Football:
Football is my favorite sport besides from sparring. I do not really know why I like it so much but it is probably because it’s one of the only sports that you can go out and nock someone on their ass, and as my Freshmen line coach always told us we need to “rip of their heads off and shit down their throats.” That is cool because in most other sports you will be panelized if you hurt someone but in football the point is to stop someone from getting a touchdown and to drive them even further back then they were. At the end of my eight-grade year, both my Dad and my Brother who also played on Clackamas Varsity team talked me into playing football. I decided I would go to the school, work out with a few others on Clackamas’s football team, and go to the weeklong camp to see if I liked playing football. Sure enough, I liked football and I was on both the offensive and defensive line.
On Offense, I was a guard (the person on each side of the center the one who hikes the ball). My job as guard as the rest of the line is to keep the defensive line and the linebackers from getting through and sacking the quarterback are who ever has the ball in that play at that time. Most linemen especially the offensive linemen are very big. On my team in my Freshmen year, the average lineman weighed probably about 300 pounds and a few lots, lots more in addition my team’s linemen were quite a bit smaller then most of the other teams we played. Because most linemen are so big, it made it very challenging and difficult because I was so small in comparison weighing only about 150 pounds.
On defense my team run’s a 3 point defense which means there are 3 defensive linemen in on all of our defensive plays instead of 4 we had one nose guard which normally lines up on the center and 2 tackles which line up on either the guards are the offensive tackles depending on the play. As a defensive linemen our primary job was to make an opening in the offensive line so the linebackers could get through and sack the quarterback, because we were suppose to keep on pushing the offensive line back until the linebackers got through and then we had to keep people from blocking the linebackers from tackling the quarterback. We were often not the ones making the tackles but as every player knows that, the tackle would not be possible without us the defensive line. As all the coaches say and I strongly believe not just because I’m a linemen but because it the truth “the linemen are the most important part of the team not only in offense but in defense as well because more of each play depends more on them then any other position.” However, we linemen still managed to get a few of our own sack. Probably because I was one of the fastest and strongest on the team, also because I wasn’t as big as the other linemen I didn’t have to have as big of an opening to get through the line I was actually able to get several sacks. The most out of any one person on the team even more then the linebacker’s who’s job was to sack the quarterback after the defensive line made an opening for them to go through. I played tackle most of the time but I also played some as nose guard I didn’t really like tackle better then nose guard they were basically the same thing but I liked playing on defensive line the most.
I think I did pretty well in football especially because it was the first time I ever had played football and that I was the smallest lineman in the history of Clackamas high school which has been around since about the time of the could war. Not only that but because I started all season on the Defensive line and the last half of the season I was starting not only in defense but as Offensive guard as well. This meant that I was in during every play except for kickoff and kickoff receiving and for the last 2 games I also had to play on kickoff when I have never even practiced it before because Jeremy had gotten hurt and no one else was breaking through the other teams blocking. Coach Mechlem the line coach said we need someone who can get to the ball fast and is not afraid to run full speed into the blockers and sack the ball carrier. Yes other linemen were better then me sometimes but coach said when I asked why I started over them he said they can do great sometimes but their in consent you always do a good job and you have lost of endurance so you can do the same thing all game long. Well that is proof that you don’t have to be big and have played before to get the starting position you just need to go out do your best and never stop trying and if you prove your self you will get the position you deserve.