All About that W

All About that W

“Line Up!” It was 4:15, 45 minutes before game time and the evening sun was upon us. “Down to the right, ready begin.”

We all had to do various stretches for 10 seconds each. Running half speed plays was a good way to get in rhythm before the game, before I knew it the National Anthem was about to begin. Everybody was standing, the Singapore and the American flag waving with the wind and the heat waves were appearing from close by indicating that the heat was most definitely there.

The whistle blew, than the short burst of “butterflies” fell upon me. I took the field on defence first lining up as a cornerback. Multiple drives were exchanged before something was able to get going.

“Down set… Hike!”

The play was off, carefully but quickly I was trying to read what was going on. Before I knew it the ball came my way. “Interception! Picked off my number 15 on the Falcons.” With a run back of 20 yards and a set up of great field position for my team, I was hyped. A few plays later we scored and the snowball had started rolling. The next drive I came down with another pick, making the first half a breeze for my team and I.

Everybody was exhausted, we had all felt like we played a whole game. Us and the other team inclusive were all laying on the ground, but after I caught my breath I thought it would be smart to practice and get some reps in. I needed to look over the playbook and also tell coach about any adjustments the other team made.

We got back on the field and we could tell the other team turned it around at their half break. The second half became a shootout and shootouts really make the players tired especially if they were in every play, offence and defence. The team was getting lazy and bigger plays started appearing for the other team. It was time for a pep talk.

“Come on! We have to stop them out there. They are running all over us.” I yelled. It was very apparent that things were falling apart. A few drives later they were well back in the game, one of which was my fault. They flipped the ball out to my side of the field and the running back burnt everybody except for me. I quickly pursued him and tried to hit him out of bounds instead of performing the traditional tackle which costed our team a touchdown. My coach gave me an earful about that one. All my anger from that mistake went into intensity. The next drive we were on, I got the defence pumped up and it looked like the energy transferred to the offence.

“Touchdown Falcons!”

We were one score ahead and on the last play of the game they still had an enormous opportunity to send this into overtime.

“One more play!” I yelled

“Down… set… hike!”

“Pass, Pass.”

When the ball left the quarterbacks arms it all felt like slow motion and what felt like a minute after the throw the announcer said

“And it's picked off!”

Instant relief rushed through my body. It came down to the wire, but all that mattered is that we got the W.