The Confidence Game
Coming off a two game losing streak, nothing feels good; especially if you are in a program where winning is expected from you, year in and year out. After a loss, your favorite food tastes plain, your favorite songs sounds average and your favorite T.V. show gets boring. All you can think about are those two losses you took in a row. How will your classmates look at you? How will practice be like that next week? Will we ever win again? You lose all the confidence that you had from the rest of the year. These are all feelings that every player on every team feel coming of losses, however to distinguish between a good team and a great team depends on how the team deal with these feelings and come back the next week at the game. That is what my team and I had to figure out before a big game against the league’s best team.
Warm ups before that game were nerve racking. Cameras and people were everywhere. It was tough to really pay attention to anything, let alone go over plays and warm up. We did our basic warm ups then head over to the locker room for our pre game talk. The coach unleashed everything that he bottled up that whole week in a motivational speech that pumped us all up. He told us he’s proud of us for not falling apart and told us that we have a good chance of winning this game if we stick together and and keep battling until the final play. The whole team was in mayham. So much raw emotion was in there that you couldn’t help but start yelling. We then walked out on the field and got ready for what would be the hardest game I’ve played in my life.
The game started off back and forth. They were passing the ball all over us and we were running the ball all over them. Touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. It was a battle of wills. The first team to ease up would be left in the dust. Near the end of the half, however, we were starting to lose our concentration. We were making mental mistakes and it was costing us. Luckily we got saved by the bell. The first half had ended The score was 35-35. All offense, no defense. At halftime coach told us to take a deep breath, rest up, and come back the next quarter with the same intensity that we started with. He told us that if the defense can make one big play, then we will win this game. We breaked and head back out onto the field.
The second half started the same as the first one. We exchanged touchdowns, no team batting a eye. It was a very close game, both coaches yelling, both teams cheering, and all players battling. Whatever anyone was doing, be it playing or cheering, everyone was giving it their all. The fourth quarter rolls around and the train keeps rolling. We had just scored with about five minutes left on the clock when the coach pulls us over and tells us this is what we trained for. He told us to go out there and win the game. They scored with 30 seconds left on the clock. It was devastating. We didn’t give up, we came back ran our trick play and scored a touchdown on the final play of the game! Just as we are about to starting celebrating a win, someone points out a yellow flag. It was a penalty on us. We were going to overtime.
Even though that bad call denied us the win and we were dead tired, we were still pumped and ready to win this game. We were going to keep fighting until we won. We scored first and all we had to do was stop them to win. We stopped them three times and it was fourth down and twenty five. We just had to not let them get twenty five yards and we would win. Unfortunately, we made a mental mistake and they scored. We were heartbroken. We had the game in our hands but we lost it. I realized at that point that we were in bad shape, however I decided that I wasn’t going to let this game get away from us. I brought the whole team together and told them we are winning this. We are going to keep fighting until we win this game, no matter how long it takes. We trained harder than these guys so we deserve to win. I got the team together and put life back into their body.
They scored then we scored, however instead of taking the safe point, we decided to go for it all. We were going to run a play instead of kick the extra point. If we score we win, we don’t, we lose. We lined up, snapped the ball, ran the play we first learned as freshman…
And scored the game winning touchdown! It was mayhem. People were running everyone jumping and screaming and celebrating. All I could do was sit down, look into the sky and smile. At that moment I realized so much. I realized that even if one’s back is against the wall, that doesn’t mean just fall apart. I learned that even if no one believes in you, believe in yourself. I gained so much self confidence that helped me get through college apps and the rest of the year. That experience, and football as a whole, will help me preserve through the struggles of life that await and to be persistent toward achieving my hopes and dreams.Win or lose, that game reassured the the confident, hardworking person that I am today.