Adversity Vs. Flag Football

“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.” – Lou Holtz. This has always been my mindset from when I was in little league until now. Although, I have faced some adversity along the way, this quote always pushes me to do better and better each and every day.

First, I was about four or five years old playing what was then flag football. I played line, but I occasionally got to run the ball and I never will forget the first time I scored. I participated in flag football, and we were playing at the old middle school and I took the handoff outside and as I was running down field, I turned around and almost fell, but I still scored. After the year had ended, year two came around and I didn’t really want to play, but

Freshmen year was a rude awakening of what I was getting myself into. Coach Smolder was the toughest coach I have ever had. Our first day of practice we had to run 66, 40 yard sprints and I did all that just to start kickoff return on a 7-3 playoff football team, but I was the only freshmen to start. Sophomore year came around and it was a great learning experience because I started offensive line and played over ¾ of the game at defensive end which was weird because I’ve always played middle linebacker. I suppose everyone was in a sophomore slump because that year we were mediocre, going 5-5, but I was the only sophomore to play and I even picked up a fumble and ran it in for a 43 yard touchdown, it was our best game if the year. Junior year rolls around and I am now starting both ways, still playing offensive and defensive line. We have a pretty stout team and we start off the year 3-0, but Mingo gave us some problems. We bounced back and won our last six games to go 9-1. We went into the playoffs ranked 4th in AA so we hosted 13th seeded Weir. Everyone expected us to win and host 5th seed Fairmont Senior. At first, it seemed like that would happen without a doubt as we headed into halftime, but we blew the lead and lost 29-27. I sat and cried in that locker room crying for 45 minutes telling myself that it would not happen again next year. Well, here we are. Senior year and off to a 1-0 start. It’s