Football Frenzy

I woke up in the morning knowing that it was my first day of practice. I could feel my heart beating like a bass drum. For years I have been told that it was too dangerous and that I couldn’t succeed, but that was an opinion. I decided to start focusing on the facts instead. The facts were; I am a senior in high school, I am old enough to make my own decisions, I am athletic and strong, and I had a girl’s heart to win over.

After brushing my teeth I ran out the door without saying goodbye to anyone who had doubts about this decision, which only left Daisy, our Golden Retriever. I rubbed her ears and kissed her between her eyes, I could almost hear her say, “Goodbye, good luck, and I love you!”

The sun was just coming up when I pulled into the school parking lot. Early morning practice was something I definitely was going to have to adjust to.

“No pads- meet on the 10 yard line!” I heard the coach bark.

This was it, my time to prove everyone wrong was starting right now. I started heading towards the 10 yard line when I began feeling like a toy poodle in a pack of Pit Bulls.

After our team meeting, which by the way, I understood exactly zero of the inside jokes, plays, or information, we started to run drills. We were about halfway through conditioning when I had to go to the sidelines to take my inhaler. As I was waiting for my breath to come back to my lungs,I wondered if my family was right.

After a brutal two hour practice I headed home to face the reality that my family had been correct, I couldn’t handle playing football. I walked into my house and saw my mom sitting at the table with the newspaper and a cup of coffee, I felt like I had been gone for the whole day when in reality it was still only 8am.

“I’m so proud of you for facing your fears and taking a leap into a new sport!” My mom beamed. Great, I was completely prepared to tell her how awful it was, how much pain I was in, and that I was done going to football practice. Now I couldn’t. I couldn’t let her know that she was right, and let her down once again!

“Thanks, it was a great practice! I have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do, but I think I will be ok.”

We’ll see how the rest of this season goes!