Literacy Narrative: How I Learned How to Play Football

Obed Hearns

Ms. Moran

Comp 1

24 August 20

Literacy Narrative: How I Learned how to Play Football

    The story of how I learned how I learned how to play football isn’t a perfect one but a very real one, This literacy narrative that I have chosen to write about has many ups and downs and many various experiences. There have been numerous people that have helped me along this long and tedious journey; spanning from family members to coaches, and trainers. In this essay I will recount how these various people and experiences shaped me into the player that I am today.

    The first time I ever attempted to play football was in 6th grade. In all honesty , I was horrible at it and rarely ever got to play. At this point in my life I was just trying football and didn’t quite think it was the sport for me. There was one game I specifically remember and that was the game we played against USJ. Somehow, I ended up going into the game and I was playing corner and I distinctly remember USJ running a pass play where the receiver I was responsible for ran a slant. As I waited for something to happen the receiver ran right behind me and scored a touchdown. Needless to say, we lost that game and I remember watching one of their players do a backflip and wondering if I even wanted to play football anymore.

    The next season I finally convinced myself to give football one more chance but I had to find a way to get on the field. During that summer before football season I was very determined to get on the field so I did numerous push-ups and sprints.  It was a slow process, but eventually I got better.When it came close to football season I wasn’t too thrilled about playing for the middle school team because at DCMS 7th graders only played 5 games however junior pro played 8 games plus the playoffs so me and a few friends decided to play. On the first day of practice we showed up to pick up our pads and after everybody got dressed we held position tryouts. I had never played running back before but I had seen it on tv and played it on videos games, and it looked really fun so I gave it a try. While we were running a drill I noticed that I was significantly quicker than everyone on the field and the coach noticed, so after practice we had a race between the whole team and when I finished I looked back and I was far ahead of everybody and quickly earned a starting position.

    The following monday was our first actual practice. It felt good outside and the smell of freshly cut grass and sweat soon filled the air. When we first began running plays I did well, no one could really catch me, however coach Jeff pulled me aside and told me “Son, you're holding the ball like a loaf of bread, you’re going to have to tuck it.” After Coach showed me how to properly carry the football I only had one fumble the entire season. The first game of the season I scored my first touchdown, I ran to the right and made one guy miss then cutback to the left and broke a tackle ,and then proceeded to only take a step or two in the end zone and immediately ran toward the sideline. A few moments later the referee came up to me and said, “Good run but next time go a little further into the endzone”, happy as could be, I just laughed a little bit and said,”alright”. The team had a really good game and we ended up winning 12-0.

    The season that would ensue would not be outstanding, but we ended up going 8-5 when it was all said and done. In the last game of the season I put on a show. I scored 4 touchdowns in the last game, however we didn’t keep up with yards so I have no idea how many yards I had but i’m sure it was a large amount. My first touchdown came from an outside run where I outran all the defenders and dove into the endzone to score, but there was a flag on the play. The played