Under the Friday Night Lights

By: Chris Smith

                Dedication can be defined as how much you truly want something in life or just in sports in general. At Whiteland Community High School and its town, football is a way of life for fans, parents, coaches, and of course, the players. Football is a sport of rough, tough, and sweaty men fighting their way across the field in order to score for their team. Ask any football player and they will tell that there is more to football than a bunch of men running around on a field with a ball in their hands. Football is a game of inches and each team has to fight for every inch if they want to win the game. Players, coaches, and diehard fans dedicate themselves to the teams they love and that will never change.

                Football just doesn’t come as easy as people put it. Darren Fisher, coach of the Whiteland High School team said, “Every single down, every single play is a pure fight for six seconds and when that whistle blows, that’s the only time you can let off.” Players just don’t walk onto the field without some type of preparation before the game. Practice is the most important of all. Perfect practice makes perfect. Players can’t expect to go onto the field and execute the plays without it. The weight room is also key in preparation. Without strength, it’s pretty hard to tackle someone if you can’t even lift the bar off the rack. Darrick Richardson, junior varsity Defensive End, said, “We go to the weight room every single day and we lift for about two hours at a time.”

                Hard work is another aspect of becoming a great football player. Hard work is best defined as how much a person wants something and how hard that person is willing to push each other for what they want. Long hours in the weight room and on the field are what define it as well. Taking time even after practice, running routes, making cuts, and pushing the slides are what truly earn the stripes. These things just have to happen if football players want to call themselves “good” or “beast”. Fisher said, “You have to come to practice every single day, come to the weight room every single day. ‘If you don’t, I promise you that your spot will be taken from you and you will no longer be the starter on my football team.” Coaches like Darren Fisher just don’t put up with nonsense like not going to practice and not going to the weight room. It’s all on the players that truly want their spot and want to be a great football player.

                Any person that plays football will tell someone how amazing it is to play for their high school football team. Some players may even go as far to saying it is an honor to player for their team. Richardson said, “Playing under the Friday night lights is so awesome. ‘It’s one of the coolest things you can ever do in your life.” Darren Fisher is a serious man but a passionate man about football and his players. He will not let any player step onto his field if that player hasn’t proven themself. All that player has to do is put a little effort and hard work into the sport and things will pay off.