My eyes shoot open as soon as I wake up on this warm late fall morning. I hop out of bed brush my teeth grab my backpack and race out to the street where my friend Chaten was waiting for me. It is the Thanksgiving morning of my senior year and we’re playing in the biggest football game of year. A continuous 113-year rivalry game between Durfee and New Bedford was to take place on Paul Walsh field in New Bedford that morning. As we approached Durfee to catch our bus I remember looking to Chaten and “We’re about to play in my last football game ever”. He responded “After today we’re officially washed up” we both laughed as we entered the Durfee parking lot and proceeded towards the entrance to the field house.
As soon as we opened those doors to the locker room, bam a whiff of sweaty shoulder pads, cleats, and helmets hits you all at once like a slap in the face. I thought to myself “wow I’m really going to miss this”. We entered the locker room about thirty minutes before we were supposed to leave, we were welcomed by loud music and determined faces sitting at their lockers preparing for the game. The previous 12 years Durfee has lost to new Bedford so we made sure this game was a statement game.
As everyone’s leaving the locker room with their equipment in one hand and phones in the other, my head coach calls me into the coach’s office and immediately I walk over thinking he’s just going to review the game plan for today. As I walk in he tells me that I suspended for the first quarter because of my conduct in school. I immediately shut down and walked out, tuning out everyone and anyone as I walked out of the field house and onto the bus. “How could he do this to me in my last game I’m ever going to play?” “Only let me play three quarters?”.
I was furious and didn’t talk to anyone the whole bus ride. As we pulled into the facilities you could see the bands practicing in harmony for the halftime show, fans filling the stands and most importantly New Bedford warming up on the field. As we stepped off the bus one by one coach Brown our head coach guided everyone to our locker room. On the way there one of the assistant coaches grabbed me and pulled me off to the side and said, “I know this sucks but you need to keep your head in the game you can’t let that one quarter throw you off for the whole game”. I thought about what he said as I approached the locker room doors and could hear everyone on the other side of that metal door screaming and getting all pumped up and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t.
. The clock strikes 10:45 which means we must return to our locker rooms and wait for the referees to signal us out for the start of the game. I’m sitting in the corner of the locker room in my own little world still not knowing what to do for the first quarter and trying to keep my focus. Coach Brown is giving one of his infamous pre-game speeches as all of a sudden you hear a loud roar from the crowd, this clearly meant that new Bedford had just taken the field which means we’re up right now. The referee comes in and signals Coach Brown to walk us out on to the field and the boos and cheers mixing together was like music to my ears.
I casually stroll out with helmet on knowing I’m not going to see the field for the first eleven minutes of the game. As I look around the stands are filling more and more. To my left many strangers from New Bedford watch us take the field hoping to make it their thirteenth Thanksgiving game day win, to my right are very familiar faces as the visitors stands start to fill up with friends, family and teachers. I approached the sideline where my friends who had previously graduated were awaiting me asking why I wasn’t warming up and I just tried to block it out and focus.
As the captains met at the middle of the field I could feel the anticipation building on both sidelines wondering who will get the ball and strike first. The referee flipped his coin and then said “Durfee has won the toss and elects to receive”. The teem met at the middle of the sideline chanting, screaming, jumping around like wild animals while I sat on the outskirts with no emotion or energy. I was out of it to say the least. I woke up this morning expecting to play in my last ever football game, one of my last high school memories and it war ruined.