All he ever really needed to know, he learned in High School.

Nick attends the Charter school of Wilmington. For those of you who are not familiar with Charter Schools, I have posted a link to the left. The decision to attend a Charter School was one of the best decisions we ever made. This particular school offers college prep courses and AP courses and focuses on math and the sciences. Nick was required to "choice" into this school and admissions required a letter of recommendation, placement testing and an application. His grades have always been excellent and he was admitted for his 9th grade year. The first year was spent making new friends and getting used to the challenging and difficult courses and accompanying homework. He managed to shine his first year and in his sophomore year decided to incorporate sports into the mix. He made the baseball team which did not surprise me because he had always played little league baseball and was a good player. When he announced his plans to play football, I almost fainted. Nick had never even mentioned football growing up and to start that process in the 10th grade was quite an undertaking. At this time, Nick was probably about 6' tall and maybe weighed 200 lbs, so at least he looked like he belonged on that field. I was not sure I liked the idea of him playing with the potential for injury being greater than some other sports, but I have always supported him fully in his decisions and I gave him my blessing. I knew keeping his grades up would not be an issue and the idea of him broadening his horizons seemed like another good reason to support his decision to play. We attended the "Meet the Coaches Night" and were given a lot of information about the philosophy and expectations of the players. We were warned about the practices and that our boys would be pushed far beyond anything they had yet experienced. We were told that many of the players would quit and/or be unable to "hang" and that the kids who stuck with it, would be better for it in the end. The coach had high expectations and strong demands, but the majority of the kids from that night did show up for the first practice. This is where the real story begins.