I heard a while back that they wanted to outlaw dodge ball in schools.  Because it hurts the self esteem of kids.  I coach flag football and they don’t want the kids to talk about if they won or lost, or to even be told.  It’s just about ’playing the game and the fun’.

Really?  Is that all it’s about?  Has our society really been that castrated?  Get real, grow a damn set of nuts people.  Stop babying your children.  We are heading down a slippery slope of wimpiness in this country.  And its my generations fault.

I was never the most athletic kid.. In fact I was basically an nonathletic nerd.  I played little league baseball and was the 2nd smallest kid on the team.  There were 3 girls on the team.

Funny thing happened when I got to high school.  I was picked last for a game of basketball in gym class my freshman year.  LAST.  Seriously.. Like 5-6 girls and a fat kid that had to weigh 300 pounds were picked before me.

I’d like to take a quick interlude to let the females reading this know that I don’t have anything against girls.  I like girls.  I have 2 girls of my own.  And I know I just made two comments in a row about girls that might make people think I have something against girls, I don’t.  The simple truth is that boys are just naturally more athletic, stronger, and are just overall better at sports than what girls are.  It’s a fact of life.  I’m not saying a girl can’t beat a boy.  I’ve seen my oldest daughter do it plenty of times in wrestling.  But the state champs are most often boys.  It’s just how it is.

Back to the point.

People handle things different ways.  But I give a lot of credit to that day, to those kids who were picking teams, for who I am today.  I am bigger, stronger, and much more athletic than I ever would have been had I not been picked last that day.  Don’t get me wrong, I was humiliated.  But I reacted to it in a way that changed my life forever.  I decided I was never going to be picked last again.  I poured everything I had into that game of basketball and played until I puked.

I loved it, and actually started playing basketball a lot after that.  I started lifting weights, and getting stronger.  I started playing more sports altogether.  Being picked last changed me completely.  And I like who I am now because of it.

Well.. Just recently I was picked last again.  It’s been a LONG time since it has happened to me.  But because of that day, that decision I made back then, not to sit back and cry or sit out and not play because I was picked last.  I know how to handle it.  I will play my heart out for the team that did pick me.  And I will get back to making me better.  Because I want everyone to know that picking me last…