The Dream | Teen Ink

The Dream

February 20, 2009
By Charles Wolgamood BRONZE, Mattawan, Michigan
Charles Wolgamood BRONZE, Mattawan, Michigan
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Jimmy Smith wasn't the strongest, fastest, or the biggest football player on the field, but if you tried to match anyone's will to do their best, then he would always come out on top.

Jimmy Smith was a 5, 6', 123 pound football player with a big dream to finally make the football team for the first time in his life. Every year he could he would try out for the football team and every year he would not make it. Even when he didn't make it he just thought that it wasn't his year and he never complained or got mad he just thought of it as something he was supposed to learn from. When he walked out on to the field kids would be laughing and making jokes about how small he was, but he never cared, he just went out there and played his heart out just to find out he didn't make it.

This year Jimmy thought that he really had a chance to make it. He had been practicing all summer, lifting weights, working on drills, and improving his entire game. The football teams tryouts were the day after tomorrow and like every season before he was trying to run everything through his head of what they did and just thinking how he would work on everything the day before. Today, the day of the first try-out for the first time in all the years of him playing, he got nervous. He started getting thoughts of not making it and how he would blow it, but then he realized that he should be thinking about how he would celebrate because he knew he would make it. School just ended and a lot of kids were starting to head to the locker room to get ready for try-outs and kids were starting to pile into the bleachers to see who would get cut and who would survive until the next day. They started out doing a lot of workouts and running a lot and that was easy for Jimmy, but the next thing that they were doing was hitting drills and Jimmy was up next. He went up against the only other player that never made the team and that gave Jimmy the confidence he needed to beat him and he did. That day they did a couple of more easy drills because the first day was usually spent seeing what kids were in enough shape to make it on a team and what kids weren't. The first round out of three were finally over and the coaches were figuring out which kids to cut and which kids not to cut. They finally started reading off names and they never got to Jimmy so he had made it to the second round of try-outs which is the round he usually gets cut on but he still felt confident. That night he couldn't sleep, wondering if he would be able to make it tomorrow to the third round and maybe even make it on the team.


The next day school couldn't go by slower, trying to remember what he learned five minutes ago, which wasn't easy when you are trying to stay focused for football try-outs. The bell finally rang and he rushed to get ready and get on the field so that he wouldn't get cut for being late. When everyone got to the field the coaches, the coaches told everyone to run eight laps and get into the stretches that they had learned the day before. The coaches got right into the hard drills, such as tackling drills, catching drills, running drills, and just plain old defensive and offensive drills. Jimmy started out doing good, acing everything he did and making everyone look like rookies. The second days try-outs were over and he started getting anxious about seeing if he would pass the dreaded second round. Once again they started reading off the names of the kids who didn't make it and they got to his name and he didn't here it so he finally made it past the second round. He went home and told his parents and his parents were happy for him, but then he had to go up to his room and do his homework. He knew he probably wouldn't get any of them right because he was to nervous about the third round.


It was the morning and he didn't eat breakfast because he was to nervous. Unlike the other day, school couldn't have gone by faster and the bell rang and he was on the field in blast. They did their running and their stretches and then started doing tackling drills and Jimmy was confident about it until he saw he was facing the biggest kid on the field. It was his turn and he just ran at the kid as fast as he could and they hit and that was the last thing he could remember. He woke up laying in the hospital with his parents next to him, he asked them what happened and they said that when the kid hit him, he landed on him knocking him out and breaking his leg. Jimmy realized that his season was over, but all he thought was, it just wasn't my time this year.

Ever since that one day that Jimmy Smith went on to the field as one of the smallest, weakest, and slowest players out there he now knows that he made it farther than he ever did before and that made his dream come true.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.