Football by Joel Burgess

When I turned 5 my dad had asked me if I wanted to play football, ”Hey Joel would you like to play football this year”, but I wasn’t sure if I did. I can remember the time I watched my first football game when I was 3. The teams were the Redskins and the Cowboys. I had no knowledge on the sport, but as I watched it I fell in love with it. Furthermore, as I watched the game I liked the contact and action in the sport. Even the style of it was good, but at that age what I liked most was the bright colors of the jerseys and everyone running around hitting each other.

So I told my dad that I want to play and he said “you have to respect your coaches, give it a hundred and ten percent, and that I had to listen to my coaches and do what they tell me to do”.  Otherwise if I didn’t then I would have to run until he got tired of watching me run. Instantly I said “yes sir” with no remark or question about it because I knew he wasn’t kidding.

I remember the first time getting equipment for football. I was so nervous it felt like a bomb had went off in my stomach as we walked up to meet my coach. “Hey my name is David wells, but you can call me coach wells “he said, and my dad said “Nice to meet you, I’m Billy and this is Joel”, I was so shy and nervous I didn’t even say anything. I was quiet as a mouse, also since I was so nervous I couldn’t react as normal as I did so when other kids came up to me I kind of just stood there and said nothing at first. Then I started opening up towards the end of equipment pick up. At the same time my dad was helping me get my football stuff, so coach wells told me to come and try a helmet on, as we tried on different sizes It came to a point where we had to decide on a medium or a large. The medium was a tight but a good fit, didn’t move, and overall looked good. On the other hand the large was a bit loose but didn’t hurt my head like the other did, but I had to get the medium one instead because coach wells said,” It might hurt at first but you’ll get used to it”, and I said,” yes sir”. When it came time to go he said,”Joel I’m looking forward to coach you this season, I know it’s your first year but I think you have a lot of potential” and of course I didn’t say anything I just shook my head up and down and we walked to the car and drove off.

My first real football practice was tough. My head was hurting from my helmet, it was hot, and I was nervous because it was my first time hitting. After stretches our coach blew his loud whistle and we huddled around him. He had said “alright you guys we are going to hit today so don’t be nervous, keep your head up, get your body low and don’t turn you shoulder when someone is running at you” and we all said “yes sir”. So then coach Wells split us in two different lines and gave my line the football, and he had set up cones in a straight line. He said “When it’s your turn to hit if you have the ball you run straight at the other person and try to run them over, and if you’re in the line without the football you run straight at the runner and tackle them low at the legs”. Watching the other kids in front of me go made me nervous and I was scared because I thought it was going to hurt. When it was my turn coach Wells gave me the ball, I got into my stance, he blew the whistle, and I ran at the player in front of me, we bounced off each other and fell to the ground. After my first hit all the fear went away. “It didn’t hurt dad” I yelled with a big smile on my face. From that moment on I have loved every minute I spend on the field. Although my first year of football was a teaching year, to this day it was one of the best years of football I have experienced.

My peewee year I learned that each year gets harder. There is more conditioning, there is more plays to learn, coaches expect more out of you, and overall the game gets tougher. Furthermore, my second year of football was more intense than my first because I moved up in my age group, so I was playing with kids a year older. I can remember this one time I had to go against the biggest guy on the team, my coach said “Joel get low and you’ll be fine”, and I said “yes sir coach”, I did what he said,  it wasn’t easy but I got him down. The coach was so proud of me, I felt like a king. Although after every practice we ran, I enjoyed every moment this practice because I was so proud of myself. That year we went 4-6, but I realized that it doesn’t matter who is bigger if you put more effort than them you will succeed.

During my third year of football it was my most successful year. We went 7-3 and even though we lost our last playoff before the championship it was the most fun I ever had in one season. Also it was my first year at linebacker, I loved everything about it. The feeling of excitement, anxiety and anticipation was going through me as the other team got in their stance. As I hear the quarter back start the count “down, set, hike”, I blitzed in the middle and stripped the ball as he handed off the ball. Then I started running as fast as a cheetah to the end zone. I could hear the crowd banging on the bleachers as scored.

As I keep playing football throughout the year’s football has changed a lot. The rules and the way coaches see the game. Now most of the time if you hit the quarterback it’s a penalty. This one time in my junior league year I hit the quarterback at the same time he threw the ball and I got called for ruffing the passer. I was so mad I could have walked on a bed of nails without saying one word. My coach was furious because it was a bad call he told the ref “listen hear son I wasn’t born yesterday, that was a bad call and you know it so how about you give us our 15 yards back” and the ref threw his flag again for unsportsmanlike conduct on Coach Jones. You could see the frustration and outrageous thoughts in him. He was acting like a child that got his toy taken away. Although we ended up winning that game my coach and I would never forget it.

Before my middle school year of football, I went to a camp in Florida with my friend. It was an OD camp and it was coached by NFL players and coaches, it was more like a competitive kind of camp you had to compete with other people at your age to be accepted in a team for the New Year bowl. I had never worked so hard in my life, the drills were hard, it was in Florida so the humidity was higher and it was a lot hotter at the time than Virginia. My legs had sunburn on them, when I got to the hotel it felt like they were on fire. However, the camp was amazing, we had to do 2 a day practices so during the break between the two they provided lunch at a college. In there they had subway, Starbucks, pizza hut, KFC, and this smoothie place. We were only aloud to pick one out of all of them, so I got the same thing every day, a 12ich chicken, ham, and turkey sub at subway. After we ate the second practice always stunk, I felt like a couch potato before each one. Throughout the camp I did good and met people from all around the US, like there was this one guy who was from Alaska and since the temperature was so different he had to have this cool gear ice towel around him or he couldn’t practice. Also there was a guy from New York, and Tennessee, Kansas, California, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, and Colorado. Overall it was a fun but I had to put in everything I had to show the coaches I wanted to be accepted on the team. At the end of the camp I had been MVP (most valuable player) for defensive end at age 12, but I felt really bad because my friend didn’t get accepted in. Although he didn’t we still had a good time. It was by far the most difficult thing I have ever went through.

After the camp my middle school year sucked. We went 1-7, it was my least favorite year of football ever. I completely disliked the coaches, there was a lot of people on the team I couldn’t stand. There was this one guy that had made fun of me and picked on me all the time, so this one time I got to go against him and it was like a steamroller going over a bump in the road. I completely ran over him and after that he never made fun of me ever again. Also the conditioning was horrible I have never done that much running in my life. At the end of each practice it felt like my lungs were going to explode. Nerveless, my middle school year of football was the worst year I ever had, I never want to have another year of football like that again.

Finally it’s my first year of high school football, I loved everything about it. The practice style, coaching staff is the best I ever had experienced, there is no one on the team I didn’t like. I was number 75 and played defensive end and tight end I started both ways. So usually after a game I was extremely tired, I felt like someone got a hammer and hit every place on my body over and over again. Regardless of being tired and no matter if we won or lost I still went home with satisfaction. Although we went 8-3 it was definitely a wonderful season. I hope next season we go undefeated and go to states. With this in mind I would love it one day to be playing for the NFL one day.