It’s first down. There’s thirty seconds left on the clock. No receivers are open. Time is running out. He drops back. Pass is deep towards the end zone. Intercepted!
That was the end of my first game as quarterback for the Science Adventure School Sixth Grade Invisible Football League. It was a rough one and a throw that I definitely wish I could have taken back, but dinner time was over, and it was time for shower hour to start; the game had to come to an end. In this one moment I learned so much. First and foremost, don’t throw deep passes in invisible football.
You might be asking, “How does one even play invisible football?” As was I, prior to joining in the game started by my sixth-grade students. It’s actually quite an intuitive game. Imagine all the rules of regular two hand touch football—just make the ball invisible. Because of this key difference, it is a lot safer to make quick, short passes. When you throw it deep, there is a lot more time for a defender to decide that they were the one who caught the ball, and not the wide receiver. It was that exact issue that led to my first career interception (not to mention game losing) in the uber-competitive invisible football league.
But beyond the practical lesson in decision-making, I learned about the power of play and how it can lead to connection and respect when working with a group of kids. When I chose to go out there and play the game, I wasn’t thinking about how it could have an impact on my group, or anything else like that. Honestly, it just looked like fun. It wasn’t until later on in the week that I noticed the effect that one simple moment of play and silliness had on the group. I think that by choosing to play in that moment, I set myself and my group up for later in the week when we may have needed to be more serious. Students saw an adult modeling be serious in the moments when it was time to be serious, and having lots of fun with them in the moments where it was time to be fun. After that, students were more likely to pay attention in those serious moments.
You never know how much fun you can have just by joining in on a game made up by kids and the effect that it can have on your group for the rest of the week.
Written by Nate Ware, 2023 Outdoor Education Guide