Personal Narrative: Eric Marshall

He wiped off the slick sweat on the back of his neck, knowing it was his time to shine. Centennial Olympic Park surrounded him. The Bank of America Plaza towered to the East. He rubbed the back of his blood stained feet, shook off the blister pain, shoved his polished trainers on his feet, picked up his stick, and started for the other side of the field. He was in the big leagues now.

The second I was on the field I knew my team had the game won. All I could see around me was a group of men ready for war. I couldn’t be more ready for my last home opener so after I did what I do when the unexplainable happens, accept it. I ran to the 45 to the 35 to the 20, hoping to find the kick returner. 8 months waiting for this moment all the sweat, pain, 100 degree sun beaming UV rays to my face.

And I thought to myself “oh my god” because at the time, I was like 4 foot 7, and they were like 5 foot 2. I ran as fast as I could, to the end zone and I scored, and everyone went bananas, my whole team came dashing over to me, giving me high fives and shoulder bumps. But I just stood there silently, smiled, and thought to myself “Thanks

About fifteen minutes until warm-ups I met up with my friend Jadin Smith who was also trying out at the time, and we both stretched and tried to prepare

In my dazed state I was harshly awoken by a yank of my arm almost out of socket as I was pulled up. I searched for a comforting gaze from a teammate or coach something to reassure my fantasy that this was not my fault, but rather as looked at my coach my gut wrenched with disappointment as his disapproving scowl pierced my heart. I realized that this play would be my last that season, and I had forever marked my performance with a brand of failure. While on the sideline, the faces of coaches, players, and my parents occupied my thoughts and altered my reality. However as this final judgement on my performance was handed down, the cause for my failure was that I prepared for only what I anticipated.

Ben, I and about 4 other adults took the Seahawks’s side of the room while the Patriot fans took the other. After all the food was cooked, the game finally started. It started off great for Seattle as we got the early interception. But our excitement did not last long as the Patriots made a comeback to tie the game. However, Seattle managed to score just before halftime, leaving the intense excitement in the air.

It was six o 'clock at the Friendswood junior high mustang field I was playing strong safety and I had to cover the extra receiver they brought out by the snap I was already beating my man and the next thing I know the ball was sailing my way straight to me. I am 13 years old and I am on the Friendswood junior high C-football team I am a second string slot receiver and starting strong safety

They ran the ball to my side of the field, and I made a tackle that resulted in a fumble that led to us scoring. The crowd in the stadium were ecstatic, I had people calling my name from the stands. I was happy at the time, but knew it was to be short lived, because the game wasn’t over. Their was still enough time on the clock for them to tie the game back up. I was almost proven

I was put in the most important spot, and as a freshmen it made me very nervous. We had been preparing for it by practicing it in practice everyday. I was very concerned on my capability to do my job and recover them. Finally it was game time and I was ready. I ended up recovering two onside kicks and closed the game on the final kickoff.

As there were ten minutes before the game we kept on doing the drills until I heard my coach announcing the starting lineup. I heard my name being announced so I prepared myself to go to the field. I could already see the trophy as it was in a table. As I walked in the field I could smell the trimmed grass and could hear my teammates say “we got this.”

At the time we were fighting for our team 's playoff lives and if we wanted any chance of going there, we needed to win this game and we did, in overtime. Once it was all over and set in stone, I just collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and just completely overwhelmed with emotion.

So, I blew off the injury like it was nothing and slept with it broke for a couple of weeks. After having enough of the pain, I decided to go to the hospital about it. The result of the collision was a broken collar bone, that according to the doctor could go into my lung and puncture it if I ever played football again. Little did I know that God had a greater plan for me than being a football playing sergeant body

The opposing team that we faced got ranked in the top five in the country and rolled through everybody they played. They beat almost every team that they faced all year including us twice. They crushed us both times and left us almost hopeless for the game to come. We finished warmups and proceeded to get ready in the locker room. The coach gave an extremely long speech to the team to get us pumped up and ready to play the biggest game of the season.

I have had tough hope once, I had to move to a different state and start to get used to the new place. Moving was hard and took a long time to move everything to our new house. My new house was hard to get used to because it was different and I wasn 't used to it which made it hard to sleep and I had to leave my friends behind and I would have to find new friends. Making new friends was hard because I would be alone until I found new friends and I would have no one to talk to so I would be very quiet. Usually I would always be talking to a friend and I am only social with friends.

“Fhweeoooo! Halftime” , yelled the referee. Coming back from the field I knew that we were about to get a mouthful of yelling from Coach Vernon. Starting the game 0-2 in a championship game was not pleasant. “ WHAT WERE YOU GUYS DOING ON THE FIELD” , he yelled viciously. “ I want to see everybody on the field hustling and playing the game of soccer seriously so that we can bring home the trophy”, he said.