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Are you ready?

by MoCoFootball Staff on 09/02/10

I haven't coached a football game since a playoff loss against Al Thomas' future state champion Sherwood Warriors in November of 2008, and yet the sting of losing that game (and 46 others during my 10 years at Northwest High School) still sits at the bottom of my stomach.

I haven't sat in a coaching meeting since that same week, and yet the excitement and anxiety, the comraderie among the coaches, planning for the next opponent, is simply irreplaceable.

Nope, I haven't looked a young man in his eyes through a crowded facemask, seeing the sweat pour down his face, and ever-eager to learn and listen to what you're telling him since 2008. But this time of year brings it back for me. It brings it back for all of us who are, or once were, a part of this great game.

The smell of the freshly cut grass... the sound of 50 pairs of cleats "click-clacking" on the cement... the excitement of that first game... the sight of 50 sets of eyes hanging on your every word, wanting to get better. We all know these sights and sounds quite well. It's the great thing about football. Those who have played it understand the emotion, excitement, and meanings of what would probably be quite trivial to the casual observer. It's the inherent brotherhood that is the great game of football.