...just wanted to do a brief football wrap-up before we move into basketball season.

Abram is playing on one of Harrison, Ohio's 4th-grade teams.

Abram played mostly defense...

...and he understands the game well, even though some of his teammates are bigger and stronger and get more playing time than he does.

I've been super-proud of him this year, with his positive attitude and team focus. Size and strength will come.

Harrison takes their football very seriously, even at a young age. Daniel, who is in kindergarten, helped his Daddy Kyler on the chain gang after his own game.

Full pads and all for Daniel's kindergarten/1st-grade team...

He is such a CUTE kid! My goodness, do I ever see my own Dad Bud in his sparkling ornery blue eyes!

Daniel (#84) can certainly hold his own out there! 

...and look cute doing it. There are some BIG KIDS in first grade!

When your ears get folded back inside your helmet, it's Mommy Kara to the rescue. She has stepped up to the plate (uh...wrong sport...but same analogy) becoming a football mom extraordinaire!

Daniel had lots of fun and learned the game this first season. I see football in his future, for sure!

Daniel and Abram had the most adorable fan too! Ada will watch countless ballgames in her lifetime...

Back in the Shenandoah Youth League, our first-grader Koda played intramural flag football.

Koda improved so much over last year...now he's going after people on defense instead of running from them!

But when he needs to run, like in this fake handoff play, Koda can outrun them!

Look at that running back form!

Sticking his tongue out apparently helps with the intensity!

We loved watching Koda play on Saturday mornings!

Saving the big boys until last...but certainly not least. I did a post last month, Friday Night Lights, about Karter's season playing JV and Varsity football, but unfortunately he missed the last half of the season due to a broken finger which required surgery and a pin to fix. He's recovering from that now, starting basketball practice next week.

Kaden, our other big boy, is an 8th grader and played mostly offensive line and defensive end for the 8th-grade Shenandoah Raiders.

Kaden is an intense player and great athlete...he goes after it 150% all the time!

Kaden is their on-the-field coach and he understands and calculates all the intricacies of football.

Quarterbacks rightly fear him...

...and coaches understandably love him! He's the kid you can count on to make the big plays!

Unfortunately for both him and his team, Kaden suffered a concussion at the bottom of a pile trying to recovery a fumble and missed a couple of weeks of his season too. That same game the team lost two other players for even longer, and the 8th-grade Raiders season crumbled after that.

But Kaden is doing fine now and his basketball season starts one week from today.

We'll continue to root for Abram's team during their playoff run...

...but that wraps up our 2023 football season.