How Football Changed My Life
How Football has Changed my Life
What event changed your understanding of yourself, or that of someone you know?
I was five years old when I started. It was early august and it was my first time ever playing an organized sport. I could tell I was about a few weeks late for the practices because everyone else had a football helmet and I didn’t. It was nerve wracking to see all the kids playing and me not knowing what to do. At the time I was really short (well of course I was five) but some of the kids were twice my size. Ok maybe I exaggerated a little bit but still some of those kids were big. After a few minutes of looking like a deer in headlights one of the coaches finally gave me helmet I could use to practice with and, I went straight to practice. There was different stations because it wasn’t practice in full pads it was only conditioning. At that moment that was when my Journey began to …show more content…
become great. Furthermore, so after a few seasons my dad took me out of football because he didn’t like that I wasn’t getting a lot of playing time.
I believed that wasn’t right but I never came back to football for a long time. Then one day I realized I want to play football again because it is what I loved. So, in August in the year of 2014 that’s when I began to play again. I hadn’t played football since first grade and I had very little experience so I really had to work hard. I remember the first hitting drill I did with that team I got layed out. Its funny to me now because I was one of the new kids and they put me against the hardest hitter on the team. Before I went against the kid I was somewhat nervous because the kid was pretty big. From that moment I learned to never stop moving when you go head up with somebody because chances are that that you are going to get ran over. But thing that benefited me most was the coaching staff. Yes sometimes they were mean but they did not only teach us how to play football they taught us life lessons, and to learn from our
mistakes.
Moreover, In my second back there was one game that really lit a spark in me to strive harder to reach my goal. In this game the position I was playing was defensive end. During the game I had 8 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 5 normal tackles, and 1 safety. This game I couldn’t be stopped I was a bully on the field. Those kids were not stopping me from getting to the ball. After a few more games we made it to the championship. That was one of my most favored championships because that team could not score on us and we ended up mercy ruling them to win the game. At the end of that season it was finally our banquet. During the Award ceremony the whole team was given a three-foot tall championship trophy. I felt really proud of myself and my team because we went undefeated that season. But there was one trophy that made me really proud, and that was my Defensive MVP trophy. I didny’t even know I would get it but the coaches gave it to me, and my mom was proud and when I mean proud she was getting teary eyed.
In addition, the season after that in spring I moved to a new team called the Bishop Gorman Gators. My first season wasn’t to bad with the team we won all of our games except for two and made it to the championship, but lost to a team who cheated. I remember my mom telling me “It’s alright Sammy you still have a lot more seasons to go after this”. Then the next season we made it to the semifinals but something bad happened. In the beginning of the third quarter on a long drive I broke my arm. The doctor said I wouldn’t be able to play for two months and that was when the next season practices started. So while I had my cast on I was still training because I was not going to give up. When the next season started I was back and ready to work. That season my team lost 4 games but we won the rest except for semifinals when we got beat by the Las Vegas Aces, who had already beat us twice. At the end of the game I was really frustrated but I wasn’t going to stop my grind. About 2 months later we went back team practices in July.
In the end, football has changed me in many ways. For Example by teaching me how to be tougher, How to act in school, and to strive to work harder. It also taught me that if you quit all you are doing is hurting yourself.
What event changed your understanding of yourself, or that of someone you know?
I was five years old when I started. It was early august and it was my first time ever playing an organized sport. I could tell I was about a few weeks late for the practices because everyone else had a football helmet and I didn’t. It was nerve wracking to see all the kids playing and me not knowing what to do. At the time I was really short (well of course I was five) but some of the kids were twice my size. Ok maybe I exaggerated a little bit but still some of those kids were big. After a few minutes of looking like a deer in headlights one of the coaches finally gave me helmet I could use to practice with and, I went straight to practice. There was different stations because it wasn’t practice in full pads it was only conditioning. At that moment that was when my Journey began to …show more content…
become great. Furthermore, so after a few seasons my dad took me out of football because he didn’t like that I wasn’t getting a lot of playing time.
I believed that wasn’t right but I never came back to football for a long time. Then one day I realized I want to play football again because it is what I loved. So, in August in the year of 2014 that’s when I began to play again. I hadn’t played football since first grade and I had very little experience so I really had to work hard. I remember the first hitting drill I did with that team I got layed out. Its funny to me now because I was one of the new kids and they put me against the hardest hitter on the team. Before I went against the kid I was somewhat nervous because the kid was pretty big. From that moment I learned to never stop moving when you go head up with somebody because chances are that that you are going to get ran over. But thing that benefited me most was the coaching staff. Yes sometimes they were mean but they did not only teach us how to play football they taught us life lessons, and to learn from our
mistakes.
Moreover, In my second back there was one game that really lit a spark in me to strive harder to reach my goal. In this game the position I was playing was defensive end. During the game I had 8 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 5 normal tackles, and 1 safety. This game I couldn’t be stopped I was a bully on the field. Those kids were not stopping me from getting to the ball. After a few more games we made it to the championship. That was one of my most favored championships because that team could not score on us and we ended up mercy ruling them to win the game. At the end of that season it was finally our banquet. During the Award ceremony the whole team was given a three-foot tall championship trophy. I felt really proud of myself and my team because we went undefeated that season. But there was one trophy that made me really proud, and that was my Defensive MVP trophy. I didny’t even know I would get it but the coaches gave it to me, and my mom was proud and when I mean proud she was getting teary eyed.
In addition, the season after that in spring I moved to a new team called the Bishop Gorman Gators. My first season wasn’t to bad with the team we won all of our games except for two and made it to the championship, but lost to a team who cheated. I remember my mom telling me “It’s alright Sammy you still have a lot more seasons to go after this”. Then the next season we made it to the semifinals but something bad happened. In the beginning of the third quarter on a long drive I broke my arm. The doctor said I wouldn’t be able to play for two months and that was when the next season practices started. So while I had my cast on I was still training because I was not going to give up. When the next season started I was back and ready to work. That season my team lost 4 games but we won the rest except for semifinals when we got beat by the Las Vegas Aces, who had already beat us twice. At the end of the game I was really frustrated but I wasn’t going to stop my grind. About 2 months later we went back team practices in July.
In the end, football has changed me in many ways. For Example by teaching me how to be tougher, How to act in school, and to strive to work harder. It also taught me that if you quit all you are doing is hurting yourself.