Do you hear the words coming out of my mouth

As I mentioned before I like to play rugby. Between 1986 and 1989, I lived in the Republic of Singapore. My dad, like myself, was in the computer game. He was working for Data General then (I believe they were merged with EMC in the late 90's). In order to stay compliant and to allow me to easily attend college in the United States I had to attend a United States sanctioned school while in Singapore. That school was The Singapore American School. As one probably guessed, it was a private school....uniforms and all. Luckily for us, my dad's company footed the bill for the tuition, books and uniforms (they pretty much covered anything that we didn't have to pay for in the US).

Instead of the usual sports that are offered in high schools in the United states, this school had "international" sports. I cannot remember the seasons that all the sports played in but we had: Soccer, Rugby, Basketball (international rules), volleyball (men's and women's), Field Hockey, Softball (men's and women's), and Track and Field. If you wanted to play American Rules Football and Baseball you had to join a club team.

I had played Jr. Varsity Basketball my freshman year and was trying out for varsity during my sophomore year. Unfortunately, I didn't make the team. But Coach Bava, the rugby coach and my PE teacher asked me to come out for Rugby. Apparently, if you made it till the end of the season, you got a letter. It was a self-cut team. So I got my parents' permission. This was a shock to me.

You need to understand that ever since pee wee league days, I've tried to get permission to play football, but my parents felt I'd get hurt. Now I'm asking to play rugby which is alot like football but without pads and they say yes. Apparently, my mom had a theory that football coaches were egomaniacs that cared more about winning than the welfare of his players. They knew Coach Bava's reputation and that I loved him as a coach and that is all they needed to know.

So I tried out. For years Coach Bava started out the season by addressing the squad and asking anyone if they would care to try and tackle him. Naturally an offensive or defensive tackle from one of our club league football teams would volunteer. They would come in and try to tackle him like a football player would and he would make a little move and stiff arm the guy and break his nose. He would use this as an object lesson on how in Rugby one tackles with the shoulder keeping the head away from the one being tackled.

Well, you may be wondering what is the purpose of all this rambling. I was recollecting one of the games I played way back then. I was playing hooker and during line outs the hookers face off against each other while the ball is tossed between a line of players

      X|
------ |
       |O
------ |
      X|

The 'X' represent the hookers and the 'O' represents the guy tossing the ball between the -'s. Well, in this situation, the ball was tossed and both their hooker and me dove into the channel trying to intercept the ball. Instead of trying to intercept the ball, the opposing hooker speared me in the head. Right on the temple. I remember passing out for a brief second and then was back into the game.

A few plays later Coach Bava was pulling me out of the game. I asked him why he was pulling me out. He said that he saw the blow to my head during the line out and then I wasn't playing normally after that. He said I was playing too good like I had lost all my fear.

Well, later that night I was sitting at home with my brother while my parents went to Denny's to grab some dessert. I turned to look at my brother and wasn't able to speak. I knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn't get the words out. My brother ended up calling my parents at Denny's. Yes, we ate there enough that we knew the phone number and they knew who we were.

It turned out that I had a severe concussion and it had done some temporary damage to the area of my brain that affects speech. The plus side was that it got me out of an oral presentation I had to do for English class. The bad side is that I now stutter everytime I get nervous or excited.

But my mom was right. Coach Bava pulled me out of the game because I was playing too good. What coach would do that? A coach that knew his player normally was fearful of being tackled and now wasn't and it all started from a head injury.

Man I love this game!!!!