When I attended military school, there were 2 main fall sports: soccer and football. Both are team sports with a ball. Soccer involved a lot of running and agility. On the other hand, football was a more smash-mouth sport. I had played football in middle school in Texas, and so I gravitated to football once again when I was in military school in Virginia.
The benefit of attending a small school meant that there were plenty of opportunities to get meaningful playing time. I played defensive tackle and started my junior and senior years. In my sophomore year, which was my first full year at military school, I mostly played special teams during games. During practice, though, well that was another matter. I was on the scout team for defense, and I had a blast. Each week, we had to learn a new defensive system as part of the preparation for our first team offense. We had a new coach, and while we all respected and loved our coach, the year was a bit of a debacle. We lost every game that year, and none of them were close. Even though I wasn’t technically a starter, I got plenty of experience on kick-off return…
The turnaround started in the summer of my junior year. Our military school was able to get us a spot in the University of West Virginia football camp. We all had a great time and became fast friends with one another. I remember meeting my friend Tower, in fact I will never forget it. He had apparently decided that the first day of football camp at a D1 school was the perfect time to get a tan. The skill players were doing drills, and he, like me, was a lineman. At the time, we were set up to wait on a hill near a practice field. He was a goofball, but a good guy and a great friend.
Later on during that same trip, we had made a secret trip to McDonald’s, and some of us played some poker in the dorms after dinner, while others, like me, took the opportunity to unwind with a good book. Well, another lineman, Jones, burst into my room in a fit of rage. Apparently, his quarter pounder had gotten stolen and he was raiding every room in search of his burger. I accompanied Jones in his investigation, and we made our way directly to the poker room, where none other than Tower was there, winning substantially, I might add. After explaining what happened, Towers jumped up, eager to help. He searched his room up and down, and proclaimed he couldn’t find anything.
Of course Tower had stolen the burger, and used an impressive bit of sleight of hand to hide it in front of everyone as we searched the room.
That trip really turned things around. We became a much better, much closer team. We played better, and won several games, including against an arch-rival – another, though lesser, military school in Virginia. We all took a drink out of the cup we won as part of that rivalry win. We joked around as one of our team’s stars got some press from the local newspaper. My last 2 years at military school, I started or generally got a lot of playing time on the defense. I was a defensive tackle, and my job was to anchor the entire defense. Mostly, I tried to get tangled up with enough offensive linemen so the linebackers could make the play.
It was a selfless role and I never got any standout plays, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and, most importantly, my teammates and coaches gave me the most improved player award that year. I joke that it was the “crappy player” award, but I was, and still am, secretly very proud of that. It still hangs in my study today.
That’s the thing about playing football in military schools. You live with your teammates – they’re your brothers. And deep down, while you don’t show it, you are proud of your brothers and they are proud of you.
