The bell rang, the school day ended and all my focus was now put towards our game. We would play the opposing Eau-Claire North team. A big event was being put on for the first time in a long time for Superior’s football program: Tackle Cancer.
The whole day leading up to the game I was confident, the whole team was, but we had to make sure we were focused and humble. There was a lot going on which meant our focus could be jarred. Eight other seniors and myself were selected as captains, and part of being a captain is the responsibility of making sure we all stay focused. Head coach Bob Demeyer is big on mental focus and breathing techniques. We always like to remind players to utilize those techniques because it helps us to have more focus for the game and to get ready to go out on the field and play to the best of our abilities.
The first step to getting focused was to eat a good snack before getting ready for our walkthrough. I usually go to Kwik Trip on 28th, but today I packed a cliff bar for myself. I usually don’t need anything too big, but I need something that will hold me over until the adrenaline takes over.
I was filled up and was ready to get to the locker room, so I started listening to music to get my mind and body right. A big thing I like to do is stretch out my arms and quads. It is important to make sure you’re not tight anywhere to take away high possibilities of an injury.
We were all in the locker room and we heard the coaches say, “Let’s go, walkthrough!”
We made our way as a team to the aux gyms and everybody stretched out. When we were done stretching, we got all of our starting squads together, and our coaches talked to us about our assignments for the night. This is one of the most important and crucial times of the night pre-game ritual. If we don’t have a walkthrough, a lot of the players would be lost out on the field, so it’s nice to always have the little reminders they give us.
We ended our walkthrough with a heartfelt pregame speech from Coach Demeyer. He always talks about playing with a purpose, and always playing fast and physical. He says that we should finish every play to the best of our abilities. He doesn’t raise his voice, but he talks about us being brothers and working together to get the job done.
And just like that, we head back to the locker room and it’s time to pad up.
Specialists went out to the field to throw the ball, and just warm up our bodies. We warmed up for 15 minutes and then we went back up to the school so we could walk down with the whole team. We were inching closer and closer to gametime.
We made our way to the field, the team being led out by 3 flags: the American flag, our team flag with the spartan logo on it, and the base black flag with two pink cancer symbols on it.
The clock was ticking and we ran out onto the field and stretched out. After we were done stretching we were sent to our position groups to know our jobs for the night, and get some last minute tune up in.
After we were done warming up as a team, we went over by the fence and lined up in a certain order. Because not only was it our tackle cancer game, it was also the game where we were appreciating a staff member that had an impact on our life. Every staff member has an impact on our life so it was hard to make a decision but in the end I chose my first and second grade teacher, Lisa Persons.
We finished up walking out with our teachers, and then as captains, Gavin Rivord, Sam Meller, Lucas Williams, and myself, went out for the coin flip. We won the toss, and we elected to receive the ball first. We shook hands with the other team’s captains and strapped up our helmets while we ran back to the sideline yelling and screaming out of excitement.
They kicked the ball, and we had a good return from Gavin Rivord, and finally the game was underway.
The first quarter was great, we held them to only one touchdown and our offense was playing fairly well, but we couldn’t seem to put any points on the board. We had let up 2 more touchdowns in the second quarter. We had a good quarter once again, but a few costly mistakes caused by ourselves had set us up in a tricky spot heading into the second half.
We walked under the bleachers and sat down, senior Gavin Rivord had walked in after everybody and yelled.
“We need to focus up, we are playing scared.”
As much as I wouldn’t have wanted to agree with him, nobody could say anything, and we knew we had to try our best to turn this game around in the second half.
The second half came along and we were playing lockdown defense. We had caused two fumbles, but we weren’t able to capitalize on the turnovers. We were still scoreless heading into the fourth quarter and our offense seemed to start picking it up, but their defense was playing solid all night long, and by the end of the game, we had found ourselves in a tough loss, 20-0.
Even though we had lost the game, it was a great event put on by a great person, who has put a lot into the Superior Spartan football program.
