Many, many years ago, early into my first season working with state Hall of Fame football coach Jim Jeskewitz and his fine Menomonee Falls gridders, I wandered over to the high school cafeteria for a little event that he and assistant coach, business partner and old friend Bob Hessler were putting on.
They quaintly (and not without a substantial boulder of truth behind it) called it the "Mother's Football Clinic" and they told me they'd been doing it for years.
In short, it would help the parents of their players understand the basics of the fine manly art of knocking the other guy on his butt. From formations to positions, to why helmets are the way they are, to the nuances of the jockstrap (that alone could take hours) and right up to the arcane jargon and outright nonsense that sometimes goes into the quarterback's signals, Jeskewitz and Hessler went through it all.
Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and even some fathers and uncles who wanted to fine-tune their gridiron knowledge attended the affairs. Jeskewitz and Hessler would patiently explain things and no question was too basic or too silly to not be greeted with a polite and thoughtful answer.
In short, the programs were big hits.
Now more than 10 years into his retirement, village trustee, county supervisor and now "Grandpa" Jeskewitz has hauled out the old playbook and dusted off his charm to come up with a new set of "Mother's Football Clinics". Version 2.0 "hut-hut" of it will be held Monday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. in the high school cafeteria and all are welcome.
"We're going to try and keep it very basic," Jeskewitz said. "We did it for about 15 years until I stopped coaching and I've had a number of requests to bring it back. Mothers heard I did it and now a new generation of Moms want some help."
Jeskewitz will get help from former player and now current Falls assistant coach Erich Rutsch. Part of the incentive for Jeskewitz to do this again is that he's now helping out coaching with the fifth grade Junior Indians for whom his grandson is playing.
He's looking forward to the session in a big way.
"They're wiping off all the cobwebs," he said with a laugh, "and bringing back the old guy!"
