Jerome Tigers Smash!

The Jerome Tigers beat the mighty Spartans for the second year in a row last night and if you were not there or did not watch it via internet you really missed out! Zach played so awesome! It was the old Zach that has been missing since the first couple games of the season.
Zach was recently diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter disease. For those of you that are asking yourself what is that - it is a condition caused by the pull of the thigh and calf muscles on their respective tendons where they attach to bone. Strenuous activities can initiate the condition as well as trauma to to the area or an extremely rapid "growth spurt". We think that it was brought on by Zach's growth spurt plus his strenuous activity in football and the weight room. Osgood-Schlatter is characterized by activity-related pain that occurs just below the kneecap at the top of the shinbone. The body tries to heal itself by laying down additional bone in the inflamed areas, leaving bumps. Zach has suffered with a lot of pain this season from this. The problem lies in the tendons in the thighs but the pain is below the kneecap. He is now on a pretty high powered vitamin E and selenium compound 3 times a day, ice on the inflamed areas every day, physical therapy, straps for his knees and I take the rolling pin and torture Zach three times a day. (Actually I just roll up and down his thighs as he groans on the bed). All these things combined seem to really be helping. The pain is not completely gone but he can play at least 1/2 the game now without his knees bothering him terribly. The second 1/2 he tolerates the pain. It will take time to heal.
Anyway back to last night. What a night for Zach. He led the defense and was awarded player of the game. The turning point of the game was when Zach blocked a punt and picked it up to return it for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter. He also recovered two out of the three fumbles, sacked the quarterback and was in on about every tackle. Alan and I were pretty excited for him. We know that he has been extremely frustrated with his performance through most of the season because of his knees. It was so nice for him to finally see some well-deserved success. He loves playing football so much. We ended up beating Minco 43 to 27. Next week in another home game before playoffs begin. It is senior night against Burley. We will probably end up going into the playoffs in 2nd place. I hope they play into Nov. as far as they can go so that Jane and Leon can see him play some. Family support is really important to him.