- May 5, 2024
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Don’t get me wrong: Landon Gonzalez is good — probably the most valuable player in the four-team 10-and-under division of FlagFootball4Fun, which has its games each week at Belle Terre Park, behind Wadsworth Elementary School.
But while it’s fun to watch Landon streak across the field on defense, when you’re sure the opposing runner is gone for a touchdown, and then Landon closes ground, closes ground, and you start to think he might have a chance, and then suddenly he’s there and pulls the flag — it’s even more fun to hear the stories of what he does off the field.
One day before a flag football game this season, Tracey Gonzalez bought doughnuts for her two sons, 7-year-old Caden and 9-year-old Landon. But Landon declined. He ate a banana and half of a plain bagel, instead. He requests cottage cheese, eggs and tuna fish from the grocery store. Why? Because that’s what you do if you want to be the next Tim Tebow.
How many adults have that kind of discipline? It’s inspiring to see someone that young chase after his dream.
When he goes to the doctor for a regular check-up, he brings a list of questions to ask the doctor, just to make sure he’s working out in a way that is age-appropriate. When a health aid visited the house to help Landon’s grandmother with her physical therapy, Landon did the exercises, too, to build up his own strength.
He gets up early in the morning and runs around the house before school — without anyone telling him to do it. He times himself to make sure he’s improving. Why?
“So I can get faster,” he told me after a game earlier this month. “I want to be a quarterback and go to (the University of Florida) and be in the NFL. I want to run around the house so I can make it.”
He’s earnest and pleasant, and he never looks worried on the field. On defense, he waits patiently in his zone and then takes off like a homing missile. As a parent on the sidelines — my son Jackson plays on the same team, the Dolphins — I expected that if Landon got close to a player, the flag would be in his hand.
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, coached by Luis Silva, they fell short in the championship game, coming in second out of four teams.
But as you might expect, the disappointment didn’t last for long with Landon. Later that day, he invited friends over to play football. When they went home, he started doing a new drill, in which he throws a football off a post at close range so that it will bounce unpredictably in different directions — all to work on his agility.
This season, Landon and the other players on the team were younger and smaller than the champions. That’s not an excuse, just a warning to the teams who play next year. And Landon is already preparing.
“He's mentally focused,” his father, Rick Gonzalez, told me. “In the morning, if it's nice out, he plays. He plays at the bus stop.”
He reads books about football. He watches “SportsCenter” and college football on TV, according to his mother, Tracey. “He's not the kid who gets up and watches SpongeBob.”
Do you have stories of dedication and determination in pursuit of a dream? Email [email protected]. For more on the league, visit flagfootball4fun.com and search for Palm Coast.
