Personal Narrative: Football Underdogs to Champions Essay

Well for me, football is my top favorite sport. When I was in school, I had a problem with authority, and teachers would often make me mad. I tried hard to control my aggression, frustration, and anger. I jumped into drugs and cigarettes to fights and gangs. Because nothing I tried worked, I went to football tryouts. I felt happy and excited for the first time in a long time; I eventually got on the field and ran and ran.

September 20, 2011 was the day that everything changed. Practice that day was long and excruciatingly hot. My coach did not let me take a rest as I was the only full back we had at the time. Hit after hit, it started to add up and my world was spinning but coach told me to keep going, so I did. The very next snap my world got wrecked. My form became lazy because I was beyond exhausted and dehydrated, my head lead my attempt to break the tackle and the kid making the tackle lead with his head as well. Just like that my body went numb, everything was dark, my eyes were open but I could not see. I had no sense of where I was and where I was going. My name left me. At this point I did not know if I was dead or alive. This was the last time I was ever able to strap up and play the game of football. This is what happens to the millions of kids who play football on a daily basis. Somebody was there telling them to go back in even when they were showing early signs of a concussion. The athlete takes one more hit straight to the head out of poor form or exhaustion and then everything goes from bad to worse. These events take place at such a young age that the long term side effects can be fatal.

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.

Final minutes of the first half winding down, my team was marching down the field with a purpose. Across the gridiron was our rival team, Mayfield, who we had beat the previous year in the state championship game. It was a cold November night and the stage was set, playing on their home field, “The Field of Dreams,” in Las Cruses, New Mexico in the semi-finals of the state tournament. Up 14-0, we had the ball and were trying to score before going into halftime. I was handed the ball for a running play and then it happened. Falling to the ground as if I had been shot, I had completely torn my hamstring. I was in complete shock as I lay on the ground. As the pain

I play football here at ULM and we have been in our fall camp for the last 23 days. It is a mental, physical, and emotional strain and tensions are running high. One day early on in camp we were out in the blistering heat practicing. We were almost finished when we called a screen pass and I was going to be the main blocker for the play and if I messed up it wouldn't work. Then as soon as the ball was snapped I stepped with the wrong foot first. This slowed me down and the defender was able to clobber our receiver behind the line of scrimmage. My position coach, Coach Clark, immediately ran over yelling, "What are you doing? Where is the direction you can't lose your man on that play?" I knew what I had done wrong, "I can't let him get up the

I was constantly looked down on, as through the practices, varsity players continuously knock me down and run me over. One varsity player named Jordan Zorbas hit me so hard I felt like a crash test dummy. Later in practices, the varsity roster was taped to the locker-room’s wall. I couldn’t place my name on the list, meaning that I was on the freshman team. I remember thinking,“ Why couldn’t I make it, “ but deep down I knew why. I began practicing with the freshman team at linebacker. September 7th we had our first game against Ida Baker high school. I remember making the first tackle of the game, with me wrapping the running back and stripping the ball from his meaty hands. Although I started the whole game, I was not satisfied with my performance and felt that I should’ve done

We arrived at Smalls Field not even ten minutes later. York High’s stadium is not in the best of shape, but it still works for the game of football. Once we got there, the guys started warming up. I went to help Gianni set up the camera in order to film, and the bleachers we were on overlooked our opponent’s practice field. Gianni and I kept careful watch over their practice. It was an absolute mess. The kids were all running around yelling, cursing, and everything else without any order. There wasn't even a coach in sight. They were not setting a good example for the image of their team, or their school. We got the camera set up and went back down to the field. Max, Wil, and Gianni sat around with me and Dani since they were injured and we just talked about the season. Surprisingly enough, most of their memories were good, even if they did have a losing record. A lot of what they said was positive even if they were talking about losses and I couldn't help but smile knowing

Throughout my years, I have mostly been associated with flag football. Stepping onto a football field takes a lot of guts and there was a time when I had to overcome my own doubts. Back in the Fall of 2015, my sophomore year, I was still a shrimp compared to my superior teammates. Every practice I would exhaust myself to prove my worthy to be on the team, but even more, on the field. Although I was the only player aiming to be quarterback, it did not mean I did not have to try. The second practice started, I felt rumbles within my heart. Of course Juniors and Seniors doubted my skill, that’s no surprise. I was determined to earn their respect no matter what.

Football is back as the first preseason game was played last Thursday. With football coming back, so does fantasy football. Like a lot of people (myself included), you’re scouring the internet for rankings. There’s plenty of rankings out there, but none of them tell you where to take a defense. I am going to present my strategy.

My stomach tightened. I had never played free safety before. The ball was snapped, and I watched as the tailback widened out to receive the pitch. Never had I felt such an adrenaline rush.

I was an incoming freshman, two weeks prior to my first day of high school, and I was terrified. I knew that I loved the sport of football, however I had heard stories from my brother about how tough Stepinac’s freshman football coach was. Everything that I was told was true. One of the coaches great lessons that he taught me was that a hardworking disciplined team is typically more successful than a team that has all of the talent in the world, but is not disciplined and does not work hard. That summer was the hardest that I had ever worked up to that point to start in a football game. The hard work never paid off, and I left at the end of that season defeated. I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t fast enough, and I wasn’t strong enough. I had only played in two of the games, one, for a snap when

My first practice was horrendous, my entire body was sore and I was light-headed, but I did not give up there. After the first week of practice, the coach had a list of who was going to be on A team or B team, coach Safarik started going through the list. I was really nervous, I was sweating, my right foot was shaking, and my whole upper body was paralyzed. Then it happened, I heard my name called out, “Oscar Juan, A team”, coach Safarik shouted. I was happy as could be, but I could not show my emotions just yet.

On my first day of rocket football practice in fifth grade I was nervous. This was the first year at my new school I would be playing football; Because of this I felt I had to prove myself to the players and the coaches. Unexpectedly, my coach yelled promptly at 6pm for us to fall into a line. Out of fear of running laps we all compelled to orders. Being the new guy, I was shoved to the fresh start of the line, after chatting with the two coaches beside him. Suddenly he began to speak in a less tempered voice. In such a way that made it seem he just realized he was yelling at kids to begin with. Calmly, he told us about how we were not allowed to practice without our helmet, shoulder

Looking back to the days of my freshman year in high school, I recall vividly how I aspired to join the football team but could not. I felt so bad but I did not back down, remembering all the great men of this world who kept on trying until they achieved their goal, the likes of Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and so on. I made joining the football team my number one priority in high school.

As the second week began with a bang at that monday evening practice we had our first scrimmage against the eighth grade team,they had been unbeaten the year before but the fact of the matter is the had guys that were like 6”1 or taller and our tallest guy was 5”9.He was on the B team!So you could imagine what happened even though the coaches weren’t keeping track our bench warmers were and it was bad.The score was 42-7 by the end of practice.Next few practices were like intese conditioning but I