Dear Kid,

First time under the lights as a Varsity player and Pi went 5 for 6 (nerves got to her on the first PAT) helping Sycamore to a 41 to 7 victory over Walnut Hills. At one point she went out for a PAT and the student section started chanting her name. That was cool. But not nearly as fun as her coming into the house and dancing around chanting “I started in a Varsity game.”

There was an incident (the school’s terminology) at the game when a railing gave way in the student section. Several kids were injured but my understanding is that none of the injuries were serious. It was very weird to see the entire student section sitting down. After a while they moved most of the students to different areas of the stadium.

As usual, Dad wandered rather than sitting with me during the game (although he spent the entire pregame with me, so that was nice). I ended up sitting with a family that recently moved here from the Netherlands. They had never seen a football game (American football). We had a really nice time together.

The team has their pre-game (and I assume all other) meetings in the team room as the locker room is problematic when there is more than one gender on the team. It’s a small-ish room and Pi was telling us how cool it was when the players all bellow “huuh” and the sound echos around the room.

Only when she said tried to grunt the “huuh” it sounded like a dying duck. Dad tried to teach her how to grunt like a boy properly.

“Huuh!”

“huuuhhhh?”

“Huuh!”

“Uuuuhhhhhhhoooooooooeeee”

“Like you mean it”

“Grrrr”

“Not grrrr. HUUUH!”

“Grruuuuhhhh…”

“No teeth. Just Huuh!”

Pi rolls her lips over her teeth like she has just taken out dentures. “ehhhhhhehhehehee hee hee hee.”

By now we are all laughing. Except Booker who was getting concerned that Something Wasn’t Right.

“Try bringing your arms down like you’re doing the chicken dance. Huuh!”

Flap, flap, flap. “Aaaaaooooooohhhh.”

“No, just once. Huuh.”

“Haaaaaaoooooh.” Then she fell off her chair because she was laughing so hard.

The girl can kick. But she can’t grunt. Yet.

Love, Mom