Bay St. Clair

Extra Weeks

            It was a normal day after a fun filled week of practices and a win against Cave Spring Middle School, our rival. It was the best season by Hidden Valley Middle School since 1999. I was a captain in every game and had played a phenomenal season. I was in English class and an announcement over the loud speakers was made for certain people on the football team to go to the Auditorium.  I walked down to the Auditorium and sat in the very front row in the dead center next to Jake and Jahiem. Coach Weaver was there with calendars of the football schedule which were poorly stapled and handed them out. The months were all out of order. He told us that we made the JV team and could start practice Tuesday after our game against Northside. He said that we were getting pulled up so that we could learn the system and be leaders in our group for the next year. Coach said, “I am offering three more weeks of football, and if I were you, I would gladly take that opportunity.”

All of the new players were required to be at practice one hour before so that they can be given their equipment and choose their locker. By the time we are settled in everyone else was there. I got dressed and headed out to the field. Before every practice, as a team we had to run three hills and then go back on the field for stretches. The hill is monstrous, it’s a massive hill that goes straight up and that is all dirt where there is no place to gain footing. At the beginning where the incline started to drastically change I felt I was begging my sprint to the top of Mount Everest. I expected the hill to be a tougher challenge but it turned out to be, not that bad. Once warm ups had started, the new members of the team stood in the back learning the new stretches. The stretches were more developed than any other I have experienced in my 8 years of football. For some reason I wasn’t nervous, I felt like I had been here before and it was just another day of the grind, trying to get a W at the end of the week. Practice was split up into two halves, defense then offense. The first week for all the 8^th graders was basically just a study week, learn everything and you might get a little playing time in the game this Thursday. Practice was more professional and more exciting than ever before. During offensive practice there was a huge emphasis on footwork and fundamentals, usually we only go over them for a week or two then move on but I instantly knew that this team cared about form because if you have the right form and technique, even If you aren’t as good as the other person you can still hold your own. At the end of practice we scrimmaged, I was playing right defensive end and the starting running back was running up the middle so I finessed my way passed all the huge linemen and hit the running back so hard I knocked him off his feet and you could hear the pop all the way across the field. I knew from that moment on, the coaches knew I was a kid who liked to hit.

            During the Christiansburg game I played a lot during the first half but they took me out of the second half because they were trying to work some other kids in because we were already losing by so much. The following Monday our current Tight End could not catch a cold if it hit him, he dropped just about everything. So they had me run a 5 yard out versus the number one cornerback and the throw was horrid, it was behind me and had no spiral on it at all but I planted my foot and jumped up and caught it with one hand then sauced the corner. I ran more routes as the week progressed and they moved me to the starting H back on our power formation and that would be the only offense I played for the rest of the year. We practiced at the lower 40 (the lacrosse field) for the last two days because the rain was so severe and coach did not want to risk messing up the field. The lower 40 was drenched and there were mud puddles everywhere. Some of the coaches had us dive and roll in the huge puddles of water which was honestly so fun but made the rest of practice so cold. We ran a drill where I was playing deep safety and the offense ran different routes with bigger defenders like myself to toughen them up for a week of soaking wet practices. I intercepted three passes and dropped two because I didn’t have my gloves on so it was impossible to catch any throw without a spiral. Coach Tolliver yelled across the practice field,” why are you starting at H if you can’t catch a ball in a little rain?”

I exclaimed,” hey, I may have dropped two passes but I still have more catches then the entire Jets offense this year.”

Coach Tolliver responded laughingly,” okay, okay, okay, you got me there.”  During defensive practice I didn’t get many reps on defense because there were so many defensive ends so coach Kessler moved me to defensive tackle and I did good because the offensive line I was playing against wasn’t that good. They brought the varsity O-Line over and I had to play against them which was a difficult task since they were each, like three of me. They double teamed me on almost every play and I held my gap so well that the coaches were impressed enough that I won the starting job in a day and had to learn what seemed like millions of alignments and calls two days before the game. After our conditioning of sprinting back to the top of the hill concluded we walked in to a locker room that surprisingly smelt great and warm towels, this treatment was so much better than what we were used to. The Pulaski game was a big challenge for me on defense. I was getting blocked by three people on every play and they were all two times as big as me if not more. Getting triple teamed by the enormous linemen of Pulaski was like being blocked by a moving stone wall. I had a few tackles but I missed a diving tackle that costed us a key touchdown. Their defensive front was insane, I was playing H for most of the game and it was difficult because I needed to clear a space for the running back to go through, there were too many people and I couldn’t help the running back out and we got nowhere on offense. Pulaski blitzed three people on the left side one play when we were backed up in our own end zone and I clipped two of them to avoid a safety. We ended up losing pretty badly that game and we didn’t even score.

            Cave week, the most important week of every season, our rivals, this week of all weeks is the week everyone gives 110% on. This week determines discipline, even if you’re the better team you still have to be very cautious because in these close games one mistake can kill you. The week seemed to go by slow, minutes were hours whist hours were days, the anticipation of the game overshadowed all the week’s events by far. Practice this week was dry thankfully but it was normal and uneventful for everyone had their eyes set on beating Cave Spring. By the time the game started I was nervous but determined to have a spectacular game. They were up by 14 points and had to get 5 yards to get a first down, the QB drops back to pass and I rushed the offensive guard inside but when he moved to adjust to my angle of penetration, I quickly spun around and laid a ferocious hit on the QB. We went on to lose the game but I finished with two sacks, one forced fumble, and five tackles.

            Looking back upon this moment I feel like it’s so fresh in my head because it symbolizes all the differences of growing up and how everything is much harder but you also get rewarded and treated better. This is also in my head because it is me taking the next step in my career of playing football and it gave me an experience that I will never forget. IF I could go back I think I would cherish the game even more than I had and just take the time to realize how lucky I was to be able to lay such a great sport and a sport that I love. Not being able to play this current season has humbled me and made me realize that football won’t always be there for me and that I need to cherish the game whist I still have it.