An Impact In My Life As football practice started and progressed it was much similar to the year before. Practicing with the junior varsity team and trying my hardest to just get a spot on the varsity special teams. It wasn't until the day of our first scrimmage that I first ran behind the varsity offensive line. The coaches had me come over and run some plays with them. The week of practice after the scrimmage I started to practice more and more with the varsity offensive team and all of the varsity special teams. The night before our first actual game at Prairie du Chien I was in bed just thinking about the game and how happy I was that I was going to be playing on varsity.
My first game on varsity I ran for 165 yards on 29 carries and one touchdown, but it wasn't enough to beat the Blackhawks.
The Miami University Synchronized Skating Team's J...
American football line of scrimmage, prior to a pl...
Calgary Stampeders players scrimmage at training c...After the game I went to talk to my family and friends. I still remember how the rain washed away the tears from my face. The only thing that was running through my head from the moment the game was over until the following Thursday was would the game have turned out differently if I had fumbled which led them to a touchdown? That's all I could think about until Thursday of the next week, which is game practice. That means it is time to concentrate on the game the next day.
That whole week in my opinion was the toughest, because we knew that Lancaster was defending state champs and that they were going to come ready to play. We found out the hard way that they were as good if not better than last year losing 49-10. This game I ended up with 207 yards on 29 carries and another touchdown. After the game I wasn't that disappointed because they proved that they were a good team, and I'll be the first to admit they were good. At practice the next Monday we put that all behind us and looked forward to the next week.
Our next game was against LaCresent. We were all pumped up, looking for our first victory of the season. Well we got what we were looking for with a win of 19-18. After this game I was pretty excited getting a taste of my first varsity football win, and feeling like I made a difference in the game, scoring on a 56 yard touchdown run with five minutes left, which tied up the game. Then Ryan Manske made the extra point to put us ahead by one. Then our defense stepped it up to stop their offense to get the win. This time I had 156 yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns.
The next week we played the undefeated G-E-T Redmen. This game was a hard fought battle but we came up short losing 14-6. I ended up with 105 yards on 16 carries and one more touchdown.
Then came homecoming week, which a lot more people get excited about. This year we played Onalaska Luther. The first offensive play from the line of scrimmage I got the ball. I was struck from the side, which caused my knee to buckle in. I could hear it rip, tear, pop, and I felt a terrible pain in my knee. I tried to get up but I found myself back on the ground, unable to put weight on it. This game I ended up with only 1 yard on 1 carry, and that put an end to my season.
I had a hard time believing this had happened to me, sometimes crying because I wanted to play so badly, knowing I was having a good season. It was tough watching the remainder of the season from the sidelines, just wondering if I could have made an impact on any of the other games. Well I found out that I had a slight tear in my ACL and some torn ligaments. I went through many painful hours of rehabilitation and physical therapy to strengthen my leg.
I feel I had a pretty good season up to that point, considering we were supposed to have a weak backfield and I wasn't mentioned once in the paper in the season preview section. I ended my season playing in only 5 of the scheduled 9 games, with 651 yards rushing on 92 carries and 5 touchdowns. That was more than I ever even thought about at the beginning of the season, for a junior who was just trying his best to get onto varsity special teams.
By Spencer Lee
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