Ever since I was in the 4th grade, I have looked forward to my senior year football season. Believe it or not, many of the people who were on that 4th-grade team are still playing! Soon after the events of last year, I found out that our football season was not going to take place in the fall. After hearing the bad news, it was hard to look forward to my senior year. As I know COVID has affected many people in bigger ways than this, on a personal and a community level, having a football season was important to many of us.

Football has been something that we all look forward to each year. On Fridays, there is a different feeling in the air. Over the last four years, I have come to realize that it is not about the football game, it is about everybody in our school coming together to support one thing. This has been one of the most memorable parts for me. Unity is something that every community strives for. For the duration of the football game, everyone comes together to support the team.

On a personal level, football has been one of my favorite parts of high school. There is nothing like playing football on a Friday night. Being out on the field with all of my teammates is unbeatable. Football has been a way to escape from everything that is going on for a couple of hours. School, work, and social life are all put on the back burner.

I miss going to practice the most. Practices have always been filled with laughs: sometimes too many, which doesn’t always make the coaches happy. Football is the ultimate team game. If someone misses a block, the next person has to make a block, or if a linebacker misses a tackle, the safety has to make one. It is great to know that you have 11 guys on the field willing to risk anything for the win.

When the football season was shut down, anticipating the school year was not the same. Most people I had talked to felt the same way.

“Why did this happen to us?” – the million-dollar question that no one can seem to answer. Why us?

We have made the most of school thus far, but nothing changes the fact that there is no football. This situation is not how we all wanted it to play out, especially with the seniors. We have all been through a lot these past couple of months, and not being able to play football just puts the cherry on top.

Most of the seniors will never play tackle football again after high school. Few will go on to play in college, yet they will still never be able to play with their childhood friends ever again. As I said before, since the 4th grade, my teammates and I have waited for our senior year. This was supposed to be a year we remembered.

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is some speculation that we will be playing in the Spring. So after all that negative, there is some positive. We will hopefully be getting a season, and it will be the best football season we have ever had. Hopefully, all of our anticipation will become a reality.