Personal Narrative: Football

I've always been the odd man out on any sports team who looked forward to conditioning at the end of practice and would hold my plank an extra few seconds until I really felt the pain. I loved pushing myself beyond my expected limits and the satisfaction of leaving the gym knowing I gave my full effort. Although the thought of taking a weight lifting class was extremely intimidating, I acknowledged my deep love for training and bettering myself.

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.

At the time, this angered me because I was unaware of the severity of my injury. The remainder of the game consisted of major plays, but an astonishingly low amount of scoring occurred. Finally, the fourth quarter was nearly at an end. Yet, the Panther’s defense faltered. It had been tricked by the same play that caused my concussion. Then, I saw the scoreboard showed 10-14 with the Panthers leading. The Dragon’s executed an onside kick, but they did not recover the ball. This led to a series of prolonged throws and passes. Nevertheless, the passes wasted enough time, so the game would end in the next 15 seconds. In finality, the Panthers rejoiced as they came to the realization that for the first time all season they may leave in

His little legs churned as fast as they could driving him straight at his opponent. I sensed Matthew wasn’t too sure of himself since he had never expressed any confidence playing our football games or in practices; but this time, the young defender responsible for guarding him was smaller, and Matt had the advantage. He staccato stepped and faked running to the right just as we had planned. His opponent accepting the feigned shift, ran in the misdirection. Suddenly, Matt was all alone in the end-zone; and the football, a perfectly thrown pass designed for Matt, was spiraling toward his small opened hands. The ball hit his palms and bounced skyward, but Matt quickly reached up and grabbed the football securing his touchdown. The families in the stands cheered, and Matt returned to the sideline with a smile and a little more confidence. I coach Matt’s third grade 7 on 7 football team, and this is my third year of competitive football league coaching. Coaching is a luxury I afford myself with my limited free time, and it brings me a lot of satisfaction.

As soon as I joined the team, I made new friends and had lots of new workouts I have never done before that were tremendously hard. For example, one specific workout I can remember that was super hard fell on a Thursday. That Thursday was a repeat day which means you keep doing the same thing over and over again until the amount you have to do is up. We had to do 18 400’s with 45 seconds of rest. If you did not stay above or below three seconds of your goal, coach would tell you to stop the workout because you're not trying your best. Talk about puking after practices and sweat dripping down your face and back! When I joined the team, we were eligible to go to nationals all over the United States. So throughout the time I was on the private team, I went to nationals for cross country five times and went to nationals for track and field four times just during my three years in middle

The other team, the Cougars, scored the first touchdown plus a field goal. We all were deflated, but in the second quarter our spirits were lifted when we scored our second touchdown of the game. It was 14-10 at half. Now, it was third quarter, and we were on the 14 yard line. It was second down. “Set 42… settttttt… HUTT!” shouted Mitch. I took off. I was supposed to do a slant, but instead I sprinted straight forward. I knew the guy guarding me was not as fast as I was; most people weren’t. So I told Mitch to pass to me no matter what, and he didn’t argue. Before I knew it, I was in the endzone. Finally, I did my slant. I cut across the endzone, while watching Mitch. He saw that I was open. Then the ball was in the air, spiraling towards me. I caught it. Now we were up 21-10. We were on our way to clutching the championship

It all started when I got grounded.I was in my room all bored just thinking. I was thinking about some of my past actions. One of the major ones that was still clear in my mind was all the times I've hurt myself over my dumb ways or decisions. The freshest memory was when I first started to play football. I was interested in being a quarterback. But back then when I was 8 I had this dumb way off throwing one. It was like throwing a bowling ball into the air. But the feeling of the balls grip made me forget about how I used to throw it. But I did have this occasional feeling when I threw it. As if my arm muscle was being pulled. But I didn't mind for as long as I could throw far and high I didn't really care. But boi I should have listened to

My face and ears are bright red sweat dripping down my face. I see the ball come flying toward one of the players on the opposing team. I frantically run toward any one to try and block passes. I watch as our player scoops up the ball and runs down the field.

It was a humid day, in the middle of summer 2016. Football workouts were a living hell on earth; Especially with our new psycho strength coordinator, Coach Don. He always pushed us past our limits. The day consisted of 10 stations, 6 minutes each of cardio, strength, and speed workouts. I look around the room to see me and my brothers aching of pain.

Somehow, I found myself being one of the last runners in the weight room before the coaches had to leave. Lifting became a place where I could overcome my initial

By the time I was finished I already had thoughts of quitting. We did lots of drills and exercises to help us get in shape. They were all designed to put us in pain and tire us out, this was called hell week. It was probably the worst week of my life. After all of that was over, it was time to put on pads. We were already wearing our helmets to get us used to the feeling. We did hitting drills and we also tried out for positions that we wanted to play.

Having trotted the ball up to the three-point line, he beamed the ball to me. As soon as I received the ball, I spun and fired off the winning basket. With that backboard in sight, three players in blue and gold jerseys yanked me to the ground. The referee blew his whistle, announcing I had been fouled. Afterward, the referee lifted me up as I shuffled to the free-throw line. I thought it would be simple, just like coach said. I knew what needed to happen, I needed to make these two free throws to win the game for the Lions. As always, though, it is never that

From freshman year to senior year, I’ve always been determined to give everything I do, everything I have, to accomplish anything and everything that comes to my mind, to be the best that I can be. Whether I was playing football, basketball, or baseball I played with passion, and took pride in what I did. I strongly believe that the amount of work you put into what you do, is how much you will get out of it.

“Too Easy!” “All day!”. The trash talk only made the competition that much more intense when the offense came to the line of scrimmage. The offense was more conservative this time and started off with a simple run up the middle which was quickly shut down by the defense. The play only further fueled the fire in the defense. The offense attempted a relatively similar play on the next go gaining roughly 3 yards. It was now 3rd down from the 6-yard line and the defense seemed like an immovable object at this point. The defense was confident as ever, but that confidence was soon diminished as Hosket dropped back to pass and threw an absolute laser of a throw to his favorite target, Kristian Wilkerson, who caught it in the front right corner of the end zone. The tables had turned as it was now the offense celebrating and letting the defense know about it. After a few whistle blows from Coach Tuke he applauded both the offense and defense as they got together and shook hands. This drill was clearly important to the team as it not only emphasized competition to the team, but also

Our game started at 7:30. In this game we did not win the coin toss. Therefore Clinch got the ball. When they got the ball they threw a pass and scored a touchdown. They did not get the extra point which made the score 6-0. They kicked us off the ball. I was tackled at the our 37 yard line. The play we did was called bunch pass right. On this play I went 5 yards and turned right. The quarterback threw the ball to me. I cut left and broke tackles and scored a touchdown. We kicked an onside kick and got the ball back. It was the 3rd quarter and I ran right. Then out of nowhere a boy came and hit me head on. I was hurt badly. My head was pounding. I felt very