Football. Usually rainy and cold, but sometimes you get those days where it’s 80 degrees and all sun. That was Tuesday. Tuesday’s practice was hot and muggy; everyone was ornery and pissed off at the world. It also didn’t help that we just came off a two game losing streak to teams that we should have beaten. That’s when the lid of the jar exploded. It happened so fast and within a few minutes we had two and then three guys yelling at each other. Even our couch was yelling. “If you want to yell and fight like this then we can run, up to you!” he was barking like a mad dog. “He started it first!.”  “ We all just need to calm down!” The whole time a million things were going through my head mostly on how much this running is going to suck,and where this will lead to if we continue fighting. When the day was over we were still mad at each other; nothing like before of course, but still hot headed. It finally took us a couple days to cool down and get a handle on our emotions. We all gathered around our coach “Mr. Martin”  after practice and listened to him. No words were said and nothing distracted us.We just listened.

“When you are on a football team, you became a family” he said. “You have 24 guys you can call brothers.  Not like blood brothers, but a brotherhood, a bond that says I have your back in any situation and against any opponent.” Just like brothers fight we fight, we tear each other up, but in the end we still have to love each other.  Fighting never helps any situation but it’s needed. That might sound crazy, but fighting brings the intensity level up and also keeps us closer together. “After the fighting is over you realize how much you need 11 guys working together to achieve what you are looking for.”

This football season has the opportunity to prove that we are still a threat to any team that steps on the field. Which means we have the most stress put on us to succeed. We have already made history with our numbers and the numbers of people that attended weightliftings over the summer. But what is expected is to make history in a different way. Playoffs. We are on our way to a winning season the first in 9 years;we just went through the toughest part in our schedule and sure we came out on the losing end, but we still gained positive things from those two games. Now we have the momentum going into friday's game; even though it’s their homecoming and they've had two weeks to prepare for us we are still focused.  

Finally, Friday came.  Before every game we watch an inspirational video and this week’s video was about brotherhood and how far you will go for your buddy. Throughout the whole video I didn’t think about anything.  I couldn't think about anything because all I was focused on was the video. This game will show us and our community that we can and will overcome any adversity that it presented. Which in the long run will help this community tremendously, and will give us an edge over other schools.

Every time we step on the field our opponent shouldn't even want to line up against us but if they see we fight all the time and we can't function as a unit they will no longer have that fear, that “Holy cow they are big!” attitude  because they have already found the chink in our armor. That’s why at  every practice and in every game we will fight, but we have to look through it and remember we are a family and it will always be that way. We have to realise that every person that is on the field will crawl that extra inch for you when you can not. We ended up winning that game 42-14 which challenged us to stick together when things get tough. We always pull together and walk out victorious.