Make room on the trophy shelf

I have been blessed with athletic sons. They are natural winners, messomorphs, jocks. I was not.

I was picked third to last all through grade school. This wont happen to them, they are the ones who organize the games. They have an easy popularity and ability to make people laugh.

I played baseball for a year and never got a hit. I bat lefty for undisclosed reasons, and got walked all the time to the new pitchers.

I played 12 years of soccer and never won a trophy or scored a goal. Mostly I was a defender, but you'd think I'd chip ONE in.

I wrestled through high school, and got only one trophy.

My eleven year old has at least a dozen trophys probably more. Several wrestling tournaments he won or placed in. Twice on the championship baseball team. Once the Home Run Derby champion. The other two boys have similar stacks of hardware....pyramids of fake metal bolted to real marble. It's impressive and I'm grateful that they can win and be humble in loss (most of the time).

Some of the trophys they win are outlandish. My 6 year old placed 2nd in the Districts in wrestling. The trophy they gave him is the same size as he is. I have a photo of him when he was awarded itand he's frowning. With tears in my eyes I asked him to smile, he says he wanted to win it all...he's six and wanted to win it all.

My youngest noticed a small trophy on my dresser. It's only three and a half inches tall and is mostly plastic.
"What did you get that for Daddy?"
"I rode my bicycle 3,000 miles one summer"
"is that alot"
"yeah"
"oh....it's kind of small"
"yeah, I like the irony of that"
"did you win?"
"no"

Tonight I'm on a team of winners though. The our pool club and swim team are having a race open to everybody. They have a 'fastest family at the pool' contest. Me and the boys are signed up for the four man freestyle relay. I dont know who the competition is, but still like our chances.

My wife signed my name to the 'King of the Pool' contest too. I'm less sure about how things will work out there. It's two laps freestyle, and I think it's mostly teenage boys from the swimteam.....and me.