Our Life

Sportography

When I was four years old, I began playing soccer. This started a long career for me in sports. A career that has brought me to a place I never would have guessed. Now, at 22, I am playing football for the University of Texas as a punter and kicker. This is my sportography, the way I have gotten to where I am, who has influenced me along the way, and some of the decisions I have made along the way.
My parents noticed that I was in love with balls. Every different kind of ball I would run to and play with. So, they decided to place me in soccer at age four. I really like soccer from then on, and never considered the idea of quitting. I bounced around from team to team, one of which my dad was the coach. When I was eight, I joined a team that I would be with for the next six or seven years. We moved from the “recreational” league up to a “club” league and changed the team name. We were now in a better division with better teams. There were different levels of competition: Division II, Division I, and Premiere. Our goal and my goal was to play at the top level. Now that we were a club team, each year we had try-outs to make the team. We got a few new players each year and lost some, but the coach and many of us that had been with the team since it started came back year after year. One year, I couldn’t make the tryouts because of a family obligation. Since I had been with the team for so long, my family and I didn’t think it would be a big issue but it was. The coach said I couldn’t be on the team anymore if I didn’t try out, so that was the end of that team. I still wanted to play, so at age 14 I joined another team. I played for different club teams throughout high school, but never a team that was in the top division. I also played for my high school soccer team. Quitting never crossed my mind, and I thought it would be awesome to get to play in college.
I tried playing other sports, but soccer took up so much time. My parents had their hands full with soccer practices and games, and discouraged me from playing other sports. One year I played baseball, and for two years I played basketball. I also took some tennis lessons from a local country club. Even though I enjoyed learning to play other sports, my main focus was always soccer.
In eighth grade, I wanted to learn to play football so I could fit in with all the other kids. All the “cool” kids played football, so I wanted to also. I was playing just because my friends were, and I had no idea what was going on. I remember the first day we were told to pick out all of our pads and other equipment. I didn’t know what to get, or what anything did, and had no one to ask for help because I was new at the school. It was three practices before I realized I was missing a tailbone pad, or that there was such a thing. I didn’t get to play much that year, and really didn’t learn a whole lot about football. I remember wanting to be the kicker, but the coach used the former kicker and I didn’t even get a tryout. Honestly, the coaches didn’t even know my name, or care to, and only let me in the games a couple of times. One of the games, we were winning 72-0 before I got in! Needless to say, it wasn’t a very good experience and I decided football wasn’t for me. I remember after the season was over all the guys were talking about whether they were going to play in high school. I remember thinking, “Why would I want to do this for four more years?”
I tried out for the high school soccer team as a freshman. I knew it would be hard to make the team, and I didn’t know if I was good enough. Fortunately, I made the varsity team along with two other freshman. I liked the guys on the team, liked the coach, and even got to play some that year. It was a much better fit than football, and strengthened my love for soccer even more. Since high school soccer was played in the winter, I decided I wanted to play another sport in the fall and spring to keep me busy. I started playing tennis competitively for the first time, and my junior year I picked up golf, playing on the Junior Varsity team. My junior year was my last year on a club soccer team, and the last of my sports outside a school setting.
After the soccer season my sophomore year, a ridiculous thing happened. The soccer coach, who was also the special teams coach for the football team, asked me to come kick for the football team. He said they were in need of a kicker for my senior season, and he thought I had the leg for it. I was not too excited about it and put off the decision. I barely even told my parents about it. When I mentioned it to my dad, he was very excited for me and said it would be a good opportunity. He encouraged me to at least give it a try. After much thinking and talking with my parents and coach, I decided to go out for spring training. I thought it was alright, but didn’t like the huge time commitment and didn’t have a big desire to play. I worked a deal out to kick for the JV team my junior year, but only have to come to practices whenever I could. I probably showed up once a week towards the end of practice, and then to the JV games on Thursday nights. I enjoyed going to the Varsity games on Friday nights with my friends sitting in the stands. I really didn’t pay much attention to the games. Once again, I didn’t like football—I liked soccer. Towards the end of the season, our starting kicker for the Varsity team got hurt during one of the games. There was no backup, so they told me I needed to start suiting out for the Varsity games. I was a little bitter because I had to be out on the field instead of in the stands with my friends. Soon we were in the playoffs, and I couldn’t wait for our team to lose. When we lost, soccer season began! Every game, we were the underdogs and I knew the season would be over shortly. But it wasn’t. We went all the way to the state finals, and ended up winning the Texas AAAAA-II State Championship in the Astrodome! The season lasted as long as it possibly could have and it was just enough time to change my mind about football.
There were three significant events that happened in the last three games that we played that changed my mind. First, I didn’t get to play. In our third to last game we were totally dominated our opponent. In the second half there was a landslide and our bench was being cleared. Everyone was getting to play – everyone except me. It was like eighth grade all over again, but this time there was a reason I wasn’t playing. The coaches knew I didn’t like football, knew I wasn’t planning on playing my senior year, knew I didn’t practice hard and had no reason to play me. This upset me and hurt my feeling; after all, they didn’t think I was very good. I decided to prove them wrong and from then on I began working hard at kicking, just to prove to the coaches that I could do it. The second thing that had an affect on me happened in the semi-final game. I watched our kicker kick a game tying field goal. Then on to kick a game winning field goal in overtime. All in the pouring rain. He got a ton of attention and more importantly, scholarship offers from many Division I schools. I thought this was very impressive and would never happen in soccer.
No one cared about soccer like they did football, and no one I knew had ever gotten a soccer scholarship. The third thing happened right before the state championship game. It was the night before the big game, and we had a team meeting before going to bed. It was a very special time, the coach shared all that was on his heart, told us how special we were, and asked if any of the players would like to share. Many guys went to the front and shared all that this team had meant to them and how much they had enjoyed being on the team. Many tears were shed, and by the end every senior had shared, and most the other starters. You could feel the team chemistry, and everyone knew that it was a very special team. I had never experienced that kind of team chemistry, and never knew what it was like to be a part of a team like that. I was able to see how special that was, and knew I wanted to be a part of that same thing the next year, during my senior year.
I practiced hard all summer, and decided to give football my all. I gave up tennis and golf, didn’t play club soccer my senior year and just concentrated on football. The first game of my senior season was a big one. We were ranked number one in the state and were playing the number two rank team in the area. We were also playing on “zero week”, a week before any of the other teams in the area played. The stadium was packed to the max, and it was a close game all the way to the end. It was tied 14-14 when it went in to overtime, and we won by a field goal. My first field goal ever in a game happened to be a game winner! It was a good feeling, and I wanted more of it. The rest of the season was up and down, some good games and some bad ones, but I enjoyed being a part of the team and working hard at kicking. We made it to playoffs, and were still ranked number one in the state. We were picked to win it all again, and our team was confident we could do it. In our first playoff game I was called upon again. With seconds left on the clock, and the ball on the 17 yard line, losing 20-21, I went out to win it again. But this time, I missed. We lost the game and it was all my fault! Ranked number one and couldn’t win the first round in playoffs. I felt horrible, and knew I couldn’t stop playing football on that note. I knew I wanted to play in college, and I knew it was going to be a lot of hard work. I decided that if I was going to put in all that effort, I want to play for the biggest and the best, after all it was the same amount of work if I was playing at a DIII school or a small DI school of at the University of Texas. Fortunately I was accepted into UT, and the football coaches let me walk on.
I redshirted my first year, and was encouraged by the coaches to work on my kickoffs. I had dreams of being the punter, but this I figured that this my be a good start. I began working hard on kicking off, and became the kickoff man my redshirt freshman season. This was very exciting for me, and I was still learning how football really worked. I only had one year of being a starting kicker under my belt, and now I was supposed to kickoff in front of 83,000 people. I was very nervous for that first game, and still remember it very well. I did not eat a thing all day, and I had the butterflies. Once we got to the field and I started kicking before the game I settled down, but was still shocked on the first kickoff when I couldn’t hear myself give the “Ready” call to my teammates. I did every kickoff that season, and even though I didn’t have the season I wanted, I learned a lot.
The punting spot was wide open for my junior season. The punter had graduated, and there was only two other punters in my way. One was scholarship, and the other was a walk on, like me. The first day of spring ball set the tone for the next four weeks. I punted bad, and Coach Brown didn’t even let me punt with the team for all the rest of spring ball. I was disappointed, but figured maybe it wasn’t my year to punt. I was tired of practicing punting without getting any results or playing time, so I focused more on kickoffs throughout the summer. It was a couple of weeks before spring ball, and I was working with my kicking coach in Dallas. I told him I wasn’t working on punts anymore, and was just going to do kickoffs. He strongly encouraged me to keep punting, and worked hard on it with me for the next few weeks before two a days began. He saw my potential, and told me that the only person that could beat me out at punter at UT was myself. I realized that he made a good point, and I felt like I was the best punter on the team, but had to prove it. Through a series of events throughout two a days, I moved from third string punter to the starter by the first of the season. I have remained the starter since, and earned a scholarship before the start of last season.
I have learned a lot throughout my sporting career, and love the old antic “Football teaches the lessons of life”. I think everything you go through in sports teaches lessons, and it is a good way to prepare for the real world. I am looking forward to my senior season, and will play sports for as long as I can.