My favorite football game I ever played in my entire life meant more than just the final
score on the scoreboard, it brought my team and community closer in ways we couldn’t for–
see. Our Coach and quarterback who were father and son, lost their grandma shortly before
the beginning of the season. She was a big supporter in our community and was at every game.
I can still hear her shouting voice in my head till this day, “Let’s GO COBRAS”. This season meant
a lot too our team, and the Lee family. Our team slogan “3 More Breath’s” came from the
passing of Mrs. Lee, moments before she finally passed away, she was able to take 3 more
breaths. She resembled what meant to be Cobra strong throughout her battles with cancer. All
of us seniors took it upon ourselves to have the “3 more breaths” slogan printed on the back of
our pre-game warm up shirts. The slogan meant a lot more to us than just printed words on a
shirt. It was our only desire to win the state championship and dedicate our season to hard
work and resilience, which Mrs.Lee embodied. The time finally came for our opening game
against our rival the Peoria Panthers, who we have always despised on and off the field. This
game meant a lot more to me than my other teammates because I was supposed to go to
Peoria high school since they were the local feeder school where I lived. It was mostly bragging
rights, and the feeling of making a good decision of where I went to school. It was weird feeling
having to line up against the kids I went to elementary school with, and played ball with at
recess. This made the rivalry all that better, and of course I was somewhat used to it now by
heading into my senior season. The entire week leading up to the game of course Peoria did
what they did best, which was trash talking. Us players never took the trash talk serious, in fact
we would laugh at the tweets directed towards us and mock them. That part of the game was
never new to us, we were always the team to beat, since we won our division every year. The
week of Peoria was always our best week as a team. Everybody tried a little bit harder at
practice, we all paid more attention to the little things whether it was in the weight room or
film sessions. I can remember our coach blaring loud music on our sidelines during practice to
try and acclimate us to working as a team under pressure. That is the reason you play football
though. To perform on the biggest stage after all of the hard work put in on the offseason
through ought weightlifting, conditioning, long days at school ect. With this also being
