Vishal Desai

Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
January 31, 2015
Jersey #82
It was a cold December day, the day I decided to join the high school
football team. I remember the nerve-wracking feeling of sitting and waiting
in the huge cafeteria after school ended. My stomach was crowded with
butterflies I felt like throwing up and work outs didnt even start yet. I didnt
even know what position I wanted to play! As the clock struck 3 the highly
respected coach walked in, Coach Hastings. He had a very stern demeanor
Ok, lets go he said as he walked straight back out headed towards the
weight room. As we walked in he gave us a speech about how this part of
football was going to be the worst part of our lives. But I knew in the back of
my head he was doing that to scare the new kids so there werent too many
people in the football program. The workout started as the song Ambition
from Wale started blaring from the speakers. The kid next to me whispered
better get used to this song its a classic. I looked at the list of workouts
that we had to do, I stood there dumbfounded. I wasnt going to quit I was
playing football to get in shape and for the love of the game. Coach Hastings
had a strict guideline everything was on the whistle. We started the workout
on the whistle, we did every rep on the whistle, and up-downs were on the
whistle. UP-DOWNS! The worst workout ever made. It seems simple jump up

once then fall down into push up position and do a push up. Every time
someone messed up during the workout we were gifted 20 up-downs. If
coach saw anyone half-assing the up-downs we were gifted an indefinite
amount till coach thought the amount was enough. Two hours later the
workout was finally finished or so I thought, coach blows the whistle and says
alright were done here. I started celebrating in my head! Coach tells us to
go to the hallway, Im hoping its a surprise like protein shakes or something,
I was delusional at this point almost dehydrated because I was too focused
on working out. I remember him saying okay on the wall. My friend says
oh god, wall sits. At this points my legs were so sore I couldnt even feel
them. So I just sat on the wall hoping my legs wouldnt give out. We just sat
there for 5 minutes my quadriceps were on fire. Coach blew the whistle for
the final time. He gave us a speech about how he was excited about the
season because of the way we worked. He told us to drink chocolate milk
when we got home because it was the best way to recover. I went straight to
Harris Teeter bought a gallon jug of chocolate milk and chugged it right in the
parking lot. I thought to myself I accomplished what only a handful of people
in my school have done, finish a Coach Hastings workout. Then came
Thursday. Get. Big. Thursday. The weekly get big Thursday workout, many of
my teammates dreaded Thursday because of it. So we did our normal routine
coach came in said ok lets go and we walked to the weight room where all
of us anxiously waited for Coach to tell us what the workout was. Knight
March he said softly. I could hear the soft groans of some of my teammates

in the background. The Knight March was where you would lunge for one and
a half miles around the school and in between there would be stations of
push ups or up downs to do. So, the weeks went by as I toiled hard to get
muscular and strong for the season. By no time school was over and the
summer came. That meant summer workouts, where the football players ran
till they threw up. Five 20 yard sprints, then five 30 yard sprints, then five 40
yard sprints and so on. At the end we had the Dirty Dozen twelve 100 yard
sprints in a row. On the 6th hundred yard sprint I threw up but I was so
determined to finish the sprints that I kept running while throwing up. The
practice ended and we started stretching our sore bodies thinking about
what the next day had in store for us. Coach always had something special
on Thursday, this Thursday it was bleachers, running the bleachers 4 times
each with a different exercise. First was running up the stairs, then was
running up the stairs every other step, after that was jumping up the stairs
with one foot. Twenty-one days went by until football camp, described as
harder than strength training. What? Harder than strength training? I
couldnt even imagine such a thing! Coach told us we would be at Western
Carolina University for a week to sharpen our skills in the game of football. At
the end he mentioned the would be no air conditioning, the upper classmen
groaned again? under their voices. So we went into to the locker room and
prepped everything to move onto the U-Haul. I tied my helmet up with my
shoulder pads and I was done. We were told to rest a lot because Hell
Week was awaiting. So the weekend came and all of my teammates packed

in two activity busses. One was for offense and one was for defense. At this
point I had decided that I was going to play tight end so I went on to the
offense bus. I has chosen the number 82 to pay my respects to the senior
that came before me. I respected him a lot and I wasnt going to let him
down by wearing his number. The bus ride to Western was brutal it was silent
on the bus, all of my teammates were preparing as if we were going to war.
The three hour ride felt as if it were only 30 minutes. We got to Western
Carolinas student union where they gave us football camp tee shirts a token
for paying for coming to their school. Then we got the itinerary. We woke up
at 4 am everyday, and went to sleep at 12 am! We had practice that day but
it was a light day preparing us for the next day. The first practice of the
next day was hitting practice. The point of that practice was to hit people or
dummies as hard as you can for an hour. Their were plenty of injuries after
this practice. Luckily, I was a bigger kid so all the injuries I had to show were
bumps and bruises. We walked into the mess hall limping and hungry. It was
a buffet so we ate all we could before we went to the team meeting 30
minutes later. This went on for the week the last day felt like it was the last
day of my prison sentence. We walked into the busses like we were taking a
trip to California. Five minutes into the bus ride everyone was already passed
out mouths open wide. We made it through the worst week of our lives! We
got home and I greeted my mom who had come to pick me up. We had 2
weeks off practice and deservedly so, we had worked our asses for a
countless amount of months. We headed back to practice, actual practice,

where we ran plays and no hitting each other. I was chosen as a varsity
defensive linemen, I had done better at defensive end then tight end so I
was switched over. I went against the two most highly recruited offensive
tackles in North Carolina, Mason Veal 2nd best offensive tackle in North
Carolina and Taleni Suhren the first. Practices were very fun and frustrating
at the same time, because I was playing the sport I loved and was doing well.
But it was also frustrating because I was going against the two best offensive
tackles in North Carolina. Some plays I would get the best of them and other
plays theyd get the best of me. We practiced for two weeks for the first
game against our rivals, Marvin Ridge. Marvin Ridge and Ardrey Kell are
about five miles apart. The speech coach gave was that they invade our
space, they go to out to our stores wearing their stupid orange and navy
color scheme. The baseball team put a truckload of horse shit on the
baseball field to signify their anger towards us. That got us pumped up! The
hours before the first game were filled with a lot of anxiety and excitement.
This was my first high school football came! The preparation I did before the
season would mean nothing if I didnt show out today. Its the third quarter
and my name gets called, because the first stringer, Twazanga Mugala now a
defensive end for Duke, got injured. Coach called a simple play in which all I
had to do was rush the passer. I knew while watching the game they were
doing a lot of cut blocks, where they attempt to block you by taking your
knees out. The quarterback snapped the ball and I stayed patient knowing
the the cut block was coming sure enough it did and at that exact moment I

leaped over the tackle and raced towards the quarterback. I grabbed a hold
of him and tossed him like a ragdoll to the turf. That is how I started my high
school football legacy and I will never forget it.