Narrative Essay On The Most Dangerous Game

Hey show time; it’s your time to shine! I was finally going to show my coach that moving me up to play on the L’Anse Creuse High School varsity lacrosse team was not a mistake. I came home from school that day and found a few spare minutes to relax before having to prepare for my first varsity game. I was super excited but at the same time very nervous. We were competing against another great team—Grosse Pointe North. I ran upstairs and started to pack my bag; as soon as I unzipped the bag, I was hit with a terrible smell. The aroma of sweaty and dirty feet hit me like a ton of bricks. Once I got past the horrible smell, I checked to make sure I had everything I needed: my pads, stick, helmet, gloves, and crispy white cleats. I grabbed an apple before I made my way out the door. Over the years of having played lacrosse, I have developed a habit of eating an apple before every game. It is A pregame ritual because I cannot play without eating an apple prior to my games. Last but not least, I grabbed my

jersey and then—boom. My heart began to race and beads of sweat dripped down my hands; I was going to be playing my first varsity lacrosse game ever.
I walked into the varsity locker room and waited as the door shut behind me. Everyone immediately turned their head and gave me dirty looks, as no one knew who I was. I stood completely frozen in front of the entire team. I checked around for a spot to sit and noticed an open seat in the back next to a hard-working, sharpened, veteran senior. I worked my way toward the back and sat down. He looked at me and said, “Who do you think you are? Find a new place to sit.” I felt like everyone hated me. I would have had a smart remark in return, but he was 6’6” and 250 pounds of muscle; he looked like he could have been an NFL linebacker and then there was me: 5’11” and 150 pounds. I felt so little and weak compared to everyone else.
At first I didn’t get why the coach moved me up or what he saw in me, what made him feel that I was good enough to be on varsity? I just sat there in silence because no one would give me an equal chance. I thought to myself, “This is going to be the worst season ever.”
After sitting in silence for about 5 minutes (that felt like an eternity), my coach came out of his office and starts to talk to the team. He then looked at me and told me to come into his office. Teeth chattering, I started to sweat badly. He asked me if I had all my gear, and if I was ready for my first varsity lacrosse game. I looked at him and thought to myself, “it’s finally my time to show my coach why he moved me up to the varsity level, and prove everyone else on the team wrong.”
“Most definitely,” I thought and ran back to my spot to get ready.
The first thing I did once I got back to my bag was take out my lucky apple and took a big bite. As my teeth were sinking into the apple, I imagined myself scoring the game winning goal. Once I finished my apple, I started to put my pads on and get ready for the game. The coach said, “we have five minutes until game time! Hit the field and start warming up everyone!” All the guys on the team lined up to hit the field. I hadn’t even started warming up and my hands were already sweating and shaking so bad that I thought something was wrong with me. Butterflies filled my stomach. All of a sudden, I heard my coach say “Hey, CJ! Come to the front of the line.” As I was walking to the front of the line, I started to freak out. I felt like every heart beat was struck with lightning, hitting my sore body, every time a heartbeat hit me, I felt as if I was hooked up to a car battery. I’ve never been a part of a more amped lacrosse team.
Once we got on the field, all you could hear was the music blasting like it always was for warm ups.

We did our stretches and ran a half lap around the field, but not just any half lap. Half the team runs one way and half the other half of the team runs the other way, so they meet in the middle of the field on both sides of the midfield line. All my teammates are getting hyped up for the cross. This is by far the best moment before the game starts, because the music is still blasting and I can feel the excitement bouncing off of the people around me. Everyone was pumped up, happy, and ready to kick some ass.

The game was about to start and the whole team is in a huddle, with the coach in the middle; about to announce who was starting the game. I look up at the stands the crowd is packed, there was no more seats in the bleachers. Suddenly, I hear my coach say my name. I look at my teammates and am in shock because I was not expecting to play at

all.
The first quarter goes by and it's still tied up zero to zero. There was a bunch of big hits and good shots, but no one could finesse the ball between the pipes. The second quarter goes by and with two minutes left to go, Grosse Pointe North scored the first goal of the game. After half time and getting yelled at by our coach, the third quarter starts and not even a minute into the game Grosse Pointe North scores again. Then at the end of the third quarter the score was four to zero and Grosse Pointe was winning like always. All a sudden my team gets a crazy burst of energy. They go out and tie the score up so that the score is four to four.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the game is tied and has to go into overtime. Everyone is in the group huddle and my coach is in the middle about to tell us what to do. My heart is beating so fast that it feels as if it could jump out of my chest at any moment. I look up into the crowd and see hundreds of people filling the stands. I look really closely and see my Mom and Dad sitting at the top of the bleachers, with my little brother Troy. As soon as I saw my family I went from 0 to 100, about as quick as you could snap your fingers. I procured so much energy that I thought I could jump up in the air and fly away.
My coach gave the team a pep talk and tells us the starters for OT. All of a sudden, my coach calls my name. I stood there looking around aimlessly. Did he really just say MY name? I didn’t touch the field ONCE, in the entire game; Besides warm ups, and he says my name?! Once I realized he really was talking about me, I felt like the energizer bunny from the TV commercials. Not everyone was as excited as me though. One kid looked at my coach and said “You picked this guy to finish the game? Come on Coach…” I didn’t wait to hear what my coach had to say because I had already was on the field.
The ball is on the other side of the field over by our goal. The other team has the ball behind the net and the player with the ball looks at the goal, then the ref, and steps in bounds. The clock starts counting down as soon as he steps in bounds; its game time. I was so nervous, I probably looked like a chicken running around with my head cut off. He passes the ball to one of his teammates, and he catches the ball on the run. One of my defenders sees this before it happens and was almost about to hit the guy, but he passes the ball over my defender’s head. His other teammate catches the ball right in front of my net. It was as if time froze; everything was moving in slow motion once he caught the ball. He fakes low and then shoots high. The ball looked like it was going in and at the last second; the goalie snags the ball. The crowd jumps up and everyone screams. My goalie looks at the scoreboard where the clock is and notices we only have a minute and ten seconds left. He scoped the field, looking to see who he could pass the ball to and there is no one open, except me. He saw me open at the last second all the way down the field over by the other goalie. He whips the ball as hard as he can to me and I hear a grunt all the way from the other side of the field. This had to be at least an 85 yard clear. At first the ball flew through the air then it disappeared in the dark black sky. I thought I saw it in the sky, but it was a star and not the ball. Finally, I hear the sound of wind rushing and the ball is getting closer to me but I couldn’t see it still. I look up one last time and I could hardly see because the ball is hidden in the lights. I start to panic, because I didn’t want to drop the ball. Suddenly, the ball hits me right in the chest. Boy did that one hurt! I picked the ball up so fast that if you blinked you wouldn’t even know the ball hit me. There was one defender between me and the goalie. I ran straight at him and he held his ground. I pretend that I’m going to shoot top right at him and then at last second I shot bottom left. My stick was in my right hand and he threw a poke check. While he did that, I lifted my right hand over his head in a swimming motion. This is called a swim dodge and I did it absolutely perfectly. I was still on the run and all that’s left was me and the goalie. I faked high left and then I wrapped the stick around my body and shot behind my back over my right shoulder. The ball went straight into the right corner and hit the pipe, immediately it went straight down and rolls in. The whole crowd went crazy and the face my coach made was priceless. His mouth was wide open and his eyes looked like they were glued open. Once my team saw my coach, they all ran as fast as they could to me. Even players that were on the JV team jumped off the bleachers and ran to me. Once everyone got to me they all jumped on me. This made me mad for a couple seconds because I was the smallest kid on the team and felt like my arm was going to break.
To this day I remember this moment perfectly, sometimes I even replay the moment in my head. After the game, I went and talked to my parents and everyone that went. Everyone was saying great things about me and how good everyone thought I was. My parents were so proud and happy they ended up coming to the game. At the beginning of the game no one wanted to be my friend or even talk to me. Then after the game everyone wanted to be my friend and talk to me. While I was standing in the locker room taking my stuff off, my coach comes up to me and says “I knew you had it in you Showtime, how would you like to have a starting spot every game?” I didn’t know what to say back to him because I was in such shock. I then said to my coach “absolutely not.” He looked at me like I was insane and then I said “I’m just joking” and you could see a sign of relief in his face. I finished laughing then put all of my stuff in my backpack. I then walked outside of the locker room doors. My whole team and fans were still out there. Once I opened the door to go outside everyone ran up on me and gave me hugs and were happy we finally beat Grosse Pointe North. I was heading home to my car with my little brother and he looks at me and said “you always come in clutch, Showtime.”