My story takes place in summer of 2020 my freshman year of high school on the football field. We started our practices early in the morning around 7:15 am. Our first summer practice consisted of running, lifting, and working on footwork. We had our lunch break around 10. It was for 30 minutes or so. We were able to eat, chill and talk to each other without doing laps for it. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people, some that left that same year. Over the summer workouts were getting harder and harder and time was getting closer to the first game of the season. I unfortunately hurt myself during an important week. This week was important because you have practice with full pads so we could practice with contact; these were called acclamation days. So I was behind on these days which was awful but as soon as I got my days I got to work. I was in full contact with pretty big guys and I will admit it was scary. I remember lining up against a senior. His name was Cain Gonzalez he wore number 72 for his entire highschool football career. He taught me a very important lesson for football. It was that I needed to keep my body low and drive with my legs and push with my arms especially going up against guys bigger than me and he was in fact twice my size. I was getting the full highschool football experience my first day. My palms were sweating and my heart was racing and I could feel the adrenaline run through my body because I was ready to hit and get hit by my teammates. That summer day was even hotter than the rest and this was caused by the full pads. The practice pants were so tight around our legs we had to cut a line straight up the back part of the legs so we had wiggle room. After almost all of us cutting our pants the practices began to feel a little better still hot of course but the ice cold Gatorade tasted so good on the hot summer days and I remember going home from the very first practice with shoulder pads and helmets and it was exhausting I've never been so sore and worn out from a practice. Once everyone got used to the pads and working through being sore it was go time. About 2 weeks later the quarterbacks and wide receivers had their first 7on7 this is when the wide receivers run routes against each other and the quarterbacks can get dialed in against another team without getting rushed by the defense so they'll have time to throw the ball. As for the bigger guys like the offensive lineman and defensive lineman we still had normal hard practice but we did get let out 30 mins early to go watch and support our other half of the team. When this 7on7 was over 2 weeks later we had our very first game against Valley view. This team is good and I remember how hard the JV team played after the varsity lost Friday night. Saturday morning started at 7 am and the JV team was getting ready for the early game. I remember Blake Bowen would always bring in Timbits Tim Hortons and they were good in the morning and before a game. After the varsity lost the JV team was out for vengeance. I remember my heart pumping and the adrenaline running through my entire body ready to hit someone. The very first play of the game we were on offense and I'm playing guard next to the center and the left tackle. Valley View's JV linebacker tried to blitz me and the center gap and we stuck him in his place and drove him back to where he tried to blitz from. My entire team was hyped because our QB  threw a deep ball and we gained around 50 yards and the very next play we scored and we were up 7-0. The opposite team had the ball and they didn't go far nor did they score on us. We got the ball back and the linebacker that tried to blitz my gap started trash talking so I showed him what happens when opposite players wanna talk trash against me. I go as hard as I can against them. We won 16-0 against valley view and celebrated in the locker room as loud as we could to let them know again that we beat them. Our next game was against a team called Eaton and our varsity team lost to them 7-28 so we came back and our JV team beat them 30-28 and it was a game they played well but we played better and that's why we ended up winning. I remember the Monday practice was so hard we ran so much because of all the penalties and mistakes we made it was the worst Monday practice ever i was gasping for air. Our next game was against Indian Lake and we beat them 20-0 and this game was easy. They weren't good but they still put up somewhat of a fight but wasn't a good one which shows by the score. We were still going so strong in the middle of the season we continued to do really well by beating Northwestern and they’ve always been bad so we beat them 34-12 but I enjoyed playing them because their field is really nice and the set up of the concession stands and bleachers are open and everything isn't cramped. After that easy win the next team we played was KR short for Kenton Ridge and that game there was a lot of back and forth trash talk and hits after plays but they were just mad we were beating them by so much because we beat them 34-8. Bellefontaine was next and I can't remember the last time I lost to them while playing since 2nd grade so we beat them easily, the score being 46-6. Our last game was against Dayton Northridge and this game was intense because they were undefeated and so were we. There was plenty of trash talk and the other team thought they were better than us but they weren't and they were so confident that they took the ball first and did not even come close to the endzone. We got the ball on the 25 and we made our way down the field slowly but more than the other team did then on 3rd and 5 the QB threw the ball up to our Wide receiver and he one handed it into the endzone and we were up 7-0. Dayton Northridge got the ball on the 25 and get a 10 yard run then on the next play they decided to do the same thing so I called it out and they ran the play so I run towards him but he w2as faster so It had to put an angle onto my run so I could catch him and I did catch him but once I hit him I wrapped him up and fell really hard on my shoulder and ended fracturing my rotator cuff in my shoulder. The trainers looked at it and said it was fine, just a stinger so I ended up finishing the game after sitting out for a couple plays. I used my arm and it was excruciating pain every time I had to block someone but I made it work but I was out for the rest of the season which was somewhat okay because our JV season was over and the varsity only had playoffs. But at the practices I felt so helpless and useless because I couldn't  help my team when they needed me the most for the playoffs. Playoff practices were different. We take more time to perfect anything and everything so we have zero mistakes. The varsity first playoff game was Purcell Marion and it was a scary first playoff game because we were down points then up but we finally beat them 21-16. Our second playoff game didn't go as well. We ended up losing 21-7 because of some bad calls but that could be because I'm biased.