Staying Home on Defense by Brayden

Staying Home on Defense by Brayden - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Nothing stings worse than a bad loss when you're a bad loser, no matter the circumstance. Unfortunately for me, I’ve struggled in times of doubt and failure which is why I try to push myself to win as much as possible. Losing can bring out a lot in people and it has always brought out the worst in me. In particular, during my junior year in high school my football coach had directed me to do something towards the end of one of our games. He asked me to stay home on defense and keep my eyes on the running back because he was becoming a threat to our defensive line. I nodded and turned my attention back to the field where I echoed my teammates’ orders to those who couldn't hear. When the ball snapped, I noticed that the running back was going to block instead of run out of the backfield, so I decided to move out of the area and provide help to another teammate. Doing my own thing let the running back become free and he slipped by me which made it easy for the quarterback to throw a nonchalant touchdown pass to him. My coach was furious on the sidelines and ended up benching me for a few series.

The next week of practice I spent almost all of my free time studying my own film from the week before. I would look at my footwork, where my eyes were looking, if I wrapped up and tackled properly. I would spend a few extra minutes on the practice field after practice each night working on my form and technique to make sure I was fundamentally sound and so that I wouldn't make the same mistakes again in our next game. Later that week, before the game, my coach called me out during one of our group drills for working so hard that week. For the first time he had noticed something beneficial I was doing for both the team and myself which made me want to continually get better.