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I am standingthere disappointed;my team surroundsme as the lights go out. I look

around and seetears in my teammate's eyeswhich let me know that we were all sharing the

samefeelings."How did we get to this point?" is the thoughtrunning through our minds. This

wasn't how our seasonwas supposedto start. While my coach was analyzingthe game before

we went back to the locker room, my mind startsto wander, in order to make senseof what just

. My mind took me all the way back to the start of the game which had startedout so

I was feeling phenomenalas I stood in the middle of the field waiti4g for the first game
f^seluo{"^*''
of the seasonagainstthe state champsfrom the year before to stafi5ltis was my first chanceto

go out with an organized team and play a sport that I was starting to enjoy. With all my

teammatesaround me, we startedchanting some meaninglesswords that to a strangerwould

make us look like an African tribe praying to their god. But what very few people outside the

team knew was that thesewords were actually very powerful, and were supposeto help us get

psychedup for the game.I felt like I hadjust joined a fraternity becausethese/other playersand

I were starting to form a bond that was unbreakable.After stretching and chanting for a small

amount of time, we were ready. Ready to start our seasonoff the right way. We looked like a

herd of bulls that were ready to trample over our opponents.The expectationsfor this season

were extremely high; after spendingthe year before rebuilding and setting up an all-star team our
 Gouda2

coach had us believing that we would breezeright through all of our opponents,win the

conferencechampionship, and maybe even the state championship.

J" The whistle blew, the game had begun. Our defenseran out on to field ready to

ou.eower the other team and take the ball from them. Even though this was my first ever play
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CIo'i' I and I did not know what to expect,I refusedto let the idea of me getting beat by the offensive
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,og\ "-/ linemen entermy brain" The ball got snappedby the centerwhich I was taught was the queuefor
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to move and startmy attack.Even though my coachhad stressedfor me to get low, and be
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I had fooled myself into thinking I didn't have to do all thosethings and that this was **lL{
I 5 *- -!':re " to be extremely easy for me. After fighting with the offensive linemen for what felt like an
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etemity, I fell on ground with him on top of me. "This isn't going to be as easyas I hoped," I
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thought to myself as the play ended.To beatthis guy, and give us a chanceto win, "I would have
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to follow my coach'sinstructionsas closely as possible"I saidto myself. When the next play do(. '' ,
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started,I hit the man on the oppositeside of me with every ounceof power I had inside of me q'o ^ ,,,j ,
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while staying low with one blink, and on my secondblink I saw somethingthat amazed,me.
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offensive lineman was on the ground leaving me wide opento pursuethe running back. As , *u, ar,
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tackling the running back to end the play I thoughtto myself that my coachwas right, if I play
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the game with the right techniques,I would be unbeatable. t
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I rememberthinking back during the game to the first five days of practice, when I

wasn't sureif I wantedto continueto play this sport,or if I was going to end up blaming my

friend that had naggedme into coming out for wasting a couple days of my life and move on.

Throughoutthe first couple of practicesthe only words I heardout of our coach'smouth were

commitment and loyalty to the team, and the other players. While this meant nothing to me at the

time, hearingsomethinga million times will most likely leavean impressionon you. As the days
 G ou d a3

of practice went by and I saw the samepeople coming out to the practicesevery day, I was

position
shocked.They would gather up to stretch,and then break apart to their individual
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players
coach's who would put theseplayers through somepotentially lifeending drills until the

where he
could barely breath. At the Defensive line practice, the coachtreated it like a plantation
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was the overseerand we were the slaves.Any objections to his methodsusually equaledone

me
around the field. My first drill which he humorously called "the warm-up" consistedof

had to
running three sixty yard sprints, while I tackled two fellow players every 10 yards, I also
be
watch out for the football in casehe decided to "fumble" it forward, to what seemedto always

certain
a h'ndred yards away from where I was standing.All this was to be completedwithin a

time limit, which if a player didn't.l.g under he was to repeat.After the third practiceI thought
i{._ I told myself, and the only reasonthey were
I had figured it out. "These playerq6'hliilrrutr.'"
that
subjecting themselvesto all this torture was just to show off to the coach. I now understand

for each
that was ignorance on my part becausetheseplayers, I now know were working hard
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other, so that when it was their turn to help the team they could confidently and successfully ' U)ar' 17
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I came , Lr/o
it. That made me feel a little happier about the night, even though we lost out on the field,
'f 'l( t at , 'na
loyalty )
out of the experiencewiser. Through just that first game I learnedwhat commitment and ft 770{"

even if y4fr it"i

were. As I stood there half listening to my coach talking about the game, I realizedthat
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this team lost every game for the rest of the year I would not stop coming out to the

becausel, as my coachwould say,"had both feet in the circle"

Later on that night the team met up at one of the player's house and starteddiscussingthe

game and what they thought of it. Almost all of us were disappointedat how the night had turned

surrounded
out and some were very verbal about it. I went and sat with a group of guys that were
and
by food and were known to the team as the "big boys". Thesewere obviously the offensive
 4
Gouda

defensive linemen, but to me, they were known as my buddies. These guys were my buddies

becausewe had spentthe most time practicing with each other, and against each other. We all

And sincein the real world most peoplewon't tell

knew eachother's strengths,and weaknesses.

guys and I had formed a bond that was very rare. As

"2.,' others what their weaknesseswere, these

some of the players argued about what went wrong and how it could have been different my

mind startedto drift again and took me back to my coach'sspeech :yp.lli"gtv --'
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remembered.He had said somethingthat was very true, and that I had been thinking about ever

since.He said to us, "even though we lost on the field today,the whole night wasn't a loss." He

explained to us that through the weeks of practice that passedand through this ftrst game, we had

just made lifelong friends that we could always count on in gamesand in life. This was a very

strong statement,but now thinking back on it, I have to completely agreewith him. Taking in

considerationthe Linemen's rare bond, I knew exactly which game situations the other linemen

liked and didn,t like. John,one of the Offensive linemen on the team was one of thoseguys that I

had bonded with. I knew that he had his best blocks on run plays and that he loved to "pull

around", (which was a term usedfor when an offensivelinemenwas to go to the oppositeside of

where he startedthe play and becomethe lead blocker for the running back) catch people off-

guard,and drill them to the ground.His passblocking on the other hand,was not the best.A

defendersbest chanceof beatinghim was in passsituations.Sincehe didn't havethe best

balancepartly becausehe was top heavy, a defensive linemen that was matchedup againsthim,

could easily play with his weight and throw him off balancewhich would leadto an easysack.

After thinking about it, it hit me that mostly all of the friends that I have kept up with, and still

considerclose friends are the peoplethat playedwith me on the football team.

 G o u d a5

I left that housethinking what a great night it was, I wasn't happy that we had lost, but

what made me happy was that I had gotten a couple of epiphaniesthat night. Thinking back on

how it all started,I am forced to chuckle becauseI now rcalize that playing footba!,which I

thought was going to be a horrible investment of time and one of the biggest mistakesI was

going to make that year, had actually turned out to be the best decision I had made in my high

Pi schoolyears.I realizedthat the gameof football is not just aboutthe wins and losses.Football
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{t{ turned out to be the thing that transformed me, and shapedme into who I am today. Through
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football I have gained many lifelong valuable qualities. I leamed the meaning of commitment
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and loyalty; I learned that it is an honor for a team to ask you to representthem in a game, and if

you are given that honor, then you must do everlthing in your power to help that team succeed.I

realizedthrough the happy times we had when we won, and the sadtimes we had when we lost,

that I will form a special bond with thesepeople I play with that will causeme to befriend them

for many years to come. Since my days of football, I find that I am hooked to doing sportswither

its Football or Rugby, I hnd that I have to be involved in athletics. I look at football as other

people look at marijuana; to me it was my gateway drug.