'What I Did Over Summer Vacation'

Younger players go through drills at Mt. Carmel High Fri., Aug. 2,

during a morning workout on the fourth day

of Fall practice. (Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

While La Jolla's football team, which I had followed earlier in the summer, continued its summer workouts through July, I was walking the track at Mt. Carmel High School every morning with students I worked with in the ESY Extended School Year program.

It was a slice of heaven, with very loving high school kids among the 16 Critical Skills students (i.e., Special Education) I worked with for four weeks as an Instructional Aide. I'm going to miss them.

But to circle back to walking circles with them--which we seven or eight staff did at 8 a.m. most mornings before the sun got too hot--one of the side benefits was being able to observe the football teams at Mt. Carmel going through their late summer and (beginning this past week, July 30-Aug. 2) fall workouts on the field.

One highlight was Emma, who will be a junior this fall at Rancho Bernardo High School, donning a Sun Devils helmet and place-kicking a ball with the team. Pretty cool.

It turns out she plays rugby, too.

Though the physical part of directing students physically toward where they were supposed to go--whether bathroom, track, or visiting classroom--was not something I could do on an ongoing basis, due to my sensitive back and bad feet, the gift of being included in this little family for a month gave me so much in the way of feeling connection, playing a role in helping the students, and working alongside the dedicated adults who care for this same group of students throughout the regular school year.

I will treasure the experience. I share some of the football workout portion via photos.