score of 44-0. The record is now 6 wins and 0 losses. This is the best start in school history. Good thing I got back here when I did. I am having fun watching the Blue and White again.
Well…I was right…though I wrote this post over two hours ago, my Mother sent me the following email…I knew it…
Don’t want to hear about it when your 47 year old leg starts bothering you. ACT YOUR AGE!
Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson