I know I haven’t written much about the Airways Junior High football team.  My memory of most of the things that happened with all of my friends that were on our team happened off the field.  I just seemed to zone out and think of nothing but my assignment when I was on the field.  I do remember, however, one particular incident and the reason I remember it is I hear so much on the news today about head injuries and concussions with professional football players. I truly believe I

suffered a concussion but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s get back to the story from the beginning. I believe it had to have been our first year in the new school building on Ketchum beside Charjean Park where the old apple orchard used to stand.  All of us boys were so excited to try out for our school’s football team and we were going to be the ones to start the tradition and I’m positive the girls felt exactly


the same way about becoming cheerleaders. I only wish that there had been some type of counterbalance in sports for the girls like there is today.  I know I’m getting off track so back to the story.  We all had to have our physicals, you know, the old turn your head and cough and blood tests and eye tests and so on.  Then we were all given practice uniforms and went outside for our first formal practice. Oh my goodness, it was the roughest two hours of my life. I had tried all summer long to get into shape and I wasn’t.  I think I just need to say that again because I was so badly out of shape compared to what I needed to be and I’m here to tell you that was a fact, but somehow I made it thro

ugh all of the running, rolling and everything the coaches put us through to get us into shape.  Now we started doing drills to see who had the moxie to do the tasks that it would take to play football.  We had to push a two man sled from a down and set position. The coach would blow the whistle and two players in full pads and helmet would strike out at a sled with pads on each side for each player and push it until the coach blew the whistle again. I was always teamed up with or against Tony Boston and it looked like he was always a little ahead of me, so about halfway through the practice I decided to dig in and give it everything I had no matter how much it hurt because I was going to be on this team.  We came to one particular drill where we had to make two lines between a row of tires on either side of us with a space between us where the coach was standing, one line on his right and one line on his left and we were about 4 feet away from the coach on each side.  The players stood facing each other and the coach stood dead center in the middle on the outside of the rows of tires. He would toss the ball in the middle and it was the player’s job to get the ball so you would have to block off the opponent and this was one of those times that Tony Boston was across from me but we were three or four players back. I was noticing that most of the players were trying to block the other player combatant off before they went for the ball, leaving the ball wide open for

anyone going after it first.  To my recollection Tony must have figure this out too because we both went all out head first toward the ball.  Now let me tell you this before I tell you any more, Tony was as aggressive and as tough as any of the players out there and it was a difficult job for me to keep up, let alone surpass him, but I felt I had to if I was going to earn a position on this brand new football squad for our brand new, beautiful, state of the art junior high school.  Now back to our story, Tony and I were eagerly awaiting our chance when Coach Winters threw the ball into the center. He hesitated before blowing his whistle and the ball rolled closer to Tony and he was on the ball before I could have been but I bowed my head and with everything I could muster, and I also believe a little help from the prayer I had just said, and bang our helmets hit and I felt the ball come loose from Tony’s grip and I fell on top of it.  Some of it was luck and again I believe some of it was divine intervention because you see, I could not see. There was a blue white blinding light and I was blind but I knew I could not release that ball. I held onto it no matter how much Tony struggled to get the ball. Coach Winters was screeming with delight. I don’t know if anyone else heard the noise when our helmets hit but it sounded like a shotgun going off to me.  I got up and staggered back toward the area that I thought I had come from but one of the players turned me around to the other direction. I was going wrong way. I still couldn’t see but I said nothing. It would have meant I was weak and couldn’t

take it and I’ll be hanged if I was going to let anyone know that.  I attempted to stay along the line of the tires till I could not feel them anymore and turn and walked until I bumped into someone. I can still hear Coach Winters exclaiming “now that’s how it’s done”.  I could see the blue light becoming a haze and I could see shadows now and Coach Winters blew the whistle and said “that’s it boys, to the locker room and everyone has to take a shower before he can leave”.  By the time I got to the back door and started down the steps to the football locker room I had regained of my sight and felt somehow less dizzy now and I proceeded to take my shower and walked the short distance to my tiny little house in my tiny little life. I remember it must have been two weeks before school started that all this had transpired because by the time school had been in session for about a week or two, we had an assembly in our state of the art auditorium. Our coaches were announcing the names of the lucky boys that we’re going to start the tradition of sports at our brand new school that most of us felt had been built just for us.  Coach Winters and Coach Ramsey took turns announcing the names. I’m not sure if they did it by backfield, defensive line, offensive line or what they were calling after they called my name as a starting offensive lineman and a defensive guard. I don’t remember anything else.  I remember going back to my homeroom and a couple of my real good friends congratulated me, just like in the scene in Harry Potter where Hermione and Ron congratulate Harry and tell him that no one ever his age is picked for the team, let alone being a starting player.  I have to tell you, every time I see that scene it takes me back to my friends and that seventh grade class congratulating me and telling me it was unheard of for a seventh grader to be on the starting team.  Even my teacher said she was proud of me. That year was not our greatest year in football but we were just learning. We had no idea what to expect or even how to play the game to win.  I remember the humiliation I felt when we lost.  We came back to practice the next day and Coach Winters and Coach Ramsey told us to forget it, that we were going to have to work harder and give more of ourselves if we wanted to be winners and they asked us “are you

winners” and we screened “yes”, he screamed back,  and he screemed back “you sound like little girls,  are you winners” and we screened even louder “yes”. He screamed “I can’t hear you” and I think every one of us darn near hurt ourselves trying to scream even louder  “yes”. “OK, go out there and give me all you’ve got for this practice”.  I know that everyone did give their all because it meant everything to us, absolutely everything.  The year went by and I think we still didn’t do much better.  The next year was the start of a whole new season and we were ready. We came out and played like we had everything to lose and we thought that we did. We wanted a winning tradition for our school.  I personally wanted to make my classmates proud of me. I thought this finally is how I’m going to fit in.  This is my chance to get the friends I felt I never really had.  We worked harder and longer with more determination than I’ve ever seen a group of kids have and the coaches felt it to.  The coaches knew something was different, something was better and we had the chance to make a difference and win.  We had won all but one game, the one game that would make the difference with us winning our division. We lost! Some of the kids at Airways were mean to us even though we had won all the other games. They were completely horrible to us, now that I think about it, it may have only been a few kids but, the thing that I remember the most, was someone saying to us “I knew you couldn’t do it. It couldn’t last”. There were similar things said to us but we had no way of redeeming ourselves. It was our last game but the team that beat us still had to play one more game and, if they lost, we would still win our division and, by divine providence, they lost. The next day of school was joyous for everyone but we still knew we had lost. Coach Winters called us all together before the presentation of the trophy and noticed that we were all hanging our heads low and I think someone even said “we don’t deserve this trophy”.  Coach

Winters turned his back to us. When he turned around he told us that “it could be at any given time we could’ve won or lost that game over and over again no matter how many times you would have played it”. We had “met a team that was as good as we were and there was no shame in losing when you’ve given it your all, but you have won and you should be proud of that fact. I don’t want to see anyone hanging their heads down and feeling sorry for themselves” and that he was proud of us and would always be proud of us. He passed around a football for all of us to sign.  That football still stands proudly in the trophy case at Airways Junior High School  for all that pass through its halls to see and I for one am proud of that accomplishment that everyone of us made at Airways Junior High School.  The first time in my life I had won something and I’m not talking about awards.

For the first time I was proud of myself.  I had done it, gone through more pain and sacrifice than any other time in my life at that time and, for once, I came out on top. I have to say, anyone who attended Airways Junior High School at that time, no matter what they did or didn’t do, whether they played sports are not,
if they were in the band, the glee club, if they were cheerleaders, if they were just students trying to pass their classes, to me they will always be the best there is in my book.  Airways and the friends that I made there are the best thing that ever happened to me.  Thank you all for being a part of those wonderful years.