By Marta Grabowski
If one just looks at total wins and losses, Loy Norrix’s football team is a dismal failure. However, there is more to being a winner than just how many games you end up with more points than the other team.
It has been another tough season for the Loy Norrix Knights, only winning one of their nine games so far. It doesn’t help either that at Loy Norrix High School there is a lot of negativity surrounding the football team. Just hearing the word “football” at our school can create a storm of hatred.
Most students here are quick to bash on the football team but not willing to help or being able to realize how much hard work is put in on a daily basis by the football players. From two-a-days in the scorching summer heat to the two hours of practice everyday after school, not to mention the actual games which take at least two hours; football players invest a lot of time and energy in the sport and get little respect or encouragement from their peers in return.
Senior linebacker for the Knights, Grant Lawson, knows how demanding football is and does not appreciate all the negativity surrounding his team. “If you are not gonna try to come out and help, then don’t talk about it,” said Lawson. Lawson is sick of all the pessimism surrounding the football team because he knows that football is truly a hard sport, regardless of what others say.
Varsity football defensive coordinator, Rob Bradford said, “football is one of the hardest sports out there, and people don’t understand how hard hitting is. Football players get natural bruises everywhere.” Everyone thinks that they can play football simply because they have played catch or flag football before, but football is not really football until you suit up and get pummeled by a 300 pound, ferocious defensive tackle.
Football is not just a bunch of men throwing around the pigskin and rolling around in the dirt. It is a strength builder, both mentally and physically. Lawson said that football has taught him a valuable lesson for life: “don’t give up.”
It is easy to judge the football team for their record, but maybe the students of Loy Norrix who think they are good at football should go and join the team. “If we want our team to get better than we need to get higher numbers,” Bradford said, “but the reality is that football is an extremely hard sport and people are not willing to do things that are hard.”