Vikings

English 131

Mr. Hanna

15, November 2005

Good Qualities

I have picked up many good qualities over the past seventeen years, and most of them have come from football. I learned these qualities from players, coaches, opponents, and fans. Leadership, like many of the qualities, is present at birth, but it’s developed and strengthened through working with others. Some of the other virtues-respect, loyalty, sportsmanship, and trust-have been learned just from practicing with the team everyday.

I have discovered many traits in people during football season. We have practiced together for over four months this year, and many of us have played as a team for two years prior to this season. As a player and friend, I have shared sweat, blood, tears, even pain with them. I’ve seen players hurt, we’ve cried when we lost Coach Thomas, but we’ve always known that our teammates were “our brothers”-people we could count on. We have been through some tough times together, and every time I feel like giving up, I just look around and see my teammates busting their ass, so we can win the game.

A player needs to have trust in his football team, knowing that his teammate is going to make that block or make that tackle. When I carry the ball, I need to have confidence in my blockers so that I can make the most of my run, and they also need to know that I will do all that I can to make their run successful. No one really cares who makes the yardage, but that positive yardage is achieved. Trust is knowing that my teammate is going to do his best, and I’m going to do mine. When a person trusts someone, he feels comfortable knowing that whatever needs to be accomplished to achieve the goal is done accomplish it. As a team we experience trust whether winning or losing a game; we know that no one person will be blamed because we play as a team not as individuals. We respect one another for the job that each person performs and we are able to own up to our faults without being judged unfairly.

My coaches have taught me a great deal about trust. I know they are looking out for our best interests and want us to be the best we can possibly be. With their many years of coaching experience, each coach is able to show us many different strategies and is willing to teach us a variety of plays to make us the best team possible. They teach us to believe in the hole when we run the ball because they are able to trust our lineman. Furthermore, I have so much respect for our coaches. I respect them for always being there for us. I’m sure they have better things to do in their busy life than coming to our football practices, but they are doing it because they love the sport, and that is how they