Personal Essay: The Importance Of My High School Football Field

It all started when I walked into Island Coasts High School’s open house. I didn’t know what to expect, and was filled with trepidation about whether or not I would even know enough about football to sign up. I made my way to the cafeteria in order to sign up. I met the coaches,

At New Milford High School, I will belong to the community of Green Wave football for the duration of my life. As a player, my footprint is not simply measured by the amount of wins our program had during my three years on varsity, but it is measured in the complete revolution of the program under Coach Badaracco’s direction. My freshman year, the football team was a bit of a joke, a meeting ground of players who lacked dedication and work ethic, who continuously were being suspended from school, doing drugs, and partaking in other nefarious activities. When Coach Badaracco was hired, he looked to me to lead. He continuously asked me to display what a proper athlete should look like, someone who excelled in the classroom and was active in the community.

Football isn’t just about going on the field and playing 4 quarters against another team every week. It’s not just those Friday nights going to watch your high school team play. Football is a brotherhood, it’s your second family. It’s making memories that you will have with you for the rest of your life. It’s the hours of preparation, sweat, tears, blood, bumps and bruises and going back out everyday just to give it your all. Football isn’t just a game that i’ve played it’s something that has shaped me into the person I am today.

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.

Society has a positive impact on individuals because people help and take care of each other. Three examples are: a video titled “On the Road: Middle School Football”, a poem named “The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to be”, and a book titled The Outsiders. Each of these stories shows how having friends makes our life better. Friends help us to not feel alone and to get us through tough times.

When it was your first time doing something and you said to yourself, ‘’I wish I could do this for the rest of my life? ’’ I’ve grown up doing the thing I’ve been wanting to do, which is playing professional football for the NFL. I’ve been playing football since kindergarten, since then I know the game perfectly. My first year of kindergarten sparked me to be interested in football.

The mindset that society thrusts upon most high school athletes can take away from academics and other opportunities they may have for their future. For many high school football athletes, they are primarily focused on one thing throughout their high school years: sports. Evidence 1: In towns such as Odessa in Friday Night Lights, players are swallowed up by the glamour of football and neglect most things not related to football, rather than balance sports with academics. “It was a phenomenon that Trapper had seen dozens of times before, a kid so caught up in it all that there was no room for anything else, another kid for whom nothing in life would ever be so glorious, so fulfilling as playing high school football. Trapper didn’t see the

Collegiate athletics have long played an integral role in higher education in the United States. The popularity of collegiate football in America is unprecedented. “The fan frenzy surrounding teams, games, and the sport itself, is borderline barmy. Aptly described as the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, fan emotions in college football are rampant” (Moore, B., 2010). Football programs are able to generate a great deal of revenue through gate receipts (Groza, M. D., 2010). Football game day attendance is also an excellent proxy for other revenues such apparel sales and concessions.

It was a brisk fall evening, and my seventh grade youth football team and I had traveled to Aberdeen to play the undefeated Chiefs. We had worked harder and longer than we ever had that week to show that we were a threat in the league and ascend from our third place ranking. We knew it was not going to be easy; the Chiefs’ team had the fastest running back in our division, and they had scored more total points per game than any other team in the Southeast Idaho Youth Football League. The field was neater and greener than we had expected in this town. It was a great day for football, and I was with all of my best friends. I knew going in that it was going to be a learning experience whether we won or lost that night because the Chiefs were

The environment that perfectly contents me the most is a football field. I have been in many places and it’s not the same as a football field when am in that field I feel free and stronger. I have always played football since I was six I can’t find any other better place for me than a football field. It’s like a big castle and am the king to be in it the grass, wind, smell and every touchdown feel me to be complete and having me wanting more of it. No one really understands why am doing this as a life dream most don’t believe in me but when it’s time to be in the field I realize that am doing right where I stand and it’s what will be my career. If it’s one thing I learned is that no matter the obstacle your only choices is going through it and I have gone through those obstacles no matter how big or hard it was being a football player on the field and out of it has made me a better

“Are you coming with us to the hospital? Brayden is starting his chemo treatment.” The words came out of Andrew’s mouth, and my ears acknowledged sound but my brain didn’t absorb it. The reality of visiting a friend in the hospital who was going through such an intensive procedure didn’t register that it was actually happening until I was there experiencing it. Growing up, Brayden was never one to complain, always willing to go out of his way to help and quick with a joke to change anyone's mood. Seeing such a positively spirited friend already overcome cancer once, and then relapse didn’t make sense. My days which were supposed to be spent with Brayden on the football field were instead spent at the hospital. Witnessing Brayden’s struggle and perseverance was a painful but humbling experience for me. I realized that there is so much more complexity and adversity in the world around me than I ever knew. It opened my eyes to what I am capable of giving through my character and conception of leadership.

“What are we?” Head Coach Shaver asked. Every time he would ask we would reply yelling “3D!” 3D would represent our motto for the year. Dependable, Determined, and Disciplined is what this stood for. It relates back to our team verse of the year which was Hebrews 11:12.

For a lot of kids, it’s not until it’s all said and done, and they look back on it several years later, that they realize the difference the sport made in their lives. They are proud of playing the game. Have you ever met anybody who accomplished playing four years of high school football, and at the end of that run said, ‘Man, I wish I wouldn’t have played’? It doesn’t get said. Football players aren’t perfect. Nobody is. But millions of former players, one by one, can recount the life-altering principles they learned from football. They know the value of football is the values in football.That’s why high school football – and particularly high school coaches – play such a vital role in our society. Our football coaches are on the front lines of the battle for the hearts and minds of the boys in our society.

Playing football has had the most impact on the development of my character. I started playing football when I was 5 years old. Playing football has taught me many valuable lessons. While playing football, I have better understood the values of hard work. Football taught me that the only way to succeed in something is by working harder than anyone else. Football has also taught me that when working with a team, everybody has an important role and if one person slacks off it hurts the entire team. There is no “I” in team and teamwork is a valuable life lesson. Whenever teammates are focused on individual accomplishments, instead of the team’s success, the team as a whole does not perform as well. I have learned through this that when you

Entering high-school was a bitter sweet feeling for me. I found myself coming upon new adventures, meeting new people and seeing new aspects in life. Quickly, I started to re-evaluate my life. I thought to myself that maybe I shouldn’t just limit myself to football, although at the time that’s all that I knew. Even with me growing I began to doubt my decisions but I didn’t