If you are anything like me, you spend the first part of your summer recovering from baseball season, the middle of summer wishing you had something to do, and the end of summer being so busy that you don’t have time to wish for those lazy mid-summer days any more.

Sports writers, sports parents, coaches and fall sports athletes don’t get a chance to breathe in August.

Writers run from one football practice to another trying to get the perfect quote for their preview story from a coach who has more important things to do than talk to a nerd with a notebook and digital recorder.

Parents have to shuttle their high school athletes to and from practice, orientation and class sign up days. They also have the unenviable task of feeding their high school athletes, making their bank accounts look like an apocalyptic waste land in a Mad Max movie.

Coaches have to come up with practice schedules, study last year’s game film, talk to nerds with notebooks and digital recorders, and round up a bunch of hungry, scatter-brained teenagers and make them into a team capable of surviving and thriving on and off the field. Coaches have the unenviable task of deciding which kid gets playing time and which one has to ride the bench, hoping for a blowout so they can see the field. They also have to ensure the safety of their athletes while encouraging them to play rough games at a level of intensity that most teenagers only see in the latest Michael Bay action flick.

The athletes have the hardest job here. They have to juggle schoolwork, sports and their personal lives without dropping one or the other. Some have to add work to the mix, taking part time jobs to help their families out in hard times.

Mostly though, the athletes have to juggle growing up with being forced into an adult atmosphere. Their coaches and parents, and the sports writers who cover them, expect them to perform at an excellent level all of the time without regard to what is going on at home or with their boyfriend or girlfriend or in the classroom. When they are on the field or the court, we expect them to excel.

But that is what sports do for a lot of kids. Sports give kids a chance to forget about their teenage lives by giving everything on the field.

When Johnny throws a touchdown pass or when Sally spikes the volleyball down on her opponent's pig-tailed little head, they don’t have to think about the carton of milk they spilled in the lunchroom that day.

Remember the girl who dumped Bobby this morning? Forget about her. Bobby just sacked the other team’s golden boy quarterback.

So remember this when you head out to see your favorite team play this fall: those kids are doing something extraordinary.

Win or lose, the kids on that field or that court are playing at a high level of excellence while carrying the weight of their worlds on their shoulders.

And when the time comes for them to hang up their cleats and pack up their equipment for the last time, they can go out into the world knowing they can be excellent and imperfect at the same time.

Eric Mann is the Sports Coordinator for Gulf Coast Newspapers.

emann@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.