What Football Taught Me

Football is my favorite sport. It has taught me so much in the four years I have been at Oak Hill. I have seen the program at the absolute top and the absolute bottom. Football my senior year probably was the most fun and toughest year. There were a lot of times that I was looking at myself in the mirror and asking “how can I do better” or “how can I make this situation right”,  something I have never really had to do before. With that came three life lessons and memories that will stick with me forever and I hope they stick with you.

The first lesson I learned from my senior year is you can sure disappoint a whole lot of people with a stupid mistake. A lot of people know about the suspension I got myself into and with that came a lot of regret. What I didn’t realize until the first game of my suspension was how many people were actually counting on me. Something I have never put much thought in. Telling my Coaches and my Teammates about the suspension was hard, but nothing was more hard then looking into the crowd after a loss of  the first game of my two game suspension. I was not only disappointed the people I expected to disappoint, I disappointed a whole group of parents and just fans really of the program. I got a lot of shaking heads and rolling of the eyes from people and parents in the crowd after the game because they probably knew the people who were suspended and how they could of made a difference to the game. It was the worst feeling I have gotten in my whole life; something I wouldn’t want to feel again. I then realized that my actions can have a whole ripple effect onto others and can hurt more people then I thought.

The second lesson I had learned from football was when you reach the absolute bottom the only way is up. My Junior year of football was the worst year the program has seen in a long time. Heading into my senior year we were predicted to have a losing record and were told we would be lucky to make playoffs. During that year all of us knew that we were a better team than that and we worked hard everyday at practice. Some games were better than others and we had some bumps in the road heading into playoffs. We were the seventh seed in the playoffs, but during playoffs we all clicked and didn’t want the football season to end. We would win back to back weeks, shaking up Maine High School Playoffs ,and would go the deepest in the playoffs since the 2015 state championship team. We would end up losing the Conference Championship game. But, at the end of the day, we were seventh seed and wanted to better ourselves week by week, and we worked our way to be one of the better teams from Class D. Something to always keep in mind from the this story is to always ignore what people have to say about you because you can accomplish anything you want to do, even if you have hit rock bottom.

The last thing football for sure taught me was always appreciate something when you have it. One of the hardest things to understand is growing up playing something your whole life and then all of a sudden not being able to go back and play that sport. Football was something I never thought would end because of how big it is was in my life. I loved playing football,  but never appreciated it during the season. There were many practices I didn’t want to go to because doing nothing sounded better than playing my favorite sport. There are many things to regret about my senior year, but never dwell in the past. Look at the good that something had in your life because more often than not it impacted you in some good way; more often than not and there are lessons to be learned from that.  Football taught me the hard way to appreciate something before it is gone for good. There always was a saying to keep in the back of your mind and it has more truth than people think and that’s “Nothing good last forever”.

Football my Senior year taught me more life lessons then anything else during High School. The Game taught me to not be so self centered, you can affect many with one single action. Always keep working hard and doing what you love and never listen to the noise, and if you reach rock bottom, the only way is up. Then to appreciate everything you love as much as you can when you still have it because you never know how long you will have it for. Now our senior year is ending and now all I have to say is thank you football for everything. My time with the game may be gone, but the relationships and memories will last forever. I hope my lessons from football can help you all today and tomorrow.

Photo on Foter.com