It was out fifth game in sixth grade and we were down by at least a touchdown. We were playing one of the top teams in the division at the time just below Green Mountain. On the previous kick return one of our main runners, David, had gotten injured and we didn’t have very many backups. We went through all our offensive plays before you really noticed it and worse than that our defense failed to stop them from scoring again.

I was just standing there watching from the sideline, witnessing everything that happend. With one player out of the kick return the coaches were frantically searching for someone who could fill in. All of a sudden without warning, without any signs of it, the coach decides to call my name. I froze, like a deer in headlights, frozen, just standing there, my heart started beating faster and faster.

I slowly jogged out to where David usually lines up on kick return. I just stood there waiting for it to be over, waiting for something to happen to get me out of there, waiting for the coaches to realize that there were other players more qualified to doing this. Sadly for me, that realization never came.

This was it, the whistle had blown and the kicker was sprinting up to the ball. Everything suddenly went into slow motion and the ball was hurtling towards me of all people. I remember thinking “why me, why does it have to be me?” So is stuck my arms out and caught the ball. A bit dazed I just started running not really paying much attention to my surroundings, just running as fast as I could, straight forward. Once I started paying attention again I realized that multiple people were running at me as fast as they could. After what had seemed like an eternity I finally got hit and taken down by two of the “better” players on their team. It didn’t exactly hurt, but I did feel it.

After getting up I realized I had gotten six whole yards! That may not seem like a lot but to someone who has never ran the ball before in an actual game, against one of the top teams in our division, it was fairly good. After it was all over, I just went back to the sidelines, when I got to the sidelines the coaches asked me if I was ok and then just told me to wait for it to happen again. For a group of coaches that was losing a game they all seemed fairly happy witch was good for me because that meant I didn’t disappoint them. For the rest of the game I played my share of cornerback and waited for kick return to come again.

For the rest of the game the ball was never kicked towards me again. If it was I’m not sure what would have happend but I would’ve been ready because this time I at least would know what to expect, and maybe I could have ran the ball 7 yards maybe 8 if I was lucky.