My friends and I were standing in the hallway just shooting the shit. We were all 10th graders, first year of high school. We were all dorks, geeks, nerds what have you. Our discussion was about the recent posting of who made the football team. None of us had tried out but we were curious who the "popular" kids were.

Our discussion turned into one's ability to do what they set their mind to. I insisted that anyone who wanted it bad enough could be the starting running back. I did not know that a bunch of jocks were listening to us rather intently.

Later that day, between classes I was approached by four big guys in letterman jackets. 'Oh fuck...here we go!' The smallest of the group "Brian", who I recognized as the star running back said "I heard you losers talking earlier, so you think YOU can be the starting running back huh?" I dared not argue this idiot's stupidity being greatly outsized and outnumbered. "No Brian, I simply stated that anyone who puts their mind to it can do so, it's a matter of wanting it bad enough that's all." They roared with laughter. "Yeah we didn't think you had the balls," Brian said as they walked down the hall high-fiving each other's blissful ignorance.

That whole weekend I could think of nothing else. I played football the previous year and was semi decent...WTF right?

During PE class on Monday I approached the football coach and asked if I could try out. "Try outs were last week, sorry. Besides you look kinda small for football. Talk to me next year." In my anger at being shoved away like that I took off around the track as fast as I could go. At the end of class the coach came up to me and said "You were pretty quick out there, come to practice today after school. We'll see what you can do."

As I geared up in the locker room the stares were almost more than I could bear. After warm-ups the coach appraoched and asked if I had played before. I told him I had only played one season as receiver in Junior High and that was only six games, not much play time either. He then told me that he was going to line me up against their starting receiver as a cornerback to see if I could keep up with him. I had no problem keeping up with this guy. I knocked down two passes, cut off his routes like a mind reader and soon made many enemies.

The coach then told me to line up as right receiver and their starter would be corner. The first play I was jammed hard over the middle, I had apparently pissed the starter off. Next play I blew his doors off on a long cross-slant, I caught the ball on the 10yd line and my cover was probably a good 5yds behind me. TOUCHDOWN!!!

I didn't need to talk shit to him. His buddies on the sideline wwere doing that for me. "Holy shit, he blew you away." "You gonna let him do that again Steve?" "C'mon Steve, you're supposed to be the fastest."...and so on. The look on Steve's face was fucking priceless. I blasted by him about half a dozen more times for touchdowns or massive gains. The coach named me the new right side starter.

That whole season was awesome. My numbers were incredible. I even played corner occasionally and had many good tackles and quite a few interceptions. Not too shabby for a little dude.

Being a dork though, nobody on the team would hang out with me or even talk to me. I was frequently shoved in the hallways by other players. Cheerleaders ignored me, popular kids ignored me. I didn't care though...I enjoyed my 15 minutes.

I wouldn't change it for anything.

Deunan