My journey of playing high school football was filled with great experiences, as well as some not so great ones. For the sake of this article, I am going to focus on the good ones. So here is a list of 16 things I miss about being a high school football player.
1. Early morning practices.
As awful as they seemed back in the day, there really isn’t anything better than waking up and starting your day with some football. I can think of few more amazing sights than when the sun would rise and turn the early morning dew into a fog that hung inches above the grass.
2. The crazy drills.
We did everything from tackling people onto a pile of dummies, to catching footballs with your arms wrapped around a pole, to flipping tractor tires.
3. The rush of adrenaline you feel when the ball is snapped.
In the ten seconds or more between when the ball is snapped and the referee blows the whistle, it’s either hit someone or get hit. There are few things that can give you the adrenaline rush that you get in those ten seconds.
4. Wearing your jersey to school on Friday.
It doesn’t matter if you were the third string bench warmer or the starting quarterback, when you wore your jersey on game day, people noticed you.
5. Hearing people screaming from the stands.
For me, there were two voices that I could hear over all the rest. My Dad, screaming from the top of the press box, depending on where he was, and my mom, whose voice carried at a frequency that I could pick out at the Super Bowl.
6. Beating your rivals.
You can still picture every one of their stupid faces in your head. Their team colors still make you want to vomit.
7. Victory formation.
The best feeling in the world was when someone would run to the huddle and tell everyone that you were taking a knee. You knew that there was nothing the opposing team could do, you’d won.
8. Rousing speeches.
You may not remember every word that your Coach said during those pregame speeches, but they got you unbelievably hyped.
9. The pregame rituals.
They’re different for every team, but they never failed to get us in the mindset to beat the living snot out of our opponents.
10. Rainy games and practices.
You got muddy, wet, cold and gross, but you didn’t care.
11. The stressful situations
You practiced all week long to prepare, so you knew exactly what to do when the stressful situations came. It may have been 4th and Goal with 10 seconds left, but you knew what to do.
12. Absolutely decimating people.
Whether it was tackling the ball carrier, laying down a block that knocked someone on their butt, or the occasional cheap shot, it always felt good to “ring someone’s bell.”
13. The team bonding experiences.
Fundraisers, campouts, lock ins, everything you did to get closer as a team, and build that bond between teammates that turned you into something even more, a family.
14. The memories you made with your brothers.
We all have funny stories, exciting memories and words from coaches that we’ll never forget. These memories are kept between brothers, and shared every time you go home to watch a game.
15. The lessons you learned.
16. The coaches that believed in you.
They were like your fathers outside of home. If you were lucky like me, you had one that was both.
