Personal Essay: The Football Team

It was opening night for our football team, a chilly night in September against one of our rivals, the Nickerson Panthers. The stands were packed like a can of sardines. Our team had been ruling the scoreboard all night, but now the panthers were in the red zone threatening to score. Three years ago we wouldn’t have had a chance against this team, but now we had the upper hand. Through the weightlifting program and improvement of team building, success is inevitable. Our football team is a great example of how hard work and great leadership not only pull a group of kids, but also a whole community together.

Have you ever felt like you’re not good enough, not knowing just how much potential you have? One of the most salient experiences of my life was making the Island Coast High School football team, because it taught me that to succeed you must be confident in yourself. The old me would have thought, “ I’m not good enough,” because I never thought that I could compete with kids that already played football. I suppose that I always felt like i couldn’t compete with football players because whenever I would play football in eighth grade, I would not be able to keep up with them. Little did I know, all of that was about to change the day I made my way to the middle of the humid, scorching fied, staring into the eyes of North Ft. Myers Highs’ freshman football team.

High school football over the years has become a huge spectacle lets just talk about the DWF area or we can even get smaller to make a point if you made a 25 mile radius these local high school teams play at the Star (seats 12,000), Allen stadium (seats 18,000 cost 60 million), and McKinney’s new stadium (seats 12,000 costs 69.9 million). This is just high school football these young kids playing under tremendous pressure from the start. The pressure to play high school football is immense, there are so many media outlets for these kids, and they get coverage from what it seems like all the time during the season, yet this is all just considered a recreational activity I think it has become more than that now. The pressure for coaches is high as well dealing with parents, board members, keeping up with classes as a teacher, and oh you also have to win since football is a performance-based business (forewarning this will be said a lot). For example I will refer to Boobie Miles from Friday Night Lights for one final point. Boobie knew if he did not make it in football there was nothing special for him. That is why when he got hurt he still wanted to play, because he knew that’s all he had. That is a lot of pressure for a 16-18 year to handle, and if they are not up for it they crack.

Since everyone else from around the NFL is doing it, I thought I might as well join in on the fun too. I am going to start a series here on The Huddle where each week, I will project the top players at a certain position for the 2017 Season.

“Fumble! There goes Salem’s number 69, Jonathan Haddad with the football, he’s home free!” I recall the PA announcer. That specific moment was probably the most memorable highlight of my high school football career. Seconds later, my football career would come to an end as the opposing running back lunged at my ankle and I felt a snap and crackling sensation, causing me to immediately fall to the turf. Turns out I broke my ankle and that it would take months to recover before I could even walk. Frustration, anger, and denial were the main things on my mind during those few months. I thought about how hard I worked in the summer; busting my butt to get ready for the season, and wasting a ton of time and money on something that would end in an utter failure.

It all started in 7th grade, our football team was at the time undefeated and we were in our second to last game. We were up by quite a bit and our team was feeling sanguine, our coach didn’t put too much thought into it, and called a run up the middle with our star running back Michael Lundy. He Got the ball and ran for Three short yards then suddenly tripped over a pile of angry, impassioned, irritable teenage boys. Michael had landed wrong and you could see by his expressions he was hurt, his dad came on the field and helped carry him off. We were forced to continue the game without Michael, which wasn’t all that bad because there were only three minutes left in the game. We the Philomath 7th grade braves had won our second to last game

One season,PRINCE,FAT DADDY,VONTAYE,AND CLETWON was on the same football team called the TIGERS. We were the best players on the team because, FAT DADDY could throw very WELL,PRINCE can catch VERY well,VONTAYE CAN CATCH well,CLETWON CAN RUN Very Good.Now PRINCE IS IN 7th grade with VONTAYE,AND CLETWON.FAT DADDY IS IN THE 6th grade.When fat daddy threw PRINCE the football PRINCE CAUGHT it, he got hurt because they hit him hard.vontaye did not get to run the ball. CLETWON was a great runner back.When I got hurt VONTAYE,CLEWONN, AND FAT DADDY WAS READY TO HIT SOMETHING. My coach was mad when I had to sit out for a little while.

one evening after a long day of running drills, suicides, and general exercises at football practice the cavalry clustered tightly into a huddle from there we prayed for a better tomorrow and a successful practice together as one team as normal, this was also a time where everyone has a time to reflect and criticize and critique ones performance one person at a time on a run or pass route from the play book given to us from Head Coach Irby. The one-on-one conversation between another football player, “Lucky” the quarterback, had a few words to share to about my blocking ability as an offensive linemen (now generally I’m supposed to be a linebacker because of my size and speed.) Jamarl! You need to block! “witcho big ass,” man. Last game I got

Senior year of college, Theresa, myself, Ryan and Michelle were the returning four on the cheer squad. We were at the football field getting ready to start practice when the players came out of the locker room to start there practice. I was scanning all the familiar faces then there he was. Just as good-looking as he was last year, and he was staring right back at me. I smiled at Ronnie until one of his teammates slapped him on the shoulder and turned his attention back to the drills they were getting ready to start. His tanned broad shoulders and muscles cut so perfect my fingers tingled at the thought of caressing every inch of him. “He’s single you know?” Theresa said.

The mixture of dread and excitement come as I walk onto the court. It’s eight in the morning and as I look around, everyone has a tired look on their face. The parents all have coffee and look half asleep. On the other hand, the coach is pumped up. I slip my shoes on not really noticing what I’m doing. Our first game on a new team. We are expecting a team we have played team before but when they walk in, we get a real shock.

Football is a game of passion, a time when nothing else matters and the only thing that matters is going out there having fun and fighting for the guy next to you. Football has always been something that I loved and had a wild passion for. I’ve made friendships and memories to last a life time and I can always be grateful that football did that for me. Now of course I’ve had some bad memories during football as well, I remember walking out of the film room on the last day of spring ball and having Coach Antle grab me and say “Gage, I think I want to try you at a new position, I want to put you at defensive end. We need you more there and we think you can really excel there.” I remember being so furious, I had played linebacker ever since I could remember and now the last day of spring ball my senior year everything was about to change.

Many people thought my team was not good. The sun is up, and it is game day.

Failing to make to the JV soccer team has been one of most impactful moments of my life, and it has changed the way I approach athletics and life outside of sports.

There stood the final score 27-21, Vikings have done it, they are going to the Championship, again.Steelers stood quiet on the sideline while their opposing team were jumping up and down all across the field yelling and screaming and hugging each other in joy.Then you had my team, the now beaten Steelers who had just blew their Championship chance all because of me. I was only a sixth grader then and I was only playing in a little league,but felt terrible not in the mad way like an angry bull charging a fire red cape but disappointed like as if you had a chance to save the world and you decided to stay watch TV. As I was presented with a third place medal I wondered if I even deserved it had I not of fumbled the ball I would have a cheering team and a golden trophy in my hand but no, I had a bronze medal hanging from my neck.So from that day forth I decided I wasnt ever going to stop playing football and practicing football until my body couldn’t take it anymore.

For as long as I can remember football has been a part of my life in some way, shape, or form. When I was first born my grandfather said that I was solid and built to play football. I used to throw the football with my mother when I was a toddler and she always told me that when I tried to tackle her I hit really hard. My first organized football experience was when I was five. I had just moved to Manassas, VA from Washington, D.C. in 1994. It was around fall and that was right at the beginning of football season in the area. I remember telling my mother that I wanted to play, so she looked for a local organization for children. She came across the Greater Manassas Football League (GMFL) and that is where I began to play the game I