With high school football season upon us, I do want send a message to all high school seniors entering their final season. My senior year of high school football provided some of the most memorable times of my life. I could go on and on about how my team won our semifinal game on a thrilling last second touchdown and then played in the State Championship Game the next week. But the reasons why I do briefly talk about my personal playing experiences is to encourage all high school seniors to make the most of their last season of football and how to handle it and accomplish goals of trying to get more playing time. As well as telling everyone to be grateful for whatever the end result is. However, those weren't the only things that made my senior season unforgettable. I know most of you won't score a last second touchdown to make it to State like my team did. So I am going to talk more about what every senior, regardless of how good your team is can do to have an unforgettable senior season.
Bond with your teammates as much as you can.
This one I cannot stress enough. I do greatly miss playing the game without a doubt. The only thing I miss more then playing the game are the men I suited up with in our all-black uniforms every home game. Football is where I made a good chunk of my friends from high school. And while I knew many of those guys throughout middle school before I started playing with them, I became closer to them when I started playing with them. The reason why I say to bond with your teammates as often as you can is because when you get into college, you will not have nearly as much time or structure to hang around or be with your teammates. Upon the conclusion of my senior season, I still kept hanging with my teammates throughout the remainder of the school year the rest of the year often in school events as well as attending sporting games for other sports. In the summer of 2016, a lot of my teammates and I graduated from high school. However, I still spent a lot of time with my teammates in that summer as many of us attended graduation parties together, met up at Lollapalooza, and I still had some other special memories that summer hanging with a few of them on a personal basis. Unfortunately, the Summer of 2017 just hasn't been the same vibe as the summer following our senior season. Just about all of us, including myself are now working some kind of job, and even a few have moved away from my hometown upon their graduation from high school. The reason why none of us hang out as a team anymore has nothing to do with social stuff where someone has developed an extreme dislike for some particular people on the team or anything. It all comes down to the fact that we don't have nearly as much time to have the entire team over to hang out like we once used to. All of us are ending up at different colleges spread all over the country instead of just a few miles apart in our hometown. Given how much time I have spent with these guys in the weight room, locker room, practices, bus rides, games, school dances, team meals and other team bonding activities, things just don't feel the same having to be separated from a majority of my beloved high school football teammates. Unfortunately, this is something all current high school football seniors will learn when the whole team goes away to school in many different places. I now only see a few of these guys once or twice a week. And for the ones who I don't get to see as much anymore, I still try my best to keep in contact with all of them over social media. But it just doesn't feel the same as bonding with all of my teammates throughout various team activities in my years playing. If your team offers players to do some community service work, maybe even a team movie night or pool party, just go to it! You will miss all of your teammates when all of you are at different colleges!
Appreciate the absolutely reeking smell of the locker room. It does smell awful but you WILL miss it.
Yes, my teams football locker room was in this old smelly building connected to the concession stand. Obviously, things smelled horribly with guys putting their sweaty football gear on and off the locker room. It would only get worse as the week went on because a majority of their players just leave their practice jerseys and helmets standing alone in their lockers overnight. And I do believe a few never brought back the simple stuff that could be washed nightly after practice such as pants undershirts and socks. Despite the awful smell, I still absolutely loved it. Symbolizing our amazing team bond and work ethic was something you could smell in the locker room each and every day.
Be sure you pick a jersey number that you either absolutely love or one with a purpose behind it.
I would assume that seniors get to pick their jersey numbers first at most high schools. That is how we picked numbers at our school, seniors pick first. I played on the offensive line, meaning I would get the chance to wear one of the high jersey numbers. When I got to pick my jersey number for my junior year, I realized that all of the popular offensive linemen numbers such as 50, 62, 66, 68, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, and 77 were all taken by seniors (or by guys in my grade who beat me to it). I ended up settling for number 79. However, after my junior season ended, I decided that there would be no way I change my uniform number to one of the more popular linemen numbers one of the seniors wore. The reason why I fell in love with the jersey number 79 was because 79 is the highest jersey number an offensive linemen can wear. That number motivated me to shoot for the highest peaks because I am wearing the highest possible jersey number players at my position can wear. So if you want to wear one of those ultra-cool jersey numbers or another number that has special meaning to you, go ahead and wear it! Even some guys on my team did this for their senior year. Switching from their junior year numbers to more popular and cooler jersey numbers such as 7,11,13, 23, 50, 52, 83, and 99 just to name a few.
Enjoy every free team meal you get. Nobody will be feeding you with a bunch of free food in college then the football moms.
My team always got free pregame pasta meals from this delicious local pizzeria before every game (or free breakfast from the parents on the times we had to play on Saturdays). I devoured every bite of that pasta just to get myself fueled up. If that pasta wasn't enough, my team even had parents come the night before every game where all of the players could help themselves to delicious assorted desserts. This included a bonaza of cookies, brownies, donuts, and many other pastries. I truly miss all of the free food I got. So appreciate all of the delicious food you have while its there. You'll probably never have any other moms providing you with a bunch of free food in such large amounts ever again.
Get some songs to listen to before every game/practice.
As a part of my extreme determination to help contribute my team to winning a State Championship, I picked out two albums that I would listen to before every practice and every game. They were Guns N Roses Appetite For Destruction as well as the Rage Against The Machine Album simply titled, Rage Against The Machine. If I had time for it, I would also play a little bit of Foo Fighters. Listening to music that included lyrics defying the norms of society pushed me to become out of this world and become something else. I didn't feel I had to meet the expectations or norms of society. Both of those albums, especially Rage Against The Machine in particular got me out of reality and into the spirit of football. Whatever it is you have to do with your music, get an album or two that can make you become a mental giant so you can find easy ways to get pumped up for the game ahead of you.
SIDE NOTE: A part of the reason why I listened to Rage Against The Machine was in part because Tom Morello, the guitarist (yes the guy from Guitar Hero III), is in fact an alumni of my high school. Adding additional passion to fight for my school came just by listening to his guitar. This was my tribute to his legacy. Ultimately, I paid my biggest tribute to Morello at my graduation lock-in party after the ceremony when I sung Killing In The Name Of at the top of my lungs on the karaoke machine that was rented out for my graduating class that night.
Get beyond pumped for every single Friday night or Saturday afternoon. You will greatly miss this gameday feeling:
Since I felt an extreme passion behind playing high school football, there was no day more exciting than Friday, or during the playoffs and a few regular season games, Saturday. That was all in fact knowing that I have worked so hard in the weight room, four days a week 6 AM lifting sessions in the Spring, along with putting many hours into keeping my grades up so I could remain a member of my team. I felt that all of that work on and off the field would get rewarded by the experience of something I would not do ever again after my high school playing days were concluded. That was running out onto the field under the tunnel with a big boom of the marching band leading me to hi five everybody in the student section. Besides getting my chances to play whenever we had a huge fourth quarter lead against the other team, those runs out onto the field were my best parts of home games.
No matter what happens with your team, be very appreciative of the time you had and how much you accomplished.
Due to my inexperience with the game, I never rose above the depth chart to start a single game in my career. However, I don't regret a thing. By no means am I mad at myself for never getting a chance to start a game, and I have every reason to back that up. I gave the sport my all and absolute best since the day I walked onto the team in winter before my sophomore season. My sophomore year of high school would be my first ever football playing season. In order to make the huge leap to varsity for the next two years, I didn't miss a single 6 AM lifting session in the springs prior to my junior and senior varsity seasons in an attempt to bulk up to get more playing time. Even if it meant that I would still be a JV player, I wanted to be the best I could be suiting up on Saturday mornings and Monday afternoons following the conclusion of the varsity game. I always strived to become better on the field. Often times, I was seen getting myself on the big sledding bag to work on my steps and punches on a stationery man during brief segments of special teams I was not on the depth chart for. Eventually, I was able to improve my technique and give better looks on the scout team. Because I knew my senior year would for sure be my last year playing football, I wanted to be sure I performed as well as possible when I got in. Improvement was there, as I became a co-starter for every JV game my senior season. This was truly unprecedented to me, but I saw game action in each of the first ten varsity games of my senior season. Each of those ten games, we built a very comfortable fourth quarter leads which paved the way for more backups and JV players such as me to get real Friday night action. While it wasn't spectuclar, I impressed the coaches enough to get more Friday night reps then I did in the five blowout games of my junior year. All I want to say is your time on the gridiron is very short. So do whatever it is you have to do to please the coaching staff to get you in as much as possible. Even if you still are a JV player, those JV games can be quite fun to play in. Especially when coach forces the varsity starters to watch the JV boys once meetings end for them. Just be proud of how much you do get to play this year. Because most of you will never play football again.
Oh, and speaking of feeling appreciative and grateful of the ultimate end result, here is what I have to say about that. If you and your team gave it your all and absolute best but still fall up short, there is no reason to feel ashamed for falling short. The week after our miracoulous last second touchdown to send my team to the State Championship Game, the results did not go as we had hoped they would. My team and I ended up losing the State Championship Game. But it was not at all because we didn't show up to play. We just ran into an opponent that has been a longtime powerhouse in Illinois High School Football. We gave them their toughest test of the year, and they sure did the same in return. It was a back and forth game with many lead changes along with very physical play by both teams defenses. It just didn't happen to be enough that day for my team as we lost 34-28. While obviously I was very bummed after the opposing team converted a first down with a minute to go in the fourth quarter which would allow them to run out the rest of the clock, I felt no real reason to cry. I just took a few deep breaths and told myself that everything is going to be alright. I graciously accepted the State Runner-Up Trophy. Reasons as to why I was very gracious about my acceptance of a Second Place Trophy and a Silver Medal was because I knew I did everything that I possibly could've done since I walked onto this team with no experience in the winter of my freshmen year. My team fought as hard as we could have fought not only on that November evening, but all season and off-season long. Yes, you sure can be disappointed if you don't go out on top. But if you truly laid it all on the line to make the best and absolute greatest happen for your team, there is nothing to be ashamed of for falling short of a State Championship.
With the best of wishes for an amazing final season of high school football for all seniors around the country,
Matt Roleck
