Filling the void after football

My son had his annual physical last week. Everything went well, except that his doctor was somewhat alarmed by how much weight he had put on since his last checkup.

My son is 15, a sophomore in high school, and still growing. According to the doctor, he'd grown an inch-and-a-half in the past year, but the nearly 30 pounds he'd put on were much more than he should have. I told the doctor that my son had stopped playing football over the past year, and he agreed that that was probably the reason for the excessive weight gain.

That made me think about a conversation I'd had with another parent a week or so earlier. This particular mom works at a local hospital, and, like my wife and I, she has three sons, two of whom play football. As a medical professional, she believes that while there's obviously an injury risk from playing a contact sport like football, there's a bigger risk in your child doing nothing. My son's physical brought home to me exactly what she was talking about.

Playing sports offers countless benefits to kids, but the biggest and most immediate is the exercise it provides them. Your kid can get exercise playing all kinds of sports or doing other physical activities, but while other sports might carry a slightly less risk of injury (no sport carries zero risk of injury) football offers a highly structured activity that keeps minds and bodies sharp. And if your son (or daughter) likes it and is engaged, the benefits are great. 

All three of my sons started playing tackle football in second grade. The oldest was decidedly unathletic and wasn't very good at the sport, but being part of a team was good for him. He made a few friends and he thrived on the routine the sport provided -- practice three or four evenings a week, and a game on the weekend. He would get home from school, do his homework, get something light to eat and go to practice. Everything made so much sense.

When the season ended, it would always be a struggle to fill his time productively. Playing recreational basketball in the winter wasn't the same thing, but it was okay to take it easy until spring, when he could get outside again. In high school, football gave him something to do all summer and all fall. Practicing and lifting weights with the team built a solid body for him and gave him a support system of sorts as he tackled the challenges of freshman year.

Ultimately, he wasn't a good enough athlete or player to continue playing the game, and so he stopped. But after all those years playing football, suddenly there was this huge void that nothing seemed able to fill. He played rec soccer in the fall, which was fun and a good experience, but with one practice a week and a game on the weekend, it wasn't really enough to keep him in shape. He's spent way too much time playing video games, and I didn't notice it until his physical, but over the last few months his body got soft.

So now, my wife and I are trying to figure out how we can help him. We're hoping he gets a job this summer and we're thinking about finding a gym for him to join. This spring, he's playing lacrosse, which he enjoys and which will fill his time and get him in shape again. But then we've got to figure out what to do when that season ends. We don't need him going back to football. We need him to find something that can take its place.