Last Saturday, Nina and Niko came to a St. Anthony football game with me. In case you didn’t know, I am a freelance writer and photographer and my current gig is St. Anthony football.
St. Anthony is a private Catholic school in San Antonio. I covered St. Anthony basketball games in 2013, 2014, and this year. The head coach of the basketball team during that time is now the head football coach. He read one of my football articles in 2012 and invited me to write about the basketball team; and that is how I got started with St. Anthony. If I do cover basketball games this season (which I am planning on doing), I am only going to be a photographer. The basketball team has one of the top sophomores in the country, Charles Bassey (he is 6’10). As a freshman, Bassey led St. Anthony to the state championship game (they lost).
The ambience of a St. Anthony home game is very friendly and family oriented. Just imagine your local park but in the middle is a football field. Fans flock to the action, but they can basically sit where ever they want to (whether it is on the field itself or in the stands). Several people bring tents or umbrellas to protect them from the heat. You can always smell the fresh cut grass and the food from the numerous barbeque grills. The cheerleaders, dance team, and the drumline are constantly working to cheer the home crowd and motivate the players. Sometimes, I start to move my body to the rhythms. One of the songs I sing to Niko is, TWO BITS, FOUR BITS, SIX BITS, A DOLLAR — ALLL FOR NIKO, STAND UP AND HOLLER!!!
It was really nice having them with me and extremely distracting because every time I saw them, I wanted to pick up Niko and give him all of my loving and hug my sweet wife. I was thrilled to show him off to the principal and the head coach (who also has a son named Niko…well, actually his name is Nicholas). No, we didn’t name him after the coach’s son.
Everything Nina packed (and, she packed a lot of stuff) was used and she even told me not to laugh!! If the weather is the same next Saturday as it was last Saturday, they will come again with even more stuff.
If by chance Niko is athletic (which I don’t think he will be), he won’t be playing football. I have been involved in high school football for 20 years and have seen some horrific injuries and I don’t want anything like that to happen to Niko. I have a feeling that Niko will be smart just like his mom and dad and not athletic — and, that is OK with me!!!
Hopefully soon, Nina will work some larger farmers markets to sell her awesome homemade bath and body products and when that happens, I will join her along with Niko and a lot of stuff!!!!
