Final Draft

States

Coming into my senior season of football nobody expected us to be any good. Not even our coaches thought we could do anything. But did we show them. About halfway through our season the coaches started to believe in us. They started to think that we were the real deal here. At the beginning of the season they told us that it would take hard work and determination to rise to the top of the pedestal.

So there we were at the Division 1 State Championship game. Everyone was wondering who this team from Hilliard was. We were getting heckled by from the fans during our warm ups. Our coach always told us not to say anything back and just let the pads do the talking. And that’s what we did that night; we let our pads do the talking. It was a cold night in Canton. All the fans were bundled up, and our student section was rocking like always at every game, every week they had a new chant that put fear in the other teams eyes. Knowing that we had the best students in the land gave us a better feeling that we knew they were behind us. Once the first kickoff started it was game time. This was one of the most amazing feelings of my life. With all of our fans watching us and others watching state wide made this experience the best it could have been.

I was only the long snapper because our whole offensive line was made up of all seniors who were superior to me. But I still had a very important role on the team, as my head coach would say. As the game went on, the night got colder, and everyone got more hostile. There were two extremely different offenses at the game tonight, one involved the spread offense and the other was the ground attack. We were the ground attack; it was our strategy to make them stop us down in the trenches. The game was a hard fought battle no team could stop each other. Turnovers played a huge part in this game because it could cost you dearly. Our running back set a state record for most points in a state championship game with thirty-two points. He also set the rushing record at the time over two-hundred yards rushing. Also their quarterback set a record to but I don’t recall on the record. The whole night was record breaking. This was easily the biggest crowd we had ever played in front of. It totaled over 13,000 fans combined.

Whenever we had to kick a field goal or punt it away I was always a little nervous because people don’t forget those kinds of events. If you mess up a snap in a big game because it could be a game changer, and being in this capacity crowd made it all the worse. Each time I had butterflies in my stomach and was worried I would make a bad snap. Usually teams were bigger than us, that don’t mean they were all on steroids which aren’t really involved much in high school sports. I have only heard of one case where steroids were involved and the team had to forfeit their season. So we were usually the smaller team but we did have some big boys but that’s because they had just worked harder in the weight room and all.

The game ended up being a double overtime thriller. We won on a two point conversion which had haunted our coach going for two, because two years earlier we got stopped on the one yard line. After we got the two point conversion our running back spiked the ball in glory. Our student section mobbed the field in joy and everyone was just so happy just hugging each other. We were one big family of brothers and didn’t let anything come between us. A perfect season is what everyone strives for and that’s what we had earned. We came out on top thirty-six to thirty-five.

That next week the school had a parade down one of the main roads in Hilliard for us. Almost the whole city was there; all the little elementary children lined the streets waiting for us to give them high fives as we were led by a police officer. In a way we were looked up as heroes that day because of all the kids cheering for us, and this brought joy to everyone. This was one of the best moments in my life, seeing everyone just cheering for us, even the other high school in Hilliard was cheering for us at the game. We set the stage for central Ohio football which had been long forgotten because of the powers in Cincinnati and Cleveland. Those two major cities are known for their dominance in the state of Ohio and nationally as well.

This story will always be remembered in my life because of everything that went on during it and all the drama of the games and in school. It was like our coaches said that it will take hard work and determination. That’s what we did that cold night in December in Canton, Ohio. I will always have this story to tell my kids along with a nice little ring to go with that. Hopefully I can someday see my son win a championship like me and can talk about him and how great he was.