So we lost week one in horrifying fashion.
We left several points on the field, and Centennial scored 14 points in the final 72 seconds to win. It was definitely not the opening anyone would want. Their quarterback finished 9-25, and most of those completions came on the final two drives.
I had a big “hoorah” blog lined up in my head for if we had won, but I wasn’t able to write it.
For a moment, I questioned doing this. Is this really something I wanted to do? Do I really like football this much to go through everything we did simply to lose like that?
Sunday rolled around, and we put it behind us. It happened. It’s over. Time to regroup. It made me sick the rest of the week, but, in a way, I loved that. I loved that I finally had some drive in me. It didn’t matter what happened because we are a team. We lost as a team. Everyone has to get better.
Tuesday we had the best defensive practice I think I have seen. Offensively, our line was beginning to gel.
Going into Riverdale, no one gave us a chance. Riverdale is full of athletes and extremely talented skill-guys.
But we were prepared.
Riverdale features many of the top recruits in the state such as safety Gentry Bonds, who committed to Georgia Tech.
We put up 21 unanswered points, but they began to trickle back into the game little by little. We fumbled at the 1-yard line right before we could have scored. Those thoughts from the week prior against Centennial came back. My heart was out of control the whole fourth quarter.
Friday night we shocked the world 27-20, getting our first win of the season.
On my drive home last night, I was thinking about timing. This is my first time doing this, but I think the week one loss was a wake up call for us all. To be humble. For every play to matter. To not slack off when we think that we are ahead.
I think that we are given trials in life that are difficult, no matter what it may be. Losing a job or a loved one, not getting that promotion that you wanted or even having a broken expectation — all of this gives you a chance to regroup and become better.
Sometimes we have to go through defeat to realize how much harder we have to work. Sometimes defeat means that we have to wait our chance and to better ourselves. To grow.
We fought. We finished. We grew.
We won.
“But it ain’t about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” – Rocky Balboa