This is a continuation of the following posts about "my life":
Life Story: Age 1-10
My Life Story: Age 10-14
My Life Story: High school (freshman year)
I had become a full-blown "jock" in some respects. I loved football and the more I practiced it and understood it through out the summer, the more excited I became. I was playing both Line Backer (LB) and Offensive Line (OL). My coach made me decide which position I wanted to start at and I chose LB. There was something exciting in it for me because I felt I had a lot more opportunity to "shine" and be involved with making tackles. I knew I was limited in athletic ability, but I did what I could with it. I felt comfortable with inside LB because I had other people around me to help out if I screwed up. Before our first game of the season, our coach moved me to outside linebacker, which is a tough position to play at that level. I was happy to participate, but I did not understand my position on the field. I was placed there in our scrimmage game (a week before our first game of the season) and I had not a clue what to do. I was still the starter though.
Our first game was a disaster. I screwed up royally and totally missed a tackle on the goal line that allowed the other team to score. From then on out, I sat on the bench. I was frustrated. Our head coach came to me after the game and asked if I wanted to start playing offense again. I said yes and I was starting the next game and every game from then on out. It was a blast. Oh yeah, I also learned how to "deep snap" the football from the varsity deep snapper. My JV year, I really wanted to be "involved" with the game and understand everything. I ate it up. Deep snapping gave me another opportunity to be out on the field.
This was a year I got pretty comfortable with being in high school. I was familiar with a lot of the upper-classmen (the JV and varsity teams worked out together during the summer, so we all kind of knew each other). I got my first girlfriend (and first kiss) and met a lifetime friend (Roman) and another close friend that I hung with all through high school (Brian). I also got my drivers license and could FINALLY drive legally :-). I also got my first traffic violation w/in a month of getting my license. It was frustrating.
As the football season wrapped up, I ended up getting a "best offensive lineman" trophy for the season. It was a total shock for me, but felt good to be recognized. Our coach, Chic Bist, was a LARGE man with a deep gruffy voice. It was about as gruff and raspy as you could imagine. Still, I remember one thing he said to us at the end of our freshman year. Our season had ended and the JV team still had one more game to play. The JV team had only 14 players on the entire roster because many were kicked off the team for dicipline problems. He invited us to practice with them for the last game and possibly even play. He said that his "bite isn't as bad as his growl", which told me that he may look big, tough, and mean, but he really is a nice guy. Chick Bist ended up becoming everything I wanted to be in a person.
When he was my coach he was a father of around 7 kids (I think he has 10 now). He had been married and divorced a few times and had re-married to wonderful woman named Holly whom he went on to have 3 kids with. Chick was awesome though. He was tough on us when he needed to be, but in the end he really loved working with kids. He was big on boys behaving like gentlemen. Anytime a kid burped, he asked who the "pig" was and made the kid do 25 push ups. He didn't allow cussing (even though he could cuss like a sailor when he wasn't around his players), and he was big on kids getting good grades. I love and respect this guy to no end. He gave me so many opportunities to excel and he saw more things in me than I saw in myself.
Anyway, I started to really get into the basketball program at our school too. We had a really good varsity team. The team from my class sucked, but I would attend quite a bit of the basketball games to watch some kids from my church play on the team, as well as some stud football players that played. It was a blast.
I started dating a girl around christmas time. We were in Drivers Ed together. She was quiet, but nice. I look back on it and she was somewhat of an air-head, but so was I (I guess I still am at times). It was a fun experience having a girlfriend that I could suck face with as the school bell rang. We lasted about 4 months, then it ended. This was right around the time I got my license. When you're in a relationship at that age, the world only revolves around you and the other person (at least you think it should). I lost all connection with any friends I had and spent every moment with her. Once the relationship was over, I had no friends. One day I was walking down the hall way at lunch time and noticed this guy I knew from football named Roman. He was a cool guy in my eyes and super funny. I know he liked Rap music, which was all I listend to (it was a rarity for anyone at my high school to listen to rap music). He had a buddy named Brian, who had just moved here from San Diego, that he hung with. Brian liked Rap music too, so the three amigos were created.
We hung out with each other every day until the summer after our graduation. I usually picked up Brian on my way to school. Roman was a wrestler too, which was a big feat for anyone to make our schools wrestling program. I believe my Soph year we were something like the top ten wrestling program in the NATION and 2nd in the state of California. Roman was a stud.
Track was fun too. I threw the shot put with one of my great high school friends, Derek Baumer. The dude was cool as hell, very quiet, but a loyal friend. He was also an amazing athlete and an amazing thrower. He was throwing varsity his entire Sophmore year and kicking butt doing it too.
Summer time came and I was stoked. I had a car and work to do with my dad's landscaping business. I worked and played a lot. I also lifted a lot of weights and practiced with my football team 3 days a week. Brian had decided to go out for football too. Roman, for some reason, decied to only focus on wrestling and not come out for football. I was a little nervous about playing varsity football. There was Derek Baumer, who played the same position as me (offensive guard), who started as a Sophmore on varsity. I figured there was no way I would be playing. Still, our head coach Bruce Ebbe, encouraged me to not give up and to keep trying. I started to kind of "understand" the game as I practiced. I watched what the running backs were doing, what the quarter backs were doing, what the wide receivers were doing. It all started to just "make sense" for me. I could tell that all eleven guys on the field were important to each play and wheather it was successful or not. I started to play some offensive tackle as well, backing up a Senior (Brian Dales). Brian was our biggest and hardest hitting offensive lineman. The dude was a beast at about 6'3" and 250 lbs. He was one of those quiet partier-types. You could tell he had a wild streak in him. But still, he was helpful toward me and encouraged me to learn the position. I figured that by my Sr year, I could replace him and possibly start at tackle.
Next up: Jr year
Life Story: Age 1-10
My Life Story: Age 10-14
My Life Story: High school (freshman year)
I had become a full-blown "jock" in some respects. I loved football and the more I practiced it and understood it through out the summer, the more excited I became. I was playing both Line Backer (LB) and Offensive Line (OL). My coach made me decide which position I wanted to start at and I chose LB. There was something exciting in it for me because I felt I had a lot more opportunity to "shine" and be involved with making tackles. I knew I was limited in athletic ability, but I did what I could with it. I felt comfortable with inside LB because I had other people around me to help out if I screwed up. Before our first game of the season, our coach moved me to outside linebacker, which is a tough position to play at that level. I was happy to participate, but I did not understand my position on the field. I was placed there in our scrimmage game (a week before our first game of the season) and I had not a clue what to do. I was still the starter though.
Our first game was a disaster. I screwed up royally and totally missed a tackle on the goal line that allowed the other team to score. From then on out, I sat on the bench. I was frustrated. Our head coach came to me after the game and asked if I wanted to start playing offense again. I said yes and I was starting the next game and every game from then on out. It was a blast. Oh yeah, I also learned how to "deep snap" the football from the varsity deep snapper. My JV year, I really wanted to be "involved" with the game and understand everything. I ate it up. Deep snapping gave me another opportunity to be out on the field.
This was a year I got pretty comfortable with being in high school. I was familiar with a lot of the upper-classmen (the JV and varsity teams worked out together during the summer, so we all kind of knew each other). I got my first girlfriend (and first kiss) and met a lifetime friend (Roman) and another close friend that I hung with all through high school (Brian). I also got my drivers license and could FINALLY drive legally :-). I also got my first traffic violation w/in a month of getting my license. It was frustrating.
As the football season wrapped up, I ended up getting a "best offensive lineman" trophy for the season. It was a total shock for me, but felt good to be recognized. Our coach, Chic Bist, was a LARGE man with a deep gruffy voice. It was about as gruff and raspy as you could imagine. Still, I remember one thing he said to us at the end of our freshman year. Our season had ended and the JV team still had one more game to play. The JV team had only 14 players on the entire roster because many were kicked off the team for dicipline problems. He invited us to practice with them for the last game and possibly even play. He said that his "bite isn't as bad as his growl", which told me that he may look big, tough, and mean, but he really is a nice guy. Chick Bist ended up becoming everything I wanted to be in a person.
When he was my coach he was a father of around 7 kids (I think he has 10 now). He had been married and divorced a few times and had re-married to wonderful woman named Holly whom he went on to have 3 kids with. Chick was awesome though. He was tough on us when he needed to be, but in the end he really loved working with kids. He was big on boys behaving like gentlemen. Anytime a kid burped, he asked who the "pig" was and made the kid do 25 push ups. He didn't allow cussing (even though he could cuss like a sailor when he wasn't around his players), and he was big on kids getting good grades. I love and respect this guy to no end. He gave me so many opportunities to excel and he saw more things in me than I saw in myself.
Anyway, I started to really get into the basketball program at our school too. We had a really good varsity team. The team from my class sucked, but I would attend quite a bit of the basketball games to watch some kids from my church play on the team, as well as some stud football players that played. It was a blast.
I started dating a girl around christmas time. We were in Drivers Ed together. She was quiet, but nice. I look back on it and she was somewhat of an air-head, but so was I (I guess I still am at times). It was a fun experience having a girlfriend that I could suck face with as the school bell rang. We lasted about 4 months, then it ended. This was right around the time I got my license. When you're in a relationship at that age, the world only revolves around you and the other person (at least you think it should). I lost all connection with any friends I had and spent every moment with her. Once the relationship was over, I had no friends. One day I was walking down the hall way at lunch time and noticed this guy I knew from football named Roman. He was a cool guy in my eyes and super funny. I know he liked Rap music, which was all I listend to (it was a rarity for anyone at my high school to listen to rap music). He had a buddy named Brian, who had just moved here from San Diego, that he hung with. Brian liked Rap music too, so the three amigos were created.
We hung out with each other every day until the summer after our graduation. I usually picked up Brian on my way to school. Roman was a wrestler too, which was a big feat for anyone to make our schools wrestling program. I believe my Soph year we were something like the top ten wrestling program in the NATION and 2nd in the state of California. Roman was a stud.
Track was fun too. I threw the shot put with one of my great high school friends, Derek Baumer. The dude was cool as hell, very quiet, but a loyal friend. He was also an amazing athlete and an amazing thrower. He was throwing varsity his entire Sophmore year and kicking butt doing it too.
Summer time came and I was stoked. I had a car and work to do with my dad's landscaping business. I worked and played a lot. I also lifted a lot of weights and practiced with my football team 3 days a week. Brian had decided to go out for football too. Roman, for some reason, decied to only focus on wrestling and not come out for football. I was a little nervous about playing varsity football. There was Derek Baumer, who played the same position as me (offensive guard), who started as a Sophmore on varsity. I figured there was no way I would be playing. Still, our head coach Bruce Ebbe, encouraged me to not give up and to keep trying. I started to kind of "understand" the game as I practiced. I watched what the running backs were doing, what the quarter backs were doing, what the wide receivers were doing. It all started to just "make sense" for me. I could tell that all eleven guys on the field were important to each play and wheather it was successful or not. I started to play some offensive tackle as well, backing up a Senior (Brian Dales). Brian was our biggest and hardest hitting offensive lineman. The dude was a beast at about 6'3" and 250 lbs. He was one of those quiet partier-types. You could tell he had a wild streak in him. But still, he was helpful toward me and encouraged me to learn the position. I figured that by my Sr year, I could replace him and possibly start at tackle.
Next up: Jr year
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