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the first group we turned down.  As a football player, you knew
about the band.  You knew that they entertained the fans while you were in the
locker room, but you never considered them as part of your program.  However,
at that moment, that big group of band nerds, the group that we had walked away
from on day one, had suddenly become a powerful part of our team.  The band
would later stand right on the sidelines during the game.  They played music to
fire up the crowd, and played the East Whitaker fight song every time we
scored.
    Halfway through the 2nd quarter,
the score was tied.  With the anxiety at an all-time high, I heard someone
behind me yelling to the crowd for an “H”.  Without wasting any time, the crowd
fulfilled his order.  Again he asked for an “O”.  Again, the crowd didn’t miss
a beat.  I turned around to see an elderly man dressed from head to toe in dark
purple and aqua standing up with his hands on either side of his mouth
screaming loudly at the crowd for an “R”.  He continued until the crowd
enthusiastically spelled H-O-R-N-E-T-S.  Standing next to him was another man,
also dressed from head to toe in our Hornets colors, banging on a cowbell.  The
atmosphere was certainly charged as the crowd was louder than the cheerleaders.
    We went into the locker room at
halftime with the game still tied.  The coach told us that we were doing
everything right and there was no need to get discouraged.  We practiced hard,
and that hard work would pay off as the game went on.  He told us that the
intensity of that week’s practices weren’t just directed at working on plays for
the game; we were working on enduring the speed and tempo of a high-paced
game.  It was that endurance, achieved through practice, which would help us
win this game.
    The game remained tied until the
last few minutes of the 4th quarter.  Mike returned a punt and put us 40 yards
away from the end zone.  After three unsuccessful deep throws by our
quarterback, we had one chance left to score or we would be taking the game
into overtime.  We were exhausted from battle, so overtime would feel like a
second game to us.  We were more than willing to try preventing overtime. 
Unfortunately, we were too far out for our kicker to attempt a field goal, so
we had to come up with a single running or throwing play that would get us the
40 yards we needed.  During the time out, I was asked to join the offensive
huddle.  I figured I would be used on the offensive line, so I was in complete
shock when the coach told the team that I would be getting the ball.  He
reasoned that the defense would never see it coming, my size would be hard to
take down, and my speed had increased to the point where I could be trusted to
actually move the ball.
    From the huddle, I went to stand on
the offensive line next to the tackle.  To their defense, I could’ve been
confused with a tight end, which was usually used as an extra blocker on the
line of scrimmage.  Once the ball was snapped, I ran over to the quarterback,
who then handed me the ball.  By the time their defense realized I had the
ball, I was already 10 yards ahead of the line of scrimmage.  At that point, it
was a foot race to the goal line between me and the entire Wolf defense. 
Although my speed had increased, I still wasn’t as fast as their defenders, so
that 10-yard head start was definitely a necessity.  They didn’t catch up to me
until the 7-yard line.  By then, I had so much momentum going that I felt like
nothing would take me down.  Suddenly, with the weight of three defenders on my
back, I struggled to move as the weight too much to bear.  I could feel my
teammates trying to push me the last two yards into the end zone, but my legs
finally gave out and I fell hard like a tree cut down in the woods.  Then…
silence. 
    Did I blow it?  Did I let down the
team, the coaches, the town?  After what felt like minutes of silence, I finally
had answers; the