Reflection on St. Mary's Day 3

For Day 3 all of us decided on a theme to give the kids a little excitement. The theme was "Sports." I was extremely excited for this theme because I love sports, especially football, and I was getting the opportunity to represent my favorite team. When I arrived to the school and walked in the gym, not only did I see every single Cortland student wearing a jersey, but also saw a smile on every kids face.

 Most of them are old enough to understand sports teams and even know specific players. I was wearing a Ladanian Tomlinson jersey, a runningback for the New York Jets, and when we were having a catch with the football as the kids were sitting down, they were yellin out "Tomlinson, throw it here!" The kids were even being negative to some other Cortland students who were wearing jerseys of players they did not like. For example, Eric was wearing a Mark Sanchez jersey, the new quarterback for the New York Jets, and the kids said things like, "You have a terrible arm!" Beside the fun from the jerseys, we played some really fun games too.

"Speed Ball" was a fan favorite. It consisted of soccer, basketball and handball so there was three different ways to score. Shotting the ball in the hoop was 3 points, kicking the ball in the soccer net was 2 points, and throwing the ball in the sovver net was 1 point. The kids really got into this game and we even had some trickle over to it from other activities because they saw how much fun everyone was having. Some of them are very talented and I was taken back by a few of them. The goalie for my team made a save, walked up about three steps and punted the ball. It went soaring across the gym and directly into the opposing basketball hoop. I could not believe that this young boy had just accomplished that. I most likely could not achieve that task. Anyway, everyone that witnessed this happen went absolutely crazy, a kid on the other team actually ran over and gave the goalie a high-five. It was pretty cool to witness sportsmanship like that at such a young age. I havent seen a bigger smile on a kids face in a while and it was a great end to my day at St. Mary's.