Reflective Essay On Football Performance

It was just three weeks before our first game of the season against the Willow Springs Tigers. I was in the car with my father listening to the Pat Daily radio show like we always did on the way to football practice. Pat Daily was a high school sports analyst, he just so happened to be talking about the Reeds Spring Wolves’ season and who the fans could lookout for. One line in his show happened to be about me. Pat said, “We will have a sophomore this season at 6 feet, 245 pounds, Tristan Beyer, who is going to be one of the players battling for a starting spot on the offensive line”. I was not going to think anything of it. It was my sophomore year of high school, I thought the whole world was ahead of me and I thought without a doubt I was going to start. I figured it was going to be my position to lose. I was doing so well in football and I knew it was going to be my year to start at center.

But then out of

nowhere there was a player that moved in from Texas, his name was Matt. He was a senior and started to slowly get more reps than me every day a practice. So I didn’t worry, I just kept to myself worked my rear end off. Despite my hard work, that was not good enough to keep me ahead of my competitor. The Thursday before our first game, Coach Gosch came up to me and said “I believe Matt will give us the best chance to win, as he is older and already has more varsity football experience under his belt”.
On the way home I told my dad that I was really upset and I was so discouraged because my hard work didn’t pay off.

He asked “Why, son?” I said “I don’t know if I want to play anymore.” and I told him all that had happened at practice. All he said to me was these few words, “For those who are persistent and do their best and work hard, good things will happen because good things happen to those who wait”. Being the young high school kid that I was, I took it for what it was.

As the season went by, I played jayvee and made the best of it. I kept working out and getting bigger, faster, and stronger. Before I knew it I was at 6 feet and 2 inches, 265 pounds, and was going into the summer of my junior year. It was my year to prove myself and remember what my dad had told me several months before, “For those who are persistent and do their best and work hard, good things will happen because good things happen to those who wait”. Finally, my time had come; I was the starting varsity center and had my own article in the paper that read “Beyer’s Time to

Shine”.
Everything good was happening to me after having such a bumpy sophomore year and Coach telling me, I was not ready to play varsity football. By the end of my senior year, I had fought all the odds, waited for my turn and took full advantage of it. I ended up being one of the best offensive linemen in the Tri-Lakes area and I was an All-State football player. After everything that had happened my sophomore year, I did not even think I was good enough to end up on top, but that was all wrong. I would have never thought I was going to be able to have that title of an All-State lineman, but like my dad said, “Good things happen to those who wait”. I waited and I ended up getting many college football offers, but I choose to just worry about my education and stay close to home by attending the great Missouri Southern State University.