BLOG: A Football Journey

Football was a sport many grow up playing all the way from their early childhoods.

For many their love of the game stems from their increased exposure. For me, football was a sport I watched with awe, never having the courage however to actually play until later on in my life. While others were getting ready for their summer seasons I was scarfing down hamburgers and pizza, playing the role of a young armchair quarterback.

Growing up in an area of Toronto heavily populated by recent immigrants, soccer was the predominant sport of choice and I followed my childhood friends in that endeavor. I was never the biggest or the fastest, but I tried. It was only when I moved to the city of Ottawa in my sophomore year of High School did I decide to strap on the pads and play with the big boys.

At 14 I stood a menacing 5’6 and tipped the scales at 140 pounds; suffice to say I was the smallest left tackle in the league, never mind my own team.  To say my first year in football was anything less than a nightmare would be a lie; I was on the ground more often than not, which isn’t exactly what you want in your left tackle. After a season in which my team failed to make the playoffs, I decided to commit myself in the offseason to hit the weight room; I never wanted to be considered a liability or a weakness on my team again.

Checking into my junior year of high school I had grown four inches and had gained almost 40 pounds in the process, standing at a more reasonable 5’10 and weighing in at 180 pounds. It was at this time I was moved to the defensive side of the ball; a welcome change. Even with all my physical progress I was now the dwarf of the defensive live, the smallest defensive end on our team. With more size and playing experience came more confidence and my results on the field showed.

My coaches preached “When in doubt, knock someone out” and I took that phrase to heart. I sold out on every single snap, trying to make a big hit or bull-rushing a blocker into the ground, my technique was raw and my strength meek but my heart more than made up for it. My individual success reflected on our teams as we managed to squeak into the playoffs before being bounced out by the eventual high school champions. I injured my elbow in the game, but refused to be taken out; I was not going to be sidelined in a playoff game by a bum elbow. The game itself was a defensive struggle in which our side came up just a little short. The stage however was set for the upcoming season, a season in which I was determined to make an impact.

After another spring and summer of doing nothing but lifting and mowing down on my mother’s cooking, I weighed in at a respectable 200 pounds. At this point my technique and strength improved by leaps and bounds and I saw myself positioned as our teams Middle Linebacker. My senior year of high school could not have gone any better from a football stand point, I made plays all over the field with big tackles and interceptions, but more importantly my team brought home the cities championship.

A journey of many years had finally culminated, and what an end it was! After high school I enrolled at Carleton University to study with the hopes of attending law school in the future, but that itch for football never left, it only grew to the point where I knew I had to make an effort to continue playing. I looked into a league that has long been known as one of the best and most competitive in Ontario: the OVFL. In this league I’d be able to show just how far I had come as a player and was given a chance to compete against the best of the best. With many practices remaining before my first game against the Toronto Thunder on May 25th, I will be blogging regularly about my experiences leading up to my first game, as well as throughout the season. I encourage you all to follow my blogs so you can see through my eyes the results of hard work and determination. To end I leave you with a quote from my favourite football movie ‘Rudy’

“Well, you know what my dad always said, Having dreams is what makes life tolerable.”

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