I woke up at 6:30am on July 22nd, it was a hot sunny day in California and it was one of the biggest days of my life. First off, it was my birthday, so it was already a great day for me. I was in a huge house with my whole football team. Today was our championship game and our last game ever all together. We all graduated and had to go off to college in August.We were playing at Sofi Stadium, Los Angeles, a big white stadium from the outside but very green turf on the inside. Our team went 10-0 on the season.

Given that we have to perform really well in the game, a chef prepared our breakfast today. After eating, at 7 I got ready to go get a quick practice out on the field.

       A few teammates came with me this morning, Emily,Dominika,and Ava. We arrived at the field at 7:15 ready to get to practicing for the game. But my knee was hurting a little bit because about a year ago I suffered from an acl injury. I just got back out on the field about a month ago, which made me only play the first 4 games of the season with my team. I missed more than half of the season, so I wondered if Coach Jimmy would even start me. 

We finished practicing and got home by 9:30. As we got home we all showered and studied our plays before the game,so we were ready. The game was at 7:30,so we had a lot of time before we had to get back to the field. 

Since it was only 11am, some of us slept for two hours to relieve our stress. I put on my headphones and listened to my favorite hype music while icing my knee down, so it would hopefully feel better.We had to be on the field at 5pm on the dot. 

At 2 I had some lunch, the chef made the team salads and burgers. So we ate and at 3 we all got together with coach Jimmy and talked about the starting lineups for the game. We walked into the cool blue chilly room in the house with lots and lots of leather seats. Coach then says “Okay guys, let’s all sit down and talk about the starting lineups.” He said it in a very dark voice, so I was very scared if he was even going to have me play. Since I was the best player on the team prior to my injury. “After I announce the lineups, we will be watching a little bit of film on the other team.” I was shaking,so nervous for him to announce the starting lineups, but at the same time I was so excited to watch the film on the big 80x80 tv screen in the room. 

So as the coach is about to announce the lineups, I whisper to Dominika. “Are you scared?” I said nervously. 

She responds and says “ Yeah, a little bit but I think we’ll be fine. Why are you scared? You were amazing before your injury and you did great at morning practice today.” 

“You’re right, I just don’t know...” I said to Dominika. Little did she know my acl was suffering a lot.

          We all got settled and it was time for Coach Jimmy to announce the starting offensive lineup. “So, I know a lot of you are expecting the lineups to be the same as they used to be but I switched them up a little bit. At quarterback you all know the mvp of the division, so we had to keep her there for the big game, DOMINIKAAA!!” 

       “Yesss, go Dominika!!” says the team

       Then the coach announces the rest of the offense, “At running back we have Emily!! At wide receiver 1..”

“Oh my god,oh my god.” I said very anxiously to Dominika

     “ Ava!!” coach announces

     “ What, Coach? Why am I not the wide receiver 1?

      “ Because I don’t want to risk injury on your knee and this game is just way too important Olivia. You’re wide receiver 3.” said coach

       “ WHAT COACH!”

        I ran upstairs to my room and started crying, I was so sad to figure out I wasn’t wide receiver 1. I couldn't even handle watching the film. Although I did figure out that I was the starting safety on defense, offense was my strong suit. 

I listened to music and calmed down a little bit, till it was 4:30 and I had to leave at 4:40. So I put on my baby blue and light pink cotton uniform with my big blue football senior hoodie over it. Me and Dominika drove to the field together and some girls went with the coach. As Dominika could see I was still upset from the lineups earlier. So she asked “ Why are you still upset? You’re still starting, just be grateful.” 

I responded “ What Dominika! You don’t understand, this is my last chance to prove myself and to show how good I am. I am going to college Dominika, unlike you I don’t have another year to prove myself. My time is now and I’m going to show coach that he should’ve had me at #1 all along.”

        We got to the field and started practicing for a little while. I was showing off my catches and Dominika was throwing me some perfect throws. Ava was doing okay but not as good as I was doing. 

My knee started to hurt a little bit but I didn't tell anyone because I didn’t want the coach to take me out of the lineup. So as it got closer and closer to gametime we started to slow down a little bit and make sure our minds were in it for the game. So I went up to my coach and apologized for the way I reacted earlier and he said it was all okay and he gets why I was upset. It was 5 minutes away and I went out for the coin toss cause although I wasn’t wide receiver 1, coach Jimmy would never take my captain spot away. The coin flipped up in the air, “Tails!” I said. It landed on tails and we started on defense, we did our chant before the game and then there it goes. The game started, it was the first play and they did a 2 yard pass in front of me and BOOM! I smacked the ball right to the ground before she caught it. “Let’s go Liv!!” said my team. We stopped them on their first drive and ran down the field and scored a touchdown. The crowd was going wild! As I went back on defense the next drive my acl started to hurt a lot more. I was practically limping. But I didn't think anyone noticed it, until... 

“ Emily go in for Liv.” Said Coach Jimmy.

I said to him “ What? Why I'm fine coach.

“ I see your limp” He says

      I proceed to get more angry and the game goes on. It was the third quarter at this point and I haven't been in for two quarters. The score was 28-7 them, it was getting me really frustrated. So with 4 and a half minutes left in the third quarter, I walked up to coach and begged him to put me in. 

“ Coach please put me in, I can win the game. Please Coach, Please!”

“Ava, come out.” said coach Jimmy. 

      I was thinking to myself “oh my god, oh my god, he just took Ava out and gave me her place.” Ava was in the #1 spot so I was really happy he put me there. I ran in and heard the crowd screaming for me, I told Dominika I was going to do a fly and to throw it up to me and I’ll catch it. Dominika calls hike, I sprint as fast as I can on the ruff bright green turf, I see the ball come up in the air for me to catch. I jump up and.. BOOM! I come down with it. In the endzone for a touchdown. My team was yelling..

“ HEADTAP! HEADTAP!”

   And there I was laughing and looking at coach making sure he knew he made the right decision by putting me in. My knee was stinging a little bit but not enough for me to come out of the game. The game went on and we started to catch up to them, the score was 35-30, they had the lead. With 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter we were on defense and had to make a stop. The quarterback snaps the ball and throws it to the girl in front of me, I see the ball coming and jump right in front of it! Getting an interception to put our team back in the game with a chance to win. There was only a minute and 50 seconds left on the clock. We got down the field and were 10 yards away from the endzone with 20 seconds on the clock. It was third down so we only had two more chances. 

        Dominika snapped the ball and ran but someone pulled her flag with 9 seconds left. We had no timeouts, so we had to snap the ball quickly. I ran to the back of the endzone, picturing in my head me running down the field when I was a kid. Dominika threw the ball up, it was coming to me. The crowd went silent and all I could hear was the ball pushing towards me. I saw myself as a kid again and knew I needed to get this catch and win the game for my team. The game felt like it was in slow motion, I went up for the ball and it was really high. I put my one hand up and BOOM!!!!!!! I CAUGHT IT!! TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!! THE ONE HANDED CATCH IN THE ENDZONE!! Except.. I couldn’t move. I could feel my acl hurting and I heard something crack on my way down. With everyone screaming and jumping on me, I couldn’t move at all. The next thing I heard was sirens ringing. So was it really worth it?