Beep Beep Beep. That’s the sound of my alarm clock. 5:30 in the mourning is way too early to be getting up in the summer. My heart is beating fast of the alarm clock; and its football tryouts. Brush my teeth, make my lunch and bag, and ride my bike to the school. IT’S FOOTBALL TIME!!!!!
I have to admit, I was a little frightened. I thought I was going to get pushed around. When I got to school they checked my weight and height. The coaches also gave me my shoulder pads, helmet, thigh and knee pads and also my practice pants. At first we had 3 days of helmet and gym shorts, 2 days of helmet and shoulder pants, and finally full contact (practice schedule).
The first week and a half was extremely hard because of the two-a-days and getting up at 6 o clock in the morning every day. My football skills was pretty awful. I didn’t know any defensive or offensive stances. The position I originally wanted to play was defensive end and tight end. When they said they will be playing a spread offense. I thought to myself “DAMN I wanted to be and offensive threat for our squad“.
So they just put me on the line. When Coach Z (varsity o-line coach) told us to do reach block I didn’t know what I was doing. I knew I was doing a lousy job. I thought to myself “I’m never going to get playing time”. I always heard practice makes perfect from adults and my parents; because of my parents’ motivation I worked extra hard. When it was a hitting day we had to do hookies I thought to myself I might get smacked. I was putting myself down mentally, but I actually did really well. That day I learned to never bring my self down because you might be good at it.
A couple of weeks later we had our first scrimmage. At that time I wasn’t starting, but when I got on the field I did really awesome I got 4 tackles and a sack. After that scrimmage I was second string for offense and defense. I wasn’t happy with that. I wanted to be a starter really badly
. I studied all my plays, worked really hard I played in all our games against HFL (killed by 40), Brighton (killed again), Athena (35 to 19), Olympia (lost by 21).
In week 4 or 5 we played against Victor under the lights. I was excited to get the starting position. I had heard they were really great but I wasn’t scared. We played good that game but not good enough. We lost 35 21. We were pushing them around and doing the same plays and still get at least 10 yards. In that game one of our best players got hurt with and concussion. It was really bad. He couldn’t remember what happened that day or the game. I have known Zach since Preschool. When he told us he couldn’t play until the last game it was a relief because it would be a shame if he couldn’t play for the rest of his high school career.
That next week we played Canandaigua. It was an horrible game even though we lost again. I did alright. The only thing that really frustrated me we didn’t really get any yards and the coach made me sit a whole drive (when we got the ball) because I wasn’t blocking the right person.
I made the best decision to try out for football. I met knew people and had fun. If I could go back in time and play modified for 8th and 7th I would because there are so many things I don’t know about my positions and I could be even better than I am know. My advice to all people that play sports like basketball and football (personal favorites) is if you have a bad game, is to keep on practicing or playing because its just one game and you can have a great game next time.