Trevor Heffner

1

Heffner

Trevor Heffner

8 February 2015

Doubles 60 Tiger

What is the greatest sport on earth? Everyone has a different answer. When you get down to the nit and grit of the argument it just depends on how the sport has affected your life. It depends how you were brought up and the experiences you have had. In fact, four years ago I would have given you a completely different answer than I would now. From birth I was brought up as a sports fan, and that meant my favorite sport changed with the season.

In the winter and spring it was all about college basketball. As a kid, I was addicted to the sport, and I lived for the NCAA Tournament in March. Tar Heels basketball was what I looked forward to every week, and I had the starting lineup memorized better than I did the words on a spelling test. It was also the only sport I played throughout elementary and middle school.

I played pickup basketball on the side with my friend every week, and I helped to coach a church league my freshman year of high school.

In the summer it was NASCAR.

Growing up fifteen minutes from the racetrack, I never had much of a choice to not like the sport. Let’s be honest: in the summer what else are you going to watch? Baseball? Sorry, but 162 games is just a little too much for me.

Then, in the fall, it was football. I was always a fan of the sport, but for the longest time, no matter how much I got into it, it was just something to get me by until it was basketball season again.

Up until high school I had never played the sport of football. I knew the basics and enjoyed watching the super bowl with friends; however, when it came down to it, I had no idea what the ins and outs of the sport were. I could never have guessed all of the strategies and intricate designs that went into just one play and would never have thought it could have done anything to dramatically change my life. I mean, it is a sport for Lord’s sake! There was no way a game could do anything more for me than provide a little entertainment, right?

As high school started my group of friends got larger, just as anyone’s does. I became friends with a lot of the guys on the football team. I was particularly close to one because we had been going to the same church for the past few years. After the first football season he would not stop talking about how much he looked forward to the next one. It seemed every single conversation we had together had something to do with football. I could not believe I was able to put up with it at some points. I mean I loved sports as much as the next guy, but come on! Was there not anything else that we could talk about? As the months moved on, the football conversations changed.

I picked up hints. I knew his goal. He was trying to get me to try out for the team next year. When I had finally figured that out, I about lost it. I mean, how absurd is that?

I had never played the sport, except for pickup football. Sure, I knew the positions, but that about covered it. I guess, if I was honest, I saw myself as a hard-hitting slot receiver. That was every small man’s dream right? Regardless, I had never been in a weight room in my life!

Finally, he wore me down to my last nerve and convinced me that now was the time to start. I had no excuse not to play, and I decided to go to workouts with him the following week.

I’ll never forget the first conversation I had with my head coach. I walked up to him after role and told him my name, so he could add me to the list.

He said, “Where the hell were you last week, son? Didn’t you know that damn spring workouts started last week? You have a lot to catch up on, boy.”

I was a little taken aback by a teacher using that kind of language with me to say the least,but I quickly realized that it was just the culture of the sport. During the day they were all normal teachers but as soon as we stepped into that environment, the game changed.

No one was safe, and I liked it that way. I loved the intensity that never left. I was good at it. I was able to get stronger, much faster than the rest of the people my age, and I was already quicker than a lot of people my size. That was the first lesson that I was able to get from the sport. I learned what it meant toget out what you put into something, but I still had a lot to learn.

Spring Training was a breeze, but it really didn’t prepare me at all for practice. I was overwhelmed with all of the plays and the elaborate designs that went into them. I was never able to understand the concept of how if one person messes up or misses an assignment an entire play was in jeopardy. I always felt that that was a little over- exaggerated, so I had no real understanding of that until the first scrimmage.

Doubles 60 Tiger: that was the play call that opened my eyes to what went intojust one down of football. In practice the only man that got the ball was the Deep Receiver, so I never thought that the routes the other three receivers were running would matter and that they were only there as a decoy. I quickly found out that I was wrong.

When the ball was snapped, I didn’t run at full speed. I went to make the cut for the slant I was supposed to run; as soon as I did, a Cornerback flew by me with the ball.

I had no idea what had just happened.

Coach quickly made me aware of my mistake, “HEFFNER! QUIT RUNNING YOUR ROUTES LIKE A DAMN SLACKASS OR WE WILL GET A FRESHMAN TO DO THE JOB! DO THAT IN A GAME AND I’LL HAVE YOUR F***ING NECK!!!”

I responded with the usual, “Yes sir, coach; won’t happen again.”

There was the second thing I learned from the sport: Everyone’s job is important, so do yours as best as you can.

Junior year arrived; I moved up to Varsity but was kicked off of offense. At the start of the season, coach pulled me over to the side and enlightened me as to what the rest of my high school career was going to be like.

“Son, you and I both know that there is no way in hell you are going to see a down of offense while on Varsity. You have rocks for hands, and that just isn’t going to work.”

Boy, was he right. I quite frankly hated the offensive side of the ball anyway. I always had an interest in the defensive side of the ball.My new position was Outside Linebacker. This is where I learned my third lesson. I carried over what I had learned from offense and applied it to defense. I gathered that the same intensity and knowing your responsibility was just as important if not more. Then I got rammed down for the first time in my life.

That was an experience.

I learned it was hit or be hit on the defense. If you did not attack, you were going to get destroyed in more ways than one. Being a smaller guy on the field that was even truer for me, and it was a lesson that I took to heart.

My high school career came and went. Just like that it was senior night; I was way too undersized to even begin to think about college football; however, I got to experience a lot of great things. I learned what it was like to be a Conference Champion. I learned the sour taste of defeat. I got to feel what it was like to have a town rally around me; I treasured all of the friendships that came out of the locker room environment.

Today, I miss a lot of those things. I miss being able to hit people. I miss the logic and strategy behind the game. I miss having to use my mind and body at the same time to get a job done, but most of all I miss the brotherhood of the locker room. That is what any sport is all about, but it is something that is even truer in football.

Under normal circumstances there are a lot of people on that team that I would have never spoken to. They are just bad, obnoxious people. Yet when we were on the field we knew we had to count on these guys and every down was played for the guy next to you. This bond was something that carried over off the field.

The “don’t mess with the football team” stereotype is a real thing. The locker room brotherhood was something that no fraternity can duplicate no matter how hard they try. There is no amount of hazing that can bring guys together like that, and the only thing that could beat it would be the military. Football was the first thing that taught me what the importance of trust was.

Then came college. It was a whole new world for me. I had to learn how to live on my own. Back home, I was always involved in something. Suddenly it was all gone. I wasn’t playing any sports, I aged out of scouts, I had to find a new church, and I didn’t have any idea how to get involved in the community. It was like starting from scratch.

Then I found Mt. Vernon Baptist. They had a perfect program for me. They run a competitive youth football league as one of their outreach opportunities. I was in shock; I jumped right in, coaching the sport I love, working with kids, and sharing the Gospel.

Itwas a perfect fit. I got my first coaching job helping the defense of the 3rd and 4th graders. I was a little skeptical how in depth it was going to be or how easy it would be to teach the kids, but I was quickly amazed.

The kids turn words into actions in a blink of an eye; they are so athletic! They’d respond to my intensity with joy. When I get hyped they get borderline crazy. They mirror my love for the game perfectly, and I loved being able to share with them what I get out of the game. This is where I learned my last lesson about the sport of football. It is really an expansion upon what I first learned. You get out what you put into something.At some point you have to become a teacher, and let your experiences fuel another kid’s passion.