Inside the Huddle: First Challenge of Adversity

First off, I would like to formally apologize to everyone that came out and cheered us on; I would like to apologize to my community, school, and anyone else that was counting on us. We love all of you guys, and we really wish we could have gotten the win for you guys tonight.

I would also like to congratulate the JV team for winning big over Pat-Med and keeping their streak alive. I would like to apologize to them for setting that kind of an example for them in this game. If they were to take anything from this experience I would hope that it would be to play every game like it’s your last, to always be mentally prepared, and come out ready to bring it with everything you got.

I feel that our first half of play was awful. It was by far the worst half we have ever played this season. In the second half we had a few opportunities to make some big plays and the ball just didn’t bounce our way at times. We got down by 16 points, and we never gave up and fought to the end. We tied the game up late, but then allowed them to score. We came back from that too, never gave up and scored again, only too fail on the try for the two-point conversion.

Overall this is a game that we should have won. I give Pat-Med all the credit in the world. They are a good football team, they play physical, and they came out ready to play from the start. In saying that, I also feel that we are the better team and that we should have put them away early. This game shouldn’t have been what it was, but we didn’t come out with the energy we usually have, and we let them hang around all first half, and it came back to bite us in the end.

I know a lot of people are going to look for excuses as to why we lost this game, and they are going to try and blame different things. People are going to try and blame the fumble we had on the 1-yard line, the penalty we committed on third and long, and people are even going to try and blame our coaching staff. That’s how the average person is, but in reality you can’t blame anyone but us all together as a unit, and as a family. We won the first four as a family and unfortunately we lost this one as a family.

It is not fair if anyone is going to try and blame the coaches or the play calling. We love each and every one of them, and they did everything they possibly could to get us that win. They called a play on the two-point conversion that we all have practiced for weeks, and had confidence in. When the coaches made that decision every one of us thought it was going to work, and we all believed in it. So to blame any one of our coaches is ridiculous. If anyone is to get blamed it is the players, we're the ones out there on the field and it is our responsibility to execute, and we just didn’t do it.

As a starting offensive lineman, I can honestly say that is the worst game we played all season. We didn’t get much of a push on any run attempts, and we didn’t play together as a unit. We had four great games as an O-line, and this is definitely a huge setback for us. We will watch film, see our mistakes and we have a long week to correct them, and make ourselves better. We will get our stuff together, and we will get better before homecoming. I can promise you that. We have fantastic line coaches, and a great leader in Tom Ryan, and they will not let us play a game like that ever again.

The feeling we all have right now is probably one of the worst ones I have ever felt. I have a huge knot in my throat and I feel sick to my stomach. It is a terrible, terrible feeling, and it very well should be; because this feeling is going to sting, burn, and hurt all week, and it will motivate us each and every day for the rest of the season. This has been a very humbling experience for all of us. It knocked us way off our high horse, and straight back down to Earth harder than ever. But the true character of a man comes out in times of adversity, and this is our first obstacle. It is gut check time to see what we are all made of.

This week is going to be filed with fun activities. It's spirit week, everyone in school will be dressed up, and having a blast. Well guess what, we won’t be smiling. I guarantee you that each and every one of us is going to push themselves like never before, day in and day out to make sure this never happens again.

Again, I sincerely apologize to everyone that has cheered us on to this point. Every week I see more and more familiar faces at our games, and that’s great. Please don’t let this one loss diminish all that we have done. It is a very tough loss, and it may seem easy to give up on us, considering our past history, but we ourselves are not giving up, we know what kind of team we are, and we are going to keep fighting, until we are back on top. It will not be easy, as the next game we play is against West Islip, an opponent we feel is very good. We have a lot of respect for them, and what they have accomplished this season in League I. We hope to see you all come down next Saturday for homecoming. We will be ready, and you can trust me on that.

To quote Rocky, “it’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward."