Friday Night Lights

                When the final bell rings on a Friday most people start to celebrate their weekends but for high school football players it’s almost the opposite. We go into game mode and start focusing on the battle we are entering. Head phones in, mentally preparing yourself for the night. Going home and anxiously waiting until we come back and board the bus. Spectators see the outcome but only the players know the truth behind the scenes.

                Once we step off the bus and enter the locker room time stops. You can feel every second ticking away with your heart beat. Sitting in complete silence waiting patiently for the time, slowly putting your pads, trying to time it so you don’t have to sit in your pads too long in the stagnate heat of the locker room. Passing around the baggie of ibuprofen, each taking as many as they think they will need to get by, ranging from 2 pills to my preference of 6. Once it gets closer to game time the music gets turned up and the clicking of cleats on the concrete floor start. Some gets sitting by themselves in the corner others nervously chattering to other team mates. Kids standing in line in front of the mirror waiting for their turn to put eye black on. Then we slowly head out to the tunnel for warm ups. Warm ups go by in the blink of an eye. But from the first step back into the locker room till the game time might as well be a hundred years. Getting last minute adjustments to make sure we are 100 percent ready.

                Then we all migrate to the tunnel which still to this date is the most intense place I have ever been. Hearing the crowd in the distance and finally get the word to run out. Bursting through the banner like a bullet we see the student section going nuts. Running in slow motion all the way across the field to our sideline to our team huddle. Once we disperse from the huddle we still have around 3 minutes to play. Each player using the 3 minutes differently, some using it as extra time to stretch out or do what I do, anxiously pacing back and fourth down the sideline. The game itself flies by. Next thing you know we are jogging back to the locker room for half time, where we go over things that needed adjustments. Cherishing the time to just sit there and gain back your breath and drink as much as you can without throwing it all back up. Then we repeat the steps that we took at the beginning of the game back out to the field.

                Next thing you know you are lined up shaking hands with the opponent then heading back to the locker room for the final time that night either with the pain of defeat or the numbing feeling of victory. We meet one last time discussing the game and the game plan for the following morning. We break it down one more time and go our separate ways to shower and change back into the clothes we came in. This is usually the point where the Ibuprofen wears off and you start to feel the pounding you just took. Everyone is in a hurry to just get the hell out of their wanting to get back to school where your friends are waiting to greet you marking the start of our weekend.