Sports Dad wanted a son, but got daughters

Greg Farnetti played football since he was a kid. After college he started coaching, and after marriage dreamed of a son who would love the game -- in his words, "a little me." He coached at West Blockton High School in Alabama for 25 years, but never got the son he dreamed of. Only daughters, two of them. To compensate, he "adopted" the 40 guys he coached each year, and life at the Farnetti home was all football, all the time. So his daughters were shocked recently when he said he was retiring as coach. He told them he realized they were growing up, and unless he paid more attention to them, he might miss something important. Both girls were touched that he'd end his career for them, and his older daughter, 17-year-old Jodie, repaid his kindness in a way he'll never forget.

                                                                                                                         Photo by Farnetti Family
As a child, Jodie often waited after school until her Dad finished practice. To pass the time, she'd kick the football, again and again and again. When she realized her Dad's last home game was Oct. 16, the Homecoming game, she asked the team if she could kick a field goal. They were all for it, so she arrived in full uniform, but her plans were almost spoiled. She'd been nominated to the Homecoming Court and at the game she was named Queen! She put on the tiara, and waited on the bench until she was called in. Then she took off the crown and ran onto the field to kick the final field goal as fans went wild. Afterward, Coach Farnetti had this to say about wanting a son. "I wouldn't trade anything for my girls, nothing. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I'd say, 'I want them two, right there,'" proving young Dads who want boys can grow up into old Dads who love girls.