 |
Thinking of a Bad, Bad Day | 1.02.01
I can't say that I've won many games as a football player. My winningest year was as a JV player on the sophomore team. Our JV team was 7-1 and winning became a habit for us. On other levels, winning was rare; as a freshman, I played on a 1-6 team and as a varsity starter, my team compiled a 7-13 record. So I guess I can say that I've had some bad days playing football. Time to remember some... As a freshman, we lost many games, but none was as frustrating as the game against Bishop Ahr. These kids at the parochial school down the street were not better than us, and yet, we let things get away. I had the makings of a good game. I ran for a score and found room to run most of the game. I had a 80-yard TD run negated by the penalty and that was the difference in the game. We lost by a touchdown. It was very frustrating to see a game that we should've won get out of our hands. As a JV player, the game against Piscataway was a nadir in terms of how bad I could be. I was scared of the big black kids and I ran very poorly. I learned a lot from that game. I learned that I had to run forward in order to gain yards and not side to side; that meant no more wasting energy on silly moves that got me nowhere. I became a whole new player after that futile game. As a junior, facing Old Bridge was scary. These kids were double my size and I was clobbered each moment I had the ball. The stat line read 13 carries for 8 yards. I would have my revenge on this team a year later, but this game was just terrible. I was sometimes hit before I even got the handoff. And when I did have a chance to run, I didn't get to the hole fast enough; it just closed on me and I was hit hard. As a senior, I had two games that I would like to have had a chance to repeat. The first one was against Piscataway. We had all the makings of an upset, but every time we were inside the 5-yard line, we could not score. It was frustrating to be tackled at the 1 yard line over and over again. I don't know what the problem. Maybe if I had been more fearless, I could have crossed the goal-line. It makes me shake my head all the time. The other game was at South Brunswick. I had my best game of the season there but it was disheartening to see them come back in the fourth and win it. Everyone has bad days, but it's important to come away from a bad day with something positive. I remember the string of losses my team had when I was a junior. It was frustrating and I made sure I never got comfortable with losing. Even though the odds were great for most games, I never predicted a loss for our team. Bad days for me were when I evaluated my own performance and saw that I had not done completely what I was capable of doing. And these were the days when I realized that I could only try harder and be better for the next time. |
 |