Personal Narrative: What I Learned In A Football Team

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.

Stars: I attended Lee High School in Huntsville, AL for 4 years. As a general, I participated in many varsity sports, but anyone who knows me knows my favorite is football. Looking in as an 8th grader the varsity team at Lee was pretty good under head coach Kinte Welch; however, finally graduating and becoming a part of the team my freshman through junior year was pretty awful. Our program was awful because of many reasons, but you can 't blame it all on the head coach. Ending my junior season, we 'd maybe won 4 games in 3 seasons. At the beginning of baseball season my junior year the athletic department decided to release him from his head coach position. After many potential coaches filled out for the position our principle filled the spot. He was familiar with the football in our area and he also coaches at a rival school Huntsville High School. Coach Woods has been around football all his life also playing linebacker at the University of Arkansas. Woods taking over and hiring a new staff made our life so much easier. The senior class who came in as a freshman, and stuck through the tough times help lead the team to the 6A playoffs after not being a contender for the last 10 years. I played a huge role as a defensive captain and we were ranked one of the top defenses in our region. As a three-year starter for the Generals, we turned the whole program around my senior season and made it to the second round of the playoffs where we lost to a power house.

I constantly fought this mental battle of giving in to the temptation of not playing and letting all of my teammates and coaches down, or growing thicker skin and sucking up the pain in order to satisfy the voice in the back of my mind. This period of turmoil seemed to not have an end. Then, as if by miracle, everything changed as I entered my junior year in high school. My knee pains had nearly disappeared, I shed most of the extra weight I had, I even developed my shooting and dribbling to the point where my peers began to notice the drastic “transformation” I went through. That season, I lead my team in points, rebounds, and blocks per game and made it to the semi-finals of the state championship tournament, the furthest the program had gone in four years.

Football has been a big part of my life for as long as I could remember. Ever since I was in 2nd grade football has been my passion. Currently, I stand at 6”8, 260 pounds and I play right tackle for the Fayetteville Bulldogs. Football has shaped me up to the young man I am today and helped me get through the most tragic moment in my life.

The game of football has been a crucial part of my life and an integral aspect in my maturity as a young man. From playing, watching, or teaching the game, I have learned many qualities that are needed to be successful in life. I have gained toughness from many long workouts, practices, and games. I have also learned how to take criticism in a positive way and become better from it. At Michigan, I would hope to continue any role possible involving football. Whether it would be playing, coaching, or even helping with equipment, I would love to participate in any way

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.

My freshman year flew by as I stood on the sideline game after game, not even caring that I wasn't playing. I was so intimidated by other better players on the team that I did not even want to try and get playing time. Just like that, my freshman year of football went to waste, and I wanted change. I started sophomore year with a new plan. I was going to work harder than everyone no matter who they were. The off-season started and I was introduced to our new JV coach, Coach Mike. The intensity of his practices left me to question every day if that practice was more exhausting than the last. Despite the difficulty, I worked as hard as possible every day, and it paid off. I did not know it at the time but I was not just growing physically, but also mentally. Football taught me leadership, sacrifice, discipline, bravery, selflessness, and most importantly, it taught me resilience. Playing football was and still is one of the most difficult things I've experienced, but football brings out one's true character, and for that very reason, I am glad that I was influenced that day into

But I had just spent time getting in the gym and just worked on my skill and craft and was ready for the next year to come up and I could represent my school, and that's what I did I made varsity and we ended with a record with 25-1 losing in the championship but that did stop me I had played that whole summer coming into to my 8th grade year being really good and went on to having the same thing that happen to me in 7th grade going undefeated to losing in the championship but like always it didn't stop my goal and I played all summer coming into my freshman year a father tolton thinking that I was going to be a star but that didn't happen I had to be the backup to a senior that just lead the team to a state championship. But I looked at the brighter side of it and took things from his game and put them into mines and got me way better. But I'm now going into my sophomore year just trying to be the best to play the game and lead my team to a great

After our devastating loss in 2015, I realized that failure has more lessons to offer than success. The following season, I found myself sitting the bench for the first couple of games after previously starting. I played poorly during the state championship, and I blamed myself for the loss, which was affecting my playing, but my coach always stated, “Don’t say sorry. Fix it.” I analyzed the mistakes I was making and revised them to earn my starting position back. The failure only motivated me to perform at my highest level and to work harder in conjunction with my

First, I had to accept that I didn’t make the football team. Reflecting on the past is not going to help me in the future. It was not easy, but it is the first step in trying to achieve success. Secondly, I had to understand why I failed. I asked the coaches why I didn’t make the team, and they gave me helpful advice on what I needed to work on. Lastly, I had to create a plan to help me achieve my goal because I didn’t want to give up. Plus, I wanted to make the football team in high school. So, I started exercising three times a week, practicing catching the football, even watching football drills. My plan is to continue these drills and exercising until high school football

In our quaint South Georgia town, football is valued and our team is expected to excel each and every year. We started practicing in late May and continue to practice throughout the summer break all the way up until season started. That year we had 10 new starters on offense including me. Defense, on the other hand, had 6 returning starters including 2 big time players. Valdosta was our opening game. We ended up losing but it was a great wake up call for our team. We then went on to win 5 straight and were the number 1 seed in our sub region. Our 7th game is when everything started going downhill. The game before, we lost a very important impact defensive lineman due to injury. This affected us substantially.

Once I failed, but now I am showing my strengths. There was this high school I played played for named Central Dauphin. They were called the Rams. Before I go on, I am going to fast forward to the end of Junior year and to the beginning of my Senior year. It was a game against Carlisle Thundering Herd. The game was cold and it was the first game of playoffs. I did not start at the time but our starting tackle got hurt so I had been thrown in there. Now take in mind my body is ice cold and my muscles are not stretched. I then remember getting tackled from behind and feeling some popping noises in my ankle. I was laying there afraid my football career was over. Mind you that this was now my second ankle injury of that year. A few teammates had

Football in high school took utmost of my time. It made myself set family plus friend’s aside since it was a sport I committed myself to every day. I knew I was not going to be playing at the professional or college level yet I desired to have a good high school team; unfortunately that did not occur. My junior year, we won two games and lost the rest. During my senior year, we won four games and lost the rest, but that was two more games won than the previous year. Occasionally it felt like all that work and obligation was not worth it. During the last home game, however my team and I, did something outrageous. We proved to all those newspapers, opposing teams, and loyal and un-loyal fans that with hard work and team work, we were able to achieve great things.

At the start of my junior year of McNeil High School I was put in the varsity class for one month. I would train with the returning varsity players and learn from the varsity coach. Ever since my freshman year of high school, I dreamed about becoming a varsity player and now had the opportunity to make it. However, at the end of that month I had received news that I did not have the capability to become a varsity player and was moved down to junior varsity. This was probably one of the toughest setbacks that I had ever faced in my life. I started to question my own ability because I practiced regularly like any normal varsity player, but I never had an edge over anyone. From that point forward I was determined to become an entirely new player so that the coaches would have no doubt that I was good enough to be on varsity.

The beginning of the summer of my freshman year was an exciting time for the whole team. We began our season following another incredible state finish. We were all ready to start a new season; however, the beginning of the summer season did not go as well as I had anticipated. As a freshman on the team, I was expected to come to practice, work as hard as I could, and be silent while doing it. This is exactly what I did every day of practice. I never understood why one of the captains would glare at me everyday at practice, or why none of the older girls would talk to me. The other freshmen began to create relationships with the older teammates, but I was never given that opportunity. It began to be a very long summer of miserable practices feeling excluded