Dying Alone

High school was going to start soon and I being a new freshman wanted to play football. So I went to the first practice at the beginning of August, one month before school started. All we did was a lot of conditioning drills and stretches that first morning but there was more to come that night because we had practice twice a day for until school started. That afternoon we did the same except we were put into our different positions. Coach put me as a tight end to start practice. That day I also learned the rules that coach had set for the month before school started. Come late and plan on running after practice. Miss practice for any reason and it was the breakfast club. My family had a scheduled vacation to California right in the middle of August. I would miss one week of practice. I told coach and though this might get me out of the breakfast club as it wasn't my fault I had to go on vacation. It didn't work. He said when I returned to plan on joining the breakfast club. The vacation was great. We went to Disneyland again and had a lot of fun with our cousins that lived in Lancaster. I didn't think about football at all. I didn't have to get up early for practice. I didn't have to stay late for practice. I didn't have to lift weights or do drills or run wind sprints. I didn't have to remember pass routes or blocking responsibilities. Then I got back home and went to practice again. I was called out right away and told to stay after practice for the breakfast club. So I went to through two hours of practice drills and wind sprints included. Then came the dreaded breakfast club. There were four of us that had joined that day. I owed ten breakfast clubs for missing ten practices. The some owed two or three and one owed five. A breakfast club consists of the following; starting from the goal line run to the ten yard line and do ten push-ups, run to the twenty yard line and do ten push-ups, run to the thirty yard line and do ten push-ups all the way to the other end zone. This was one breakfast club one hundred yards and one hundred push ups. Coach gave each of us a choice to do as many as we wanted to do and we could return each day after practice to finish. The others with just two or three and even five said they would finish that day. So, me being the wise freshman, said I would do all ten that day. Once the commitment was made the coach blew the whistle for us to begin. The first one hundred yards was easy. The second hundred yards was easy. I thought I could easily do all ten that day one thousand yards and one thousand push ups broken up into ten yard increments seemed like a break every time I stopped to do the push ups. By the fourth one hundred yards with two of the four finished I realized that it was taking me longer to run ten yards. It was taking me longer to do ten push ups. The player with five to do had stopped for a moment and asked coach instead of doing ten push ups at each ten yard line if he could do one one handed push up. The coach agreed to his plan. I tried a one handed push up on the next ten yard marker but I couldn't do it. I was stuck with ten push ups at each stop. I pushed through the pain. I pushed through the weariness. By the time everyone else had finished I was only half way through. My arms shook with the excursion of each push up. I thought about giving up and coming back another day but I had committed to do all of it. I couldn't back down. When I finished eight the coach could tell I was exhausted and tried to give me an out. He said I did great and could come back tomorrow and finish the last two hundred yards. I wanted to stop. My body begged to stop. I was a wise freshman and I wanted to prove I could hold up my end of the bargain. I continued. The last two hundred yards are forgotten in the haze of coaches yelling, teammates yelling and me grunting my way through. When I finished I just laid on the goal line and asked for water. I was greeted with pats on the back and good jobs all around. I still had to come back to practice that evening and I didn't think I was going to be able to move. Luckily it rained so hard that afternoon that coach cancelled practice. I thought I was feeling better until I went to bed that night. Every muscle in my body started to tighten up. I had cramps in my legs and arms. My stomach was the worst. The muscles in my stomach were in so much pain that I thought I was going to die. At midnight I went into my parents room. I could not get comfortable. I ached everywhere. Mom had me sit on the rocking chair. That didn't help. Finally I went and grabbed my blanket and pillow and laid down on their floor. I slept fitfully on their floor. The next morning when I woke up to go back to practice my Mom asked me why I hadn't gone back to my bed. I calmly said. "I didn't want to die alone!"