Three Seach Paper

Never Give Up, Never Let Up

One by one we file off of the yellow school bus, each player dressed in black attire. We enter though the front doors of the Ryder’s Funeral Home just to enter a hall way full of pictures of our youth football coach Don Baker. It was a sad day for South Hadley football because loosing a family member is the most difficult thing to deal with. I stood in line waiting for my turn to pay my respects to our late coach. Each player walks down the line of family members, shaking their hands, softly saying, “Sorry for loss.” Our team then files out the back door and back onto the bus. We sit, waiting in silence for the bus to take us back to the high school. The snuffles slowly begin to stop as you hear a few players shouting out, “It’s game time now boys!” The bus then takes us back to the high school so we can get dressed for our 7 o’clock game.

Football is the ultimate team sport in every single way. When you join a football team, you won’t only have a great time playing the sport, but you will learn valuable life lessons and create attributes that are beneficial to you for the rest of your adult life. The friendships you build while playing football is a big part of that. Each person on the team needs to do their personal job each play in order to run successful plays. This builds more than just a friendship between players; it creates a brotherhood. (Ferro) In a town like South Hadley, the kids you play with in high school are the same kids you have been playing with since 5th grade. These kids become your best friends for the rest of your life. If I hadn’t played football throughout my childhood, I don’t believe I would have the quality or quantity of friends that I do now. Another thing that builds this incredible bond between players is the work they put in together.

There was no better opponent than our rivals, the East Longmeadow Spartans. I sit in the back gym with my full uniform on thinking about what I have to do. Coach Ferro walks in and I give him my full attention, as does my entire team. The only words he says are. “You know what you have to do, and you know who is watching!” as he points to the sky. Every single member of the Tigers Football team erupts in a roar as coach slams open the door leading to the football field. Shortly after, our team heads to the field in a line. One of our players is screaming “Who’s House!” while the rest of the team responds “OUR HOUSE!” Once we make it to the field I yell out “This is what we have worked for, we have 48 minutes to do it, now let’s make Coach Baker proud!” Our team then pours from underneath the goal posts through the banner and to the sideline.


Many sports are physically demanding, but in the sport of football you need to be in very good shape. This means each day at practice, you are going to have to run painful drills and exhausting sprints at 110 percent. When you are in the middle of a painful sprinting drill and you look to your left and right just to see all of your friends doing the same thing, it gives you a second wind that you can’t get without having them there. Your friends also help you push yourself when you get fatigued. This physical activity isn’t only beneficial on the football field. A study done by The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that there are many benefits to regular physical activity. Regular physical activity has short and long term effects. Some of the short term effects include a healthier heart, the ability to cope with stress, increased endurance, a sense of well being, and more energy all around. Some of the long term effects of physical activity are reducing the risk of dying prematurely, developing high blood pressure, becoming obese, and dying from heart disease.

The three other captain and I stand a few feet from our sideline with the rest of our team doing the same just a few feet behind us. As we look across the field, we see the other team doing exactly the same but they are all dressed in red. The drum line sounds like rolling thunder as the captains and I walk to mid field to meet East Longmeadow’s captains. We first shake all of their hands and introduce ourselves. The referee tells us to take control of our teammates if there are any conflicts. The referee then says, “Heads or Tails, Visitor, call it in the air. The coin flips in the air while the opposing captains calls, “Heads”. We all look to the coin sitting on the ground that is sitting with the tails side up. The choice is to receive the ball first. We then turn around to the sight of our entire team screaming and charging towards us.

Time management is a very important thing in everyone’s life. “Football at South Hadley High School teaches kids the ways of time management because my rules are very strict on being late. There are punishments for players who are frequently late to practice and other football outings” (Ferro) Being on time is important to all aspects of life. When you have a job when you’re an adult, it is unacceptable to be late to work. If you are late to a dentist appointment, you will miss your appointment. While in high school, football is your job. If you are late to you job too many times, you will be fired. Self confidence is another vital part to the sport of football and life as an adult. “Self-confidence is commonly defined as the sureness of feeling that you are equal to the task at hand.” (Karageorghis) In order to be successful in a football game, you need to know you are better than your opponent. You can not be skeptical about the outcome at all. When you enter a game knowing you are going to win, you will win. Self confidence is important to people whenever they want to accomplish something. Whether you are trying to get a promotion or trying to create your own business, self confidence is a necessity.

All of our teammates circle around the captains. They all start screaming different phases like “LET’S GO BOYS” or “THIS IS IT, THE TIME IS NOW!” While in the middle of that circle I raise my first and scream, “Each play today is being run in memory of Coach Baker. He is watching over us right now with the biggest grin on his face because he is proud of each one of us. He knows we can take down this team, OUR RIVAL, the East Longmeadow Spartans. LET GO DO IT! NEVER GIVE UP.” Immediately after yelling “never give up” the rest of the team yells “NEVER LET UP!” The whole team makes their way to the sideline, as our announcer Mr. Mulveyhill says, “If you will all please stand, and face the scoreboard side of the field for the playing of our national anthem.” Each player stands with their hands behind their back. As I looked around I noticed many players looking up to the sky. At this moment, I knew my team was going to win for Coach Baker.

As beneficial as football is, some kids never get the chance to experience it. A lot of kids want to play football, but are forbidden by their parents. Some parents think it is a reckless and dangerous sport, but don't see the benefits you gain from it. A survey of over 6,000 parents, one in three parents of boys prevent their kids from playing a sport. (Boufous) American football is the most common sport that parents prevent their kids from playing. Parents of kids with disabilities were 40 percent more likely to prevent their kids from playing a sport. (Boufous) For the past three years we have had a kid on our football team with a mental disability and to this day I believe it to be the single best thing he could have done with his high school experience. Not only did gain the friendship of most of the kids on the team, but he became more respected though out the school community. I think every boy should be able to at least try the sport of football and see if they like it. If they do happen to like it and make it to the high school level, they will learn things that they cannot be taught anywhere else.

“Break!” yells the offense as we break the huddle and get into our victory formation. “DOWN, SET, HIKE!” shouted our quarterback Sam Belsky. The scoreboard reads 47-6. Sam takes a knee and our sideline erupts in triumph. Our team turns to coach’s corner where all of our youth coaches and former players stood watching the game. (Coach’s Corner is a corner of the field where all of our youth football coaches watch every home game.) We all run to them and exchange hugs with all of our former youth coaches. They were all proud of us and it made the victory even better. At that moment I could feel Coach Baker looking down at us smiling.