The Dude with Coach Giddy

The score yesterday was 24-0. We're headed to the 'ship! As in champion-ship.

But from the coaches' post-game fire-and-brimstone lecture, an onlooker would have thought we had lost.

A part of me wonders if they are being too hard on the boys. Another part of me remembers the gut-wrenching loss from last year. After an undefeated season, watching nine-year-old boys walk off the field in tears, the trophy eluding them.

And as I watch some of the other teams wander onto the field, while ours marches out crisply, I see that the emphasis our coaches put on discipline makes a crucial difference. Maybe the fundamental difference.

Win or lose, that's a lesson that translates to life.

A win in this coming Saturday's game gives us a ticket to the regional brackets. . . the prize at the end of our trek through the Eastern Region of Pennyslvania, NJ and New York, is a berth to the Pop Warner Superbowl at Disneyworld the first week in December.

The boys are talking about sunscreen; some of the parents are singing "M.I.C. . K.E.Y. . ."

But what does it take to get there?

I'll let you know what I find out.