After the Loss

It's the fourth quarter with the clock winding down, we are down six and we are driving the ball down the field. With 5.5 seconds left and on the Xavier's 14 yard line we throw it up to our tallest wide receiver so that he could go up and make the play and win us the game. The whole night the referees had been lopsided favoring Xavier with penalties against us and with no calls on Xavier when there were obvious penalties made. Again the same thing happened on the last play when our receiver was obviously being hold down by the defensive back. The time expired. Our season was over.

The realization hit that we had in fact lost. We reluctantly walked to the 50 yard line to shake hands with the opposing team. The opposing teams facial expressions told the whole story. How the game came down to the last second and how we had given them a scare.
Even though I don't play much at all, on special teams, emotions were streaming through me. Ones of disappointment because we were the better team and had the better players, sadness because for many seniors this will be their last football game, anger because during the two games that we had played them at least five of our starters got hurt, including our quarterback. Lastly the emotion of motivation and this was for all of the juniors all, promising that this isn't going to happen next year.

We made our way to the buses after our coaches didn't mention the game and congratulated us on our season. On the buses we sat there most of us had our heads down, still with our helmets on, leaned on the seat in front of us. I had millions of thoughts sprinting through my mind as I stared through eyes I weren't completely convinced were my own.
Silence and reflection were the conversation topic on the way to Kennedy accompanied by the noises made by the bus.

We arrived at Kennedy with some fans waiting around for who knows why. The seniors in the locker room were crying for good reason as we threw our football gear into our lockers. I left to go home.

At home I made no attempt to ready myself to go to sleep. I sat on my bed fully dressed in our game day clothes, shirt and tie. While reflecting on the game I realized that fortunately I, and all the other juniors, had another chance to beat Xavier. Thinking of this only saddened me and made the senior's situation more real to me. It also motivated me; I've even kept the newspaper article to remind myself because next year it is going to be different.