Hidden beneath the shadows of success is the story of a football team that has faced persistent challenges. The head of the cheerleading coach Gigi Hasley expressed her thoughts about this year’s 2023 football team, “It was a year of reconstruction.” After a hard season where Mission High School had a streak of 10 losses, an unexpected altercation between some of the football players ended the Mission High School football team in a disaster. It was a series of unfortunate events. The football team lost talented players and it negatively affected how the team played.
“We got messed up this season”, stated several players on the football team. Everyone had mixed emotions about these games. They had the gut feeling that they might forfeit, but they still played. They had to recruit as many players as they could after the unexpected altercation that took away some of their better players. The backbone of any football team relies on its players.
Even after the altercation, Mission kept going. Even after losing some of their best players on the team they never gave up. They looked past all the bad stuff and still ended the season in a positive way.
“Even though they had a terrible season the players still played with heart and talent and gave it their all in every game,” commented Coach Tibb.
The energy from the crowd was very positive. It might have been a bumpy season but the crowd always brought excitement to the games.
“We might have lost our season but the energy level of the crowd was always high and we always had fun when we went on the field,” expressed Dominic McDonald, an ATH on the Mission High School football team.
Orlando Lopez, junior and kick-off, joined the team after several members had to leave. He had never played football before, but his friends “had been telling me since freshman year to play.”
He says the pros were that football was a place to channel anger. “I became really close to my teammates. They became like a second family.”
“The lows- we lost a lot of players that were meaningful. That affected our season because we didn’t win a game,” said Josiah Herrera, junior and wide receiver.
“The highs were we really got to see who really wanted to play and who didn’t,” Herrera continued.
The team felt the positive emotions from the crowd. There was always loud cheers, and a spirited energy. The games were more proactive than one would think. The stats might have shown otherwise but each game was exciting, supportive, and a learning experience.
After a challenging season, this is an opportunity for the team to grow and improve from their mistakes. The players showed resilience and courage by finishing out their season. Instead of it being a negative thing, they learned from their mistakes and will improve for the future. It will serve as a valuable learning experience that will motivate the team to work harder and bounce back better next year.
