Twenty-Five Years and Nineteen Yards by Maddox

Twenty-Five Years and Nineteen Yards by Maddox - May 2024 Scholarship Essay

The numbers “7-14” are shining across the scoreboard in bright red lighting. It was the final football game of the season. Our team is down and the game against our rival is on the line. We haven’t won in 25 years. I feel the adrenaline rushing through my body as I set my eyes on the end zone and clutch the football against my chest. Just 19 yards stood between me and that touchdown. As I rushed into the end zone, my arm extended across the line, the adrenaline I was feeling quickly morphed into excruciating pain. That touchdown came with a price – a torn labrum. Within the blink of an eye, my season was over as if it were a scene straight out a movie.

“You’re going to need surgery,” the doctor said after reviewing my MRI. If I ever wanted to play sports competitively again, this would be the route that I would have to take. I was more shocked when he explained the recovery process would take at least six months. I was crushed and conflicted. It was surreal. As the football and soccer seasons are back-to-back, I was forced into a corner. I had to make a decision about my future. This decision would give me a reality check, that life isn't all butterflies and rainbows, and that sometimes unexpected things happen that will negatively affect your future.

As time would tell, not all things are meant to be. Following the season, I immediately had surgery and began the recovery process to be ready for football season. Over the course of the summer months, I began physical therapy every single day working my hardest to make sure I wouldn’t come up short again. Experiencing this injury and choosing when to fix it was a decision that I highly regretted at the time. However, rather than feeling stuck on the thought of what I felt was a bad decision, I focused on getting stronger, eating well and positive thinking to make it through this rough patch. Playing high level sports doesn’t only require physical toughness, it also requires mental toughness. As the saying goes - the grass is not always greener on the other side. But, for me, the green grass came in the form of my career decision. This life event sparked a period of personal growth.

I worked hard and the season was almost here. The doctor was about to lift my “no contact” orders. It’s my Senior year and I will be QB1. Leadership. Leadership is more than just leading people. It requires certain behaviors and characteristics to guide and influence people toward a common goal. To me, at least, it is about leadership qualities like respect, courage, integrity, motivation, critical thinking and relationship-building. John Quincy Adams said, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” This is what Coach TJ Dibble did for the LD Blue Raiders. Dream more. Dream big. He went to LD Bell High School and was on the football team. His dad even coached the Blue Raiders. He came back to Hurst, TX and was an inspirational figure for me. Leading a team is far from easy, but he believed in me.

Positive communication and lifting up my teammates is where I focus because that is my best leadership tool. In addition, leading by example is extremely important. Being a leader within any community or group is a task that brings out new components of one’s character. For example, in football, a lot of the blame is placed on the quarterback when the team is doing poorly as a whole but, when a team is doing well, the quarterback will get the praise…just as it is for the Coach. The performance of the team determines how the leader is seen in the rest of the community’s eyes. There are high expectations placed on leaders. This is why being a leader can be mentally and physically taxing. You must be able to take extreme criticism and also be humble and know how to handle praise.

At the end of the season, we faced our rivals again. The last game of the season was here. Twenty five years of losses. Not this time, 283 offensive yards later, the Blue Raiders had beaten their cross-town rival for the first time since 1997. The victory was ours. My injury and that loss felt like a setback, but ultimately that setback was a setup for the comeback.

My mom is a huge Ralph Waldo Emerson fan, so she often quotes him because he is so relatable. I will close with one of her favorite quotes - "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." I intend to leave my own mark on this world.