Saturday, October 24, 2015

Dreams

And so it begins.
Playoff football. The most incredible, beautiful, inspiring, crushing, vile thing to ever grace this earth. For one reason. Win to survive.
To the senior players, teammates, and brothers. THIS IS IT. This is everything you have ever worked for. Its every day in the weight room. Its every day at practice. It’s your freshman year when we first came together as a family. It’s every middle school practice you went through, weather you went to Harding, Taft, Roosevelt, or Franklin. It’s the dream team. Its metro football. It’s the first time you ever put on a helmet and shoulder pads. It’s your first flag football practice. It’s your dad taking you into the backyard to teach you about football. It is everything.
For most of you, this is your last year of football. For the others who will continue their careers next year, it is the last chance you have to be a cougar.
Myself, and most of my brothers on the football team, have been dreaming about this our whole lives. From the time we could understand what football is we knew we wanted to be a Kennedy Cougar. We wanted to strap up and go out under those lights and fight and play and win. That dream has come true. But there is another dream we have. The dream of perfection. The dream of a perfect season and being the best there is.
We’ve worked our whole lives for this. And the fear of loss is making me shake. Simply because, from here on, if we lose, it’s over. Everything you put in will come to an end. A lifetime of effort could end in the blink of an eye and the pure desire to continue to be a cougar and continue to play this game we love is the only thing that can save us.
At the very most, we have 5 games. That scares the living hell out of me.
1/3 of the state ended their football season tonight. On Wednesday, another 1/3 of the state. And each round will send half of the remaining teams home, except it’s not home, it’s an eviction from love and life. This will continue until there are two teams left.
Oh god I play we are one of those two. I’m scared. I don’t want this to end. I love this.
We get one shot at this. One shot and we are done. Please don’t miss. I’m not ready for this to be over any sooner than it has to be. I’m not ready to give up on my lifelong dream. I’m not ready to look back on everything I’ve done and say “It didn’t amount to much”.
Brothers, friends, teammates, fans, family; fight for this. Fight like your life depended on it. Don’t stop for anything and don’t look back until you’ve made history, and your dreams, come true. I love you, each and every one and I grew up with you. YOU are the group. YOU are the guys. YOU earned this.
Now all you have to do is go and get it.

I wrote this because when I left Waterloo tonight I took 1-380 south. A little while before you get to Cedar Rapids you pass by a small town called Center Point. 
In forth grade my parents drove me to and from this small town 5 days a week. It was Metro Youth my first year of tackle football. That was when I fell in love with this sport. 
Just driving by made me think of how fast its gone and how much of my life has been devoted to this game, and about all of my brothers who went through the same thing and are now facing a do or die situation. Sometimes looking into your own past can provide inspiration for the present and the future.
Look at where you've come from and use that to determine where you are going.
I normally end my posts by saying “Roll cougs”, but I feel a more fitting thing to say is this:

Roll into the history books with pride and love my cougar family.

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