November 1, 2024

September, 2012. On the day I signed up for football, I honestly didn’t know what was in store for me. I had only ever watched the sport on TV. But that had sparked enough interest for me to try it. 

Year one was rough. I was probably the smallest guy out there and I had never played a physical sport before. Year two, I started to get the hang of things. In years three through six my understanding of football really grew, and not just in a physical way. I was starting to gain something of a “football IQ.” 

Years eight and nine were middle school football. No more peewee. I felt like a king in the eyes of players in lower grades and I looked up to those above me. I loved sitting on the sidelines in seventh grade and watching the eighth grade games. I sometimes even played. You might think it’s crazy to enjoy the sidelines but the amount of knowledge you can gain about a sport just by watching it is incredible. 

Eighth grade was the first year in which I did something. I was playing corner, and throughout the season I had seven interceptions. That’s pretty good for a middle school kid. 

Once you get to the high school level of athletics, things start to change. As a freshman you’re obviously not going to do much, and I did indeed do almost nothing on varsity. I was a dog on JV, though. 

On one of my first varsity plays, against Cuyahoga Falls, I broke my collarbone.

You have to expect things like that, right? 

Well I was not expecting it. It was a weird feeling at first: literally no pain at all, which was nice. But my freshman season had ended. 

Still have next year. 

Which was a much better one, by the way. I started on both kickoff and kickoff return. Some of my favorite plays ever are from kickoff. You get so much leverage when taking off the line, and there’s almost nothing the other team can do as long as you’re willing to hit someone.

Someone once told me the field is like a canvas, and you’re the brush. You want your painting to be smooth, fluent, but you also want it to be dramatic and stand out. 

He then explained that when running your body shouldn’t be tense, but instead to let all your muscles loose, and before impact take all of that built-up speed and drive without stopping.

That advice really improved my performance. When you’re going you gotta go, if that makes sense. 

But enough about sophomore year. 

This season’s not even over, and it’s been the most eventful season yet. If you watched each game of the season, you could see the progression of the team. Watching every player improve and being a part of that is inspiring, to say the least.

 The most interesting game was against Revere. And it’s not because of the bell, even though it’s amazing that we got it back. 

While I didn’t get to play, the game was a great display of Copley’s skill, and it was just a fun game to watch. If Revere scored, then we scored and vise-versa. It was cold, but the energy was electric. 

Touchdown after touchdown after touchdown. And it was a great feeling to be able to stand on the field with everyone after we got the bell. 

I can’t quite describe how I felt at that moment.

We had just won the bell!

I was so happy that Copley recovered it, but also kind of disappointed. I had done nothing to help get it back.  

I’m also disappointed because I didn’t get to help the seniors win.

Not that they needed it, obviously. Again, I’m more than happy we won.

There’s this quote I really like by Jose Mourinho. It goes, “You can have the top stars to bring the attention, you can have the best stadium, you can have the best facilities, you can have the most beautiful project in terms of marketing and all this kind of thing. But if you don’t win... All the work these people are doing is forgotten.”

Winning is my breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And I’m hungry.