By no stretch of the imagination was I ever what one might consider athletic during my school days. In fact even before my days of chubbiness when I looked like a normal kid, I was rather clumsy and awkward. None of this, however, stopped me from participating in sports throughout my entire grade school experience. I endured season after season of t-ball, baseball, basketball, soccer, and wrestling. Oddly, the only sport that I really enjoy both watching and playing today is football – and that was one I never even attempted.
By the time I made it to junior high, I had given up the notion of sports entirely and never played any organized sport again. I just stuck to what I was good at: ping-pong and pocket billiards. I always thought that the photos below taken during my Spring soccer league while I was in second grade were quite amusing. Being a less-than-stellar player, I was certainly one of the worst on the team although most of them were in a lower grade than I. But the really funny thing is that in every one of these photos, it appears that I am aggressive, alert, and really in the game. Ah, the magic of photography.
I won’t even try to remember all of the kids on the team, but in the official team photo above I remember our coach Mr. Merkle. His son Brian was on the left in the back row, followed by Scott Murphy and Brad Black. In the second row was me, Jeff Polson (Angie’s brother), Helen Anne Listerman, and on the right Rob Plunkett. Second in the front row is Jeremy Huelsman, Angie Polson in the middle, followed by James Cunningham and Jeff Chalecki. My jersey number was 14.
1980 will continue…
So…do you want to play football?
Chris Tangeman
April 30th, 2007
Okay, I’ll play football…but f**k shuffleboard.
Brad
April 30th, 2007