Personal Narrative: A Career In College Football

Football has been my favorite sport since I could run. Running free in the grass with friends and family made me appreciate the the quality of life I was blessed to have. Senior year of high school I went from league champions to below .500 records. Lake Winaukee was where the team would prep and practice for the upcoming season. As a senior, I felt I was obliged to help my team win football games and the place we could create chemistry was Lake Winaukee.

Throughout the next eight months I improved in all types of areas. I got faster, stronger, and smarter. Football was right around the corner and I was ready to earn a varsity

When football season finally arrived, I found myself on the varsity team. I thought it was going to be a repeat of my past two seasons of me just being another benched player. But I actually started for more than half the season as defensive linemen. Even on games where I didn’t start, I was getting a lot of playing time. That really pushed me to be even better for my senior season.

I can not remember a year where I was as excited for the Vikings season and then this goes and happens. Twenty minutes into practice on Tuesday Teddy Bridgewater took a snap from under center and as he was dropping back to pass he screamed in agony and went down. He suffered some sort of non contact knee injury. Everybody in the building could tell how serious the injury was by the reaction of the players, some cursed, some threw helmets, and some even prayed.

One historical event that has influenced my life is Super Bowl 42 (XLII). The New York Giants played the undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and the NFL (National Football League) Championship. If New England won, they would have finished 19-0 and would become the only team in NFL history to win 19 games in a season and the second NFL team to go undefeated since the Super Bowl Era starting in 1966-67. The 1972 Miami Dolphins went 17-0 with a shorter season and are still the only undefeated team to win the super bowl in NFL history. There have been other teams to go undefeated, but the Dolphins are the only to do it in the Super Bowl Era.

I told him it was terrible, I was the only one of my friends that didn’t get a helmet. He asked if I had worked as hard as I could during the preseason, and I couldn’t come up with an answer. I went to my room and cried that day. I felt like the world was ending because I was worse at my favorite thing in the world than my friends were. Once I settled down, I told myself I wasn’t going to be discouraged anymore.

With the encouragement of my dad, we decided that it was time for me to move to a team that would face better competition and have players of a similar mindset to myself. In the beginning of 8th grade, I had moved to my first club team after being on a town travel team for four years. While this was the right move for me, it was definitely a shock for me to realize that I was no longer the best on my team. I struggled through multiple winter training and conditioning workouts before the season had begun, though I tried to remind myself that this was only helping me in the end. When the first game of the summer season arrived, I was somewhat surprised to find that I was not in the starting lineup or in the field.

I had trouble balancing soccer, work, and school during that time, as I was only able to maintain a 3.1 GPA. I decided that putting all my effort in soccer was not the correct route to take, as school was going to lead me further in life. For the next two seasons, I was on a

Once I was of the appropriate age to start playing, my family had put me in Pop Warner Football and I had instantly fallen in love with the sport. At the time, I had dreamed of becoming an NFL football player. That had all changed, when my brother came home from high school one day with a stick in his and a new sport called lacrosse. He told me it was basically football with a stick. The moment I heard that

That is why I was the youngest Scout in my Patrol to become an Eagle Scout. That is why my Boyle County Football team won a state championship. That is also why I believe I need to challenge myself through the rigor required for this program has proven time and time again that it is the best. While, for example, part of my ego wants to boldly claim that no one else plays the position of lineman as well as me and that the team only won because of me, yet I know better. Instead, I surrounded myself with athletes whose natural ability may have morphed mine but they benefited from my desire and determination.

Ever since I was a toddler, I loved sports. Baseball, basketball, it did not matter; I just liked to run. When I was around 4 or 5, I was in the living room watching the Steelers play the Cardinals and saw Santonio Holmes grab a game winning touchdown to win the Superbowl. I was so excited that I jumped up in the air and I told my dad, “Daddy when I grow up I want to play football and I want to score a lot of touchdowns just like 10 does.”

Texas is known for its agricultural landscape but most of all by Friday night Football. In small town communities like Dimmitt being on the varsity team is a big deal. Being moved to Junior Varsity football after making the varsity team, put me in a position to contemplate my loyalty to the sport and to the coaches I felt betrayed me. It's the first day of two-a-days, and I was put on the varsity team for middle linebacker.

I said, “ I know that, and I want to be on the field”. So I finally moved to wide receiver,WR, and could finally play safety. Coach Minnich would come to me in practice and just say,” Couldn’t do this playing quarterback”.

The ironic part is it sparked something in me; I was determined to heal quickly and push myself past my limits. In the end, I became more aggressive on the field and one of the best players on my team. The coaches noticed this huge change and awarded me the Coaches’ Award at the end of the season. Knowing I had more potential, I pushed myself even further and my talents were recognized by the new coach my senior year. I achieved my goal of starting every game and played a majority of the eighty minutes of regulation time.

When I was a younger kid, I looked up to the high schoolers like they were NFL players. I always dreamed about playing under the lights on friday night. Football now is a whole different story. All of the persistence and hardship of losing has finally payed off. I am now starting on a team that is going for their sixth state-championship in a row.