Like Father Like Son

This picture is actaully from LAST fall, but as it is now football season again, I had to post something. In June or July, before I had a blog, Marilee posted a picture of Justin in his catchers gear. In her blog she wrote about how much Justin is like his dad. (see Adam and Marilee's link to look up the pic and blog). I often say that except for his eyes, Justin is his father in everyway- he does have quite a bit of knowledge about Broadway musicals and political science which is his mother's doing. In any case, he is his father's son so to speak. In college we lovingly called Ryan "nerd boy" due to his study habits and grades. Justin is following in that tradition as well. Our football league tries to stress academics as well as football and they hand out patches that get sewn onto the boys' jerseys that say "scholar athlete" for those with good grades. Our president, Mike Filia, likes to say that as you run someone over you can smile and referring to your patch say I'm not only stronger than you but smarter too! I don't know if I'd recommend saying that to anyone when we are playing in Compton, Inglewood or Long Beach! Anyway, Justin has earned this patch each year he has played because of his grades. Mike also picks one or two players (and/or cheerleaders- Amber got it last year) to receive a speical award as the scholar athlete of the team. Justin just received this honor for the third straight year! He will receive a plaque and special recognition at the end of the season and was praised by President Mike in front of the team this week when it was announced. He works so hard on and off the field. I'm proud of him.