Liam Downing

2/20/20

Literacy Narrative

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when one transitions from an outsider to a fluent

member of a team. It’s a process achieved through assimilating to those around you and a

realization of familiarity of aspects of that team. Is it the first time you make a tackle? Is it the

first time you run after practice until you can’t breath? Or maybe it’s the first time you’re able to

read a play before the ball is snapped. For me it was when my highschool football team made it

to the state championship my freshman year. I had played football since I was 12 years old,

however, I had never felt what it was truly like to be part of a team until I joined the Saint John’s

high school team.

My father could sense the nerves in me as we pulled into the parking lot of my new

school for the first day of football practice. “Calm down Liam, you’re going to do great today.

Remember you might not have more skill than everyone you play against, but you can always

out hustle them.” He said to me as we pulled into a parking spot. I got out of his car and walked

to the locker room with many other freshman I had never met before. We sat in the concrete

dungeon that smelt of decades of football that had come before us as we waited for instruction.

Soon thereafter a mountain of a man entered the locker room and introduced himself as Coach

Andreoli. He gave us a short speech about what it meant to be part of his team and concluded

with “ if you’re five minutes early you’re five minutes late… get down there!”

I hurried outside to lace up my cleats, put on the rest of our equipment, and walk down

the hill to the practice field. The horrid piercing sound of hundreds of pairs of cleats scraping
against the gravel trail filled my mind. In the background I could hear a train of cars driving up

the street next to the trail. The mile long trail covered in rocks and dirt lead players down to a

small gate of a chain link fence. Once beyond the rusted metal gates, a lush green field extends

over hundreds of yards. I grouped up with a few other freshmen at the end of the trail and waited

for practice to begin.

The first thing I noticed that was much different from my football experiences in the past

was the way Andreoli ran practice. I was used to some light stretching to warm up, then tackling

drills, then the offense would scrimmage the defense for the remainder of practice. The way

coach Andreoli ran practice was completely new to me. He began by bringing the whole team

together and praying after our calisthenics and then gave us a breakdown of practice before we

split up into our positions. Right before he sent us off to begin practice he said, “we beat Catholic

Memorial today!” This meant that all the hard work that we put into practicing would be the

reason we beat our first opponent.

As I ran over to my positional coach, Andreoli’s speech resonated with me, as we all held

hands and said the “Our Father” I felt an immediate connection to the team. From the first day of

practice I could tell that this team was unlike anything I’d ever been a part of. As practice

continued I tried my hardest but often fell short against the older players that were much more

experienced than I was. I was one of two freshman in my positional group, the other was Dom

Imparato. I had noticed Dom up in the locker room because he was one of the tallest kids in the

room, along with myself, and had thick rec-specs. Naturally I paired up with him for drills

because we were roughly the same size and as practice went on I came to learn we were pretty

evenly matched skill wise as well.

 As our positional period of practice was about to end, Coach Andreoli looked over at

Nate Lee and said “Nate you know what time it is don’t you?” Immediately players circled up

for a drill I quickly learned was called “lover’s lane”; Coach Ferraco pointed to me and a junior

named Charlie McAdams to get in the circle and I began quaking in my cleats. I lined up in my

stance across from Charlie and coach yelled “Hit!” as he blew his whistle. Within a matter of

seconds I was on my back in the middle of all the lineman. The aroma of grass and dirt filled my

nostrils as I layed on my back like a turtle flipped over on its shell. Upperclassmen that I had

never seen before, let alone talked to, yelled over to me “ Come on Downing, get back over

there. I lined up again and went against Charlie again. I didn’t win the drill by any stretch but I

held my ground. I ran back into the outside of the circle as older players tapped my helmet and

told me to shake it off. Dom whispered to me, “I’m really glad that wasn’t me… I’m not sure I

would have gotten up for the second round.” We both laughed and watched other players battle it

out in lover’s lane. As I stood with all the upperclassmen I felt like a part of the team and not just

a punching bag for the seniors to beat up on.

As practice came to a conclusion, a sense of relief and accomplishment came over me.

Coach Andreoli blew his whistle and screamed “on the goaline” over the sighs of players that

knew what was about to come. I sprinted over to the goal line and waited to see what coach was

going to make us do. Coach Andreoli walked over to the team and bellowed “This is what will

separate you from the others, nobody conditions like we do.” Many confused freshmen,

including myself, all asked what was going on and Senior captain Nate Lee replied “get ready to

run.” When it was the defenses turn to run I sprinted to the opposite end zone and then back

again several times until Coach yelled “offense, you’re up.” Conditioning after practice was

devastatingly hard and I had been training all summer. As I stood at the goaline with my hands
on my knees I noticed one defensive player had not finished his sprints. I quickly realized it was

a freshman named Ben that I had talked to in the locker room before practice. Ben was a bigger

guy and running was definitely not his strong suit. Tommy Ferraco, another captain, ran out to

where Ben was and ran with him screaming encouragement all the way. “Give it up for your

brother!”Coach Andreoli exclaimed. Soon the whole team was yelling from the sidelines

cheering on their teammate. Practice continued in the same manner this one did for months.

Many players grew tired of the conditioning and physical punishment from practice that occured

on a daily basis. Our initial group had lost about 15 players that decided this sport was not for

them.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that our team was immensely talented and had the

skill to make a deep playoff run. We moved deeper and deeper into the playoffs and a few weeks

later it was time for the championship game at Gillette. I pulled into the parking lot with my

father like I had many times before but this felt different. As I got out of the car my dad gave me

the usual pep talk about hustling and always being ready. I entered the locker room to find that

every player was silent. Once everyone had a seat in the locker room Coach Andreoli came in to

give us a speech. He emphasized the necessity of brotherhood and how important each player

was to our organization. “This is what we’ve been working for all year men, get in the mindset,

wheels up in 30.”

Although it was unlikely I would play in this game, I still felt proud that the countless

hours of practice helped all of the starters prepare for this very moment. I got my equipment

together and boarded the bus. The entire ride there I talked with Dom about what it would be like

to lead a team here in a few years, we could not believe that we were about to play on the

Patriots home field. About an hour later we had arrived and began to file into the Patriot’s locker
room. I stood there in shock for a moment, as I looked around the room I saw the lockers of all

my favorite players. I sat on a bench in the middle of the room with other freshmen and put on

all my equipment as I had hundreds of times before. We sat there silent until Coach came in to

give us the pre game speech. “This is for all the marbles boys, every practice, every hour in the

weight room, every sprint, has prepared you for this moment. Coach Andreoli led us in one last

“our father” of the season before it was time to head out to the field.

As soon as my cleats touched the immaculate turf field excitement rushed throughout my

entire body. I was standing on the field where so many historic moments in sports had occurred.

Coach brought us all together one last time before we split up for our pregame routine. He told

us “We’re going to warm up for this game like we have for every game all year, it’s the same

game only the stage has changed.”

North Attleboro ran onto the field shortly after us and I sense of lust overwhelmed me. I

wanted to play in the State Championship game more than anything, but new it was unlikely for

a freshman to play. As I stood on the sidelines with Dom he exclaimed “That’s going to be us

soon, we need to work hard over the off season. I talked with Dom about working out together

over the next nine months so that we would be the ones in this position next year. We watched

the game intensively as we fantasized about playing in this game next year. Every touchdown

scored for Saint John’s Dom and I would run over to each other and get the rest of the kids on

the sideline to cheer on their team. The game was hard fought and a nail biter down to the last

minute. With only a minute remaining our star running back, Pete Oliver, broke off a sixty yard

run as time was about to expire. Thousands of fans as well as all the players on the sideline

erupted with excitement. I ran over to Dom and he went jumped into me and yelled at the top of

his lungs. The game was sealed and Saint John’s were the victors. As Pete ran over to the
sidelines the entire team ran to the center of the field and began tackling one another out of

uncontrollable excitement. I stood in awe as we were presented with the state champion trophy

and took a team picture for the paper before boarding the bus to get back home.

Once I held the trophy in my hands on the bus ride home I became fluent in the

Discourses of football, determination, teamwork, and sacrifice. Once you realize how much work

goes into winning, once you know how many hours of practice goes into becoming the best

team, once you realize that football is sacrificing yourself for something that is bigger than any

one player. That is when one becomes a fluent member of a football team.