Are you ready for some football and a few other f bombs

Had a great night tonight with my sons youth football league. It's preseason and the league has a camp to get the kids skills and conditioning up to speed for the upcoming battle, yes we are crazy its football and this is Ohio. It takes a village to raise a child and a lot of crazy Dads to teach said children how to run as fast as possible into one another in the name of fun and being tuff. No apologies just awesome. I'm not going to write about how fast our team (Seahawks) are (but their fast folks) or how tough they are (nails and scrap metal for breakfast) I'm going to write about something that has me up at 12 AM because it bothered me so much. Its the physical condition and health of our kids. I'm not trying to be high and mighty but what I saw was troubling to say the least. I think the national average is 1 in 5 kids is overweight. I did head counts and based on my estimate the field tonight was at about 2 in 5. I'm not talking baby fat that kids grow out of I'm talking serious health problems today and tomorrow fat. Diabetes, heart disease, and poor self esteem kind of fat.

The weight limit for the junior division is 100 pounds and the senior division is 130. These limits are not meant to limit participation they are for safety just to limit who carries the ball. Who wants a 130 lb kid to run over their 60lb child. Kids over the limit can still play but cant play all the positions. At the end of practice they weigh the kids in to determine who can play what. Its really hard to see some of these kids get denied the opportunity to play the position they want because they are too big. Some take it in stride , their used to it but others get upset. Tonight a few parents were criticizing one of the kids that didn't make weight because he waited until the last minute.

This space used to be filled with a lot of obscenities but we'll just assume you know what I would say and move on.

All adults need to step up and take the lead, give them the help they need. Feed them better food, If they want something less healthy make it a special occasion not the norm. Don't just encourage activity expect it, cultivate it, make it fun. There are tons of parks, pools and sports to choose from and if you spend enough time with them they will even make some up. If you need help give us a call we are working on an awesome new kids program to build strong minds and bodies we promise the only F word we will use is Fun. It's time to stop accepting childhood obesity. Its time to start making strong kids!