“Winning isn’t everything… It’s the only thing!” This quote was said by Vince Lombardi. It relates to our football season this year because we were perfect except for the last game. We had the key ingredients, great team, huge amount of pride, but then the last game of the season.

Our team was unique, the 10th graders had a lack of players so we combined teams and that meant whatever team we played had the same thing that allowed them to have 9th and 10th graders on one team. That wasn’t a problem for us going almost undefeated. Our team was like family, we developed a close bond throughout the summer camp and we knew each others qualities on the field. Us and our coaches were both amazed on our two grades gelled together so quickly.

We started off the season with pride, beating Rochester Lourdes, one of our rivals that both grades failed to ever beat in the past. We were knocking them up and down the field growing strength by every play. The final score was 21 to 6. We were on top of the world, the following practices were passionate and filled with intensity. We practiced against the varsity team every day, which got both us and them better. All of the winning made us cocky coming in to our last game against the Stewartville Tigers, a team that was challenging but we always managed to pull out the win.

Going into our last game against the Stewartville Tigers we thought we couldn’t be beat. They scored first but didn’t get the extra point, but we bounced right back and scored a touchdown with an extra point. That was the last time we were in the lead. We thought our excuse was it was 24 degrees and we were flat almost like we’ve never played a game of football before in our lives. Our coaches started getting mad and we started getting mad taking our anger out on anyone in front of us. It’s not a good thing when coaches get mad because they start calling the wrong plays. Luckily our coaches admit that they did that so we don’t have to feel guilty. At the end of the game the team was lifeless, I didn’t want to speak one word to anyone. Our perfect season was down the drain all because of that one night thinking we were unstoppable.

This years season felt like a whole 12 months. I don’t know if it was because we dressed for varsity games or because it was such a good year. I miss the fun we had that season, I’m hoping it’s the same way next year. We had the perfect team, we had pride, but that one last game that we thought was going to be a for sure win ruined us. The best season we have ever had in our lives got ruined because we thought we could not be beat.