A precursor: Jordan attended the Ralph Lundy camp 2 weeks ago. It went great. Many colleges left impressed by my boy.

Next up was the University of Michigan camp. This is his first choice, the reason he has been training since he was five years old. The head of recruiting even sought him out before camp to discuss his future. The dream was coming true.

Camp started with a fitness test which of course he dominated. Next was the first scrimmage of the camp. Five minutes in it all came crashing down. Jordans' left knee blew apart. ACL-tore, meniscus and mcl-will know more after surgery.

Senior year leading Pinecrest to the state playoffs-gone, Region III with TFC-gone. An unbelievable turn of events for a kid that didn't deserve it. Hopes are now on salvaging a portion of club season. College soccer is a huge question mark now. What was a sure thing is anything but at this point.

How do you comfort a child that just had everything he has worked for taken away? I do not know the answer. We are staying positive, but it is very hard. The whole town is in a daze.

As his not so little brother Devan said, "How did this happen, that is Jordan, he's invincible". Jordan can't get hurt, he's "J HOW" for crying out loud.

He will be seen wednesday by Dr. Gates-Team Dr. for the Men's and Women's National Soccer Teams and Team Dr. for Duke University. I believe this really shows what kind of reputation my son has. People pulling strings to get him the best care and rehab.

He will be back, with a lot of prayers and hard work, we believe the Duke sports medicine machine will make him like new. He will play college ball.

Baseball

Baseball! Devan has the bug. He thinks he may want to play baseball again. I am very excited about this development. We have been taking bp up at the local ballfield. He is hitting the cover of the ball. Should be good times.

Jordan is gearing up for the fall soccer season. He has received quite a bit of interest for college ball. Schools: Belmont Abbey, Lipschombe, Lander, West Virginia, Elon, Dayton, Wingate, Michigan, Virginia Tech, to name a few. He will have to start narrowing down after camp season. He will be playing in Raleigh again-Triangle Futbol Club. He will have fun.

Later

I know, I know

I know I promised to get back to the boys story. I will soon enough. It has been entirely to busy lately. The mighty Comets played in another inline tourney, taking the championship. Add another gold medal to Jordans' wall. The Sandhillls Thunder are enjoying a fine season. Undefeated and in 1st place with one game remaining. They should have a nice run at the State Cup.

Devan is gearing up for a slew of tryouts with a bit off fun mixed in. He will be playing in an iron man ice tourney. His team is the defending champs. It is a blast, a low stress weekend right before select tryouts. It will be fun.

I will get back to the story sometime this week. Stay tuned!

Kids And Training

How young do you start sports training your kids? That is the age old question. Everybody has an opinion. Don't start training until they are such and such an age. They are growing, it will stunt their growth. I've heard them all.

I have a simple answer to this age old question. Give them as much as they can handle. It sounds simplistic, yet if you think about it, it's just common sense. Now I would never advocate weight training for 5 year olds, I would however advocate some kind of physical fitness.

What do most kids love to do more than anything? Play! I have never met a child that didn't want to play. Whether it be tag, dodgeball (I know it's the worst), kickball, whatever. Kids want to play. Our jobs as parents is to make sure they play. It really is that simple for the young kids. Play, play, play, play, just play.

When my kids were this young they ran. They ran through the house, they ran through the yard, heck they ran through the grocery store. I didn't care, I knew the running was making them better. They didn't know it, but I sure did. In my earlier posts I talked about my oldest being faster and stronger than everybody else. He got that way by running. Run, run, run. And you know what, little brother Devan wanted to be like big brother Jordan so he ran too. Always trying to catch up, he ran. To this day, both boys can still out run most anyone.

This is my first piece of advice. Get your young athletes running. They will be training and they won't even know it. An even better idea: Run with them, they will love it and so will you!