My Own Fault

My sophomore year of football was my first full varsity year ever. I was in a new position I had never played previous to that year. It was our first game of the year and it was at home. It was a big game because we were playing York, which is a class C team. We are a class D team which means we are a class lower. That meant York was worth a lot of points. We felt good coming into this game, however. We had a good, experienced group of seniors and juniors to support us. We also had a very good and experienced coach. That man was Coach Doucette. In his first 5 years of coaching, he had won 3 state championships. Those state championships were also three-peated as well. Not only did we have very good older class-men but we also had a very good coaching staff. I was one of few sophomores who played on both sides of the ball. It was a very stressful time and mistakes were bound to happen. But, I made one mistake I should not have made.

Me being young and inexperienced definitely showed on the field during this game. They were driving down the field and they threw a touchdown pass just barely over the tip of my fingers. I was extremely frustrated at this point in the game. I looked over to Coach Doucette and I started to argue and talk back to him. He pulled me out of the game and started to yell at me. I remember what he said to this day and I will always remember what he said. He got right in my face, his face bumped my face mask of my helmet and he said, “You’re a punk-ass sophomore!” This definitely hit home for me, and I realized at that moment I was being a punk-ass sophomore. I had always been someone who talks back to coaches or officials. At this moment I realized coaches are there to teach you and make you better players. When coaches criticize you and are always on you at practice, it is because they think you can be better. If a coach stops trying to critique you, then they have given up on you as a player, which is not good. If the coach stops trying it means they gave up on you. It took me a while to realize this and it sucks it had to happen as it did.

Coach Doucette knew I had this issue before I even came into high school. He told my stepdad, “I am gonna be hard on him” and he was. He had to get in my face with spit and yelling for me to finally cut it out and realize I am making a fool out of myself. Not only did it make me realize coaches are there to coach me and not scrutinize me, but it also made me realize that I was embarrassing myself on the field in front of everybody. I am a very strong believer in everything happens for a reason. I believe you can learn from and grow from every single thing that comes your way. Yes, it took me 7 years of football, basketball, and baseball, and also 7 years of embarrassing myself to realize I was making the same mistake over and over again. At that moment I felt like I had matured for all those 7 years. I have myself to thank for this, and also Coach. Thank you, Coach Doucette.

“American football in Tel-Aviv, Israel” by RonAlmog is licensed under CC BY 2.0