Defeated by the Indians

 

While many of us were feeling hopeful going into our first night game under the lights, it did not turn out how we had hoped.

The team gathered in the locker room 5 hours before kick off to prepare for the close to 3 hour road trip over Highway 33 into Maricopa.

We all put on the lower half of our pads and so that when we walked off the bus we could get right into our pre game warm ups.

The bus ride was filled with many people sleeping, listening to music, and having a good time.

The team has not played a game under the lights for a while, so seeing lights on a field was pretty exciting.

While it was not a huge stadium, it was still a stadium none the less.

Seeing as we arrived about an hour early we spent some time running around on the field to get accustomed to the grass, and pass the ball around, having a good time, smiles could be seen on all of our faces.

At about 6 pm we all entered the final stage of game mode.

We quit the messing around, grabbed our bags, and walked over to a covered area to finish dressing and spend time thinking about our assignments, and what we wanted this game to be like.

It was almost completely silent as we all helped each other grab straps on our pads, and get pumped for the game.

After we were all ready we lined up in two lines, two men across, holding hands, and walking out in complete silence, as one well oiled machine.

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Fight through Pain-It hurts to write this one, guys!

I mean that completely literally, by the way. Last night, we traveled to Maricopa to play a football game. We knew from the beginning that this one was going to be a battle.

This is probably the understatement of the century.

We worked hard and just couldn’t make anything happen on either side of the ball. We started strong, and finished strong. But somewhere in the middle, we lost ourselves a little bit.

We didn’t lose our drive and our determination. We were confused and in pain. A lot of what happened last night was very controversial, especially to the spectators, who had a pretty good view of the carnage that was being left on the field.

I want to thank the spectators that came out to support and cheer us on. I speak for the whole team when I say we could never show how much we appreciate the shouts and yells from the sidelines. Trust me, we hear you.

The reason this post hurts is actually completely physical pain. I’m still a little shaken in the head from taking as many hits as I did. Also, I have a very swollen hand that is making typing very impossible. I am also sitting in a position that keeps the computer close to my body, as I cannot fully extend my left arm.

None of that matters, however.

Pain heals itself.

We will get back to work this week and keep on going.

Enjoy this picture of men running into each other.

For those wondering who that is, yes it’s Brian Dawkins hitting Alge Crumpler :).

Moving Forward

After the OVS football team came home with an outstanding victory in Lee Vining, that winning streak did not continue this past Saturday.

After our return we had a week to prepare for our next game against Hillcrest Christian of Thousand  Oaks, California. During this week practice seemed to be filled with not only focused faces and hard work, but excitement and laughter after the team had just broken a new Ojai Valley School record of being the first team to win a varsity football game.

It seemed that the win may have gotten to the heads of some players, myself included, and that if we beat that team, that we would probably be able to carry that win into the next game.

Although the game did not put another W on the Ojai Valley School’s standings it did teach the team a valuable lesson, a lesson our coaches were trying to instill in us all week.

Yes we won, but that is just one game, and that while we should be happy we won, there was still plenty of work. In practice Coach D said that yes we did play well, but we need to be better, the word better was repeated over, and over, and over, but apparently in this game our opponent ended up with the better score, which means, they won.

While many of us wanted to walk off of the field with our heads down, we had to keep them up, and come back to our next game playing even better than the first and second.

This past loss has given the team a reality check that while we did play well the first game, and this is not to say we did not play well on Saturday, that we do indeed need to be better.

Our next game is Saturday night against the Maricopa Indians.

This game will be very special for the team because we get to play in the Indian’s stadium arena at night under the lights.

This next coming week of practice is going to be tough, but it will only give us more time to sharpen our minds, and sharpen our plays, because come Saturday it will hopefully be time to put another win up on the boards for this team of new records.

Hopefully we can show everyone that we do deserve to play, and shatter the harsh words that some put on OVS football, like the program should be cancelled because “we aren’t good.”

To all of the people who doubt our team or speak I’ll of us, I ask you to come out and try to do what we do everyday, and see after that what you think about the fact that we aren’t good or that we don’t deserve to play.

If you have to win all the time to be worth it, than sports would not be what they are, nobody would ever win because everyone would be just as good as the other. And if we are to follow in this thought that winning is the only reason to play, than nobody would be able to play because winning would become impossible.

Empty Stadium

If any of you would like to know what it is like to go through what a football team goes through together, I beg you to come out on to the field everyday, put on your helmet and pads, run around in the heat, get beaten and battered, and then return from a loss, and hear, “wow who could have seen that coming,” in a sarcastic tone.

Hopefully we can better ourselves from this game and have the season of all seasons. If you can come out and support at any of our games it would be greatly appreciated. And to all of you who doubt us I really hope we can change your minds at some point, and if not try and keep it to yourself.