Schuckman: A boy and a ball create perfect symmetry

QUINCY — A boy and a ball.

That’s perfect symmetry.

Hayden Hoskins’ job and his joy is to run around behind the goal at the northeast end of Flinn Stadium during Quincy High School boys soccer games and act as the ball boy. In reality, the 9-year-old just wants to play the way boys should.

He does his best to juggle, flip and kick the ball the way the Blue Devils do. Inevitably, the ball squirts away and Hoskins chases it down, finding something creative and fun to try once he gets the ball back.

He gives it toss, watching it soar a few feet over his head and backing up as if he expects the ball to have backspin and kick to him once it lands. It rarely does, and that’s OK. He chases it down again, trying a heel kick or some move he’s watched the QHS players make.

Usually, there is an apparatus of some sort left near the track Hoskins can use as a target or a goal. He throws his hands in the air when he hits it or makes it, and he hurriedly chases the ball down when he doesn’t.

The game goes on in front of him, and Hoskins pays enough attention to know the players and mimic their actions. Still, he plays his own game against himself while waiting for the need to run down a game ball or toss the one he’s kicking around into play.

When that moment comes, he becomes laser focused.

When that moment passes, he returns to what comes naturally.

It’s just a boy and a ball at play.

That’s priceless.

Give a boy a ball that fits in his hand and his first instinct is to throw it. Give him one big enough and bouncy enough to chase and he’ll kick it. Put a hoop 10 feet off the ground and he’ll try to make it. Give him a bat and he’ll take a swing at it. Give him a friend and he’ll pass it to him.

That never fades.

A baseball sits on the desk in my home office. There’s another on my desk in the Muddy River newsroom. Co-workers know it is my thinking tool, and without even realizing it, I will pick it and start playing catch by myself until inspiration strikes.

I’ve been known to knock ceiling tiles loose and have the ball carom off light fixtures. A baseball has hit my keyboard more than a time or two.

Put a baseball in my hand and I revert to being a boy with the neverending desire to play catch.

Hayden Hoskins reminded me how that feels and how that looks.

He’s just a boy with a ball doing what comes naturally.

Nothing could be more perfect.