Bulldog Football!

Football has started up again. Last night the Bulldogs played Thermopolis (who is ranked #1 in the state for 2A) for a zero week game, which means that it won't count as a win or a loss. In our case is definitely was a loss. The score was 27 to 7. It was just sort of a practice game and it was good for us to see what we needed to work on and where we needed to go. Spike didn't drive the bus last night. He was not happy about that but I was because I didn't have to drive to Thermop myself and it was a pretty late hour by the time we got home.

In this picture he is almost ready to be in on a tackle. I am not a good sports photographer and did not anticipate the action well. I will try to do better for the Wright game next week. Here is the schedule.

September 3 - At Wright
September 10 - Pinedale at Home
September 17 - At Lyman
September 25 - Mountain View at Home
October 1 - Greybull (Homecoming)
October 8 - At Ethete
October 15- At Kemmerer
October 22 - Big Piney at Home

Mark is number 71 this year. Last year he was 80 and was a tight end but he got pretty buff and gained a lot of muscle and so this year he is playing on the offensive line. He has been practicing on the line for about a week. He has lots to learn but I thought he did pretty well last night. I was asking him when he would be playing and he told me he was the defensive outside linebacker, the offensive line, the kick-off returner, he would also be on the punting special team.

I miss having him be the tight end. I knew what he was supposed to do when he played that position. Now I have to ask Spike lots of questions about what linemen are supposed to do.
Go Bulldogs! I predict the season will go better than their first game did. I think the Bulldogs could end up doing well in the playoffs and could end up third.
I would like to share an experience that we have had in our family. On the Saturday before the Thermopolis game a Temple trip for the youth in our ward was planned. This Saturday was also the day for the blue and white scrimmage to prepare for the Thermopolis game and it also counted for the mandatory 10 practices. If Mark didn't have ten in then he couldn't play in the Thermopolis game. Mark LOVES football. He told the coach early in the week that he wouldn't be to the practice because he had a temple excursion to go on. The coach was understanding and told him that if there were more kids that were going then they could move the scrimmage to the afternoon. Well, none of the other boys from our ward went to the excursion so the scrimmage time was not changed. The coach is a good man. He told the boys at the beginning of the season that Religion comes first, then Family, then School and then Football. He told Mark to go ahead and he would have a special practice just for him in the afternoon so that he could still play in the Thermopolis game. I am so proud of Mark to put the important things in life first. He did have a great example though.
When Rachael was a senior, she needed to go to a track meet but decided instead to go to a temple excursion. She was blessed in a couple of ways. She said that she felt so happy there that she didn't ever want to be married anywhere else. The people who were in the temple commented that she just glowed and smiled the whole time. When she bore her testimony in Church the following Sunday, she said that she couldn't help but smile because of the feeling she had. The other blessing she got was that she set a personal record every time she triple jumped that year and ended up taking fifth at the State Meet. What a wonderful experience for her and a wonderful example to her family.