The answer is yes

“Does your daughter play sports?” someone asked me. What? How could you tell? Was it the dark circles under my eyes or the lack of color in my face due to minimal amounts of sleep? Was it because I walked hunched over because I sat in the bleachers for an unearthly amount of hours at a time? Was it because my hair still looked like I had my visor on although I took it off hours ago? Or maybe it was because there were some leftover sunflower seed shells stuck to the tops of my tennis shoes? Or could it be that I reek of fast food since last night at 9:30, I had eaten my third Runza cheeseburger combo meal for the week? Wait! I bet I know what it was! Was it because I had a red softball team t-shirt on with a button of my daughter’s picture of her in a uniform pinned to it? Was that how you guessed? That had to be it!

Because if it wasn’t my ragged appearance and softball button that gave it away, then perhaps it was you overheard me talking about the All-State pitcher from Omaha that our team hit off of or maybe it was me complaining about how cold and windy one game was and then how blasted hot the next game ended up being, and how I’m blaming the weather for giving me a stupid head cold. Or was I blabbering on and on about different strike zones and softball stats, which I decided I will never understand? Was that what gave it away that my kid played sports?

Cause if not, maybe you caught a glimpse of my truck in the parking lot. Was it the windshield and front end consistently covered in dead bug smatterings? Or the tires that are starting to bald due to the crazy number of miles they get traveling across the State? Were the doors open and you saw the collection of half empty restaurant cups, water bottles and snack wrappers laying on the floors? Or maybe the back hatch opened and all the blankets, sunscreen bottles and dirty softball socks fell out? Or did the breeze blow out two or three paper programs with players names on them? If not all those, maybe it was the stench of sweaty uniforms mixed with stale coffee and cold Runza french fries? That was probably it, I’m guessing. Always a dead giveaway!

But if none of that answered your question automatically, then the answer is “yes”. Yes, my daughter plays sports. Right now she plays softball and then next will be basketball and then after that will be track and yes, my appearance will not change, nor will the smell of my truck. The only thing that will change is the button on my shirt. And all the miles put on the road, as well as my face, and all the truck stop coffee and fast food calories are worth it! This time of life means more than gold to me!