Here's a funky introduction of how nice I am.....

As some of you know, my lovely bride Dawn and I founded a community service organization for the athletes at our local high school.

www.streaksservetheburg.com

As a result, I've found myself spending a lot of time with teenagers.  That's something I never thought would happen as I figured I paid my dues on the teenage thing and would mainly interact with the lone teenager under my roof and his assorted friends.  However, life throws unexpected (and wonderful) twists and here I am in all my 40+ dorkiness interacting with a great group of kids.  Dawn has a natural knack for it, while it's something I've had to grow into.  One of the main lessons about enjoying teens is to set fire to your expectations and enjoy the ride.  Once you remove the control lobe from your brain (a daily exercise for a control freak like me) it's pretty exhilarating.

One example of this was our spring break trip to Mississippi last April.  We did a service trip to Gulfport, MS to help with a house teardown.  One ritual in our van was that some of the kids would ask Dawn to rap every day on our way back to camp.  I don't know how this started, but it was purely for comic value.  My wife has many great qualities, but rapping is not one of them. She would make up words, repeat words for the sake of rhyming and generally deliver a freestyle rap that was like nails on a chalkboard.

That sets up the most bizarre experience I've had in the recruiting process to date.  On Wednesday we were visiting one of the most formidable football programs in the entire country.  The day was culminated with a visit with Coach X.  Coach X is so high profile that even those of you who don't know a football from a watermelon would remark that you are sure that you've seen him before if you saw him out in public.  In tow, we had a family friend who is also being recruited by this school and one of Landon's friends who was along for the ride. Somehow, and I can't for the life of me remember or imagine how this happened, someone briefly said something to Dawn about her rapping for the kids.  

Coach X was immediately fascinated with this.  He wanted to hear it.  We tried to shake it off; he immediately would steer the subject back to Dawn and her MC skills.  I tried to change the subject, he persisted and asked for a rap.  Next thing I know I'm in a huge office decorated with championship trophies watching my wife rap for a guy paid over 2 million dollars a year.  The rap was about his dogs.  

Later, I walked silently out of the football facility and told my bride that nothing in this wild recruiting process can or will be that bizarre.  It's like something that I'd dream after a night of bad mexican food.

I'm in the process of developing thrash metal, rap, and punk songs for all of the schools we will be visiting in the future.

Word to your mother.........

-Macker

PS- RECRUITNIKS, THE SCHOOL WAS NOT IN VIRGINIA SO GUESS AWAY........