A Rocket Up the Middle

Kickball. Kickball all day long. In celebration of the end of the year, we had a giant kickball tournament at school today for the 4th and 5th graders. This is always a great day, and on this specific day, a few of the teachers decided to play.

Me, never being one to turn down a good game of any kind, laced em up. I was excited to play. My class, being fairly athletic this year, I felt had a chance to sweep the tournament. Unlike last year when my two teams won a combined zero games. In fact, my class is so athletic this year, I felt that we would finish with the complete opposite record. I certainly didn't think they needed me, but I could just tell they wanted me to play. They had it written all over their little faces. So, I stepped into the action, as some of the other teachers did.

Since I was not originally in the batting order, I was tacked onto the end. We got through two innings before it was my turn to kick. I had spoken to some of the parents who were umpiring the games if I should really kick the ball or just kinda tap it. They told me bunting was illegal and if I was going to play, I needed to play hard. There were a number of reasons for their answer, ranging from the other teachers were kicking hard and if the kids get me out I will never hear the end of it. This was true. At bat, my former student from last year, Jay, was pitching. As the ball rolled up to me, I kicked it fairly hard. Hard enough that it was a line drive rocket off of my foot. A line drive rocket that was heading straight up the middle. A line drive rocket heading straight up the middle that bounced directly off Jay's face. Uh oh! Yes, Jay's cute little 10-year old face, hit with my rocket of a line drive. 

Jay didn't drop to the ground. He simply covered his face with is hands and started crying. I ran out to him, apologizing, basically crying harder than him. We walked inside to get an ice pack from the nurse. As we were walking, I asked Jay if he thought he would get a black eye. He said he thought his whole face would be black and blue because the ball hit him in the whole face. Oh, the poor baby. I couldn't believe this happened! 

Once the pain had subsided a bit, Jay became his humorous self. I told him if he had behaved better last year I wouldn't have had to kick the ball at his face. He agreed, laughing. I was so relieved to see him laughing! As we walked back to our game, he proceeded to tell everyone we passed that I had kicked him in the face. Little Jay sat out the rest of the current game, but resumed action the next game. By the end of the tournament he was fine, just had a little redness to his face.

Me, I am not over it yet. I still feel horrible. But, not too horrible to blame the whole thing on the parents who told me I should kick the ball hard. In the end, as weird as it sounds, I was glad the kid I did hit was a former student and not some random fifth grader. I am interested to see if Jay has any bruising tomorrow. Hopefully my kick is not that powerful!