As I walked on to West Stadium Field #3, I was alone. I looked on as my opponents began warming up 15 minutes before the game was scheduled to start. They looked good, I immediately thought. It was colder than I thought it would be and I didn't have my Under Armor on. But for some reason, thinking about the fact that this was the first game of the playoffs made me giddy and excited. Tonight could be the last game we played if we lost. Or it could be the first step to win the championship. The future was in our hands. My ankle wasn't feeling that bad, but I had some pain lingering from other injuries. Still, I was ready to play.
About 10 minutes before game time, I saw Kevin and Brian walk over and check in. We immediately began throwing around the frisbee. I caught some, dropped others, kind of indifferently. Brian helped me work on my pivot foot and throwing more accurately. Our other teammates jogged over right as the game was about to begin. We had 7 exactly, the amount we needed on the field. That means there would be no subs. We would have to play the whole game. I looked over at our opponents. They had 10, meaning they could sub in 3 people at any given time. I immediately knew it would be tough. Were we up for it? We would soon find out.
As soon as we started playing, they started scoring. They scored 2 quick points and one person even commented, "You guys should get some more strategy on offense, just saying." They scored 3 more, making the game 5-0, until finally we had a lucky break. Kevin grabbed the frisbee and quickly tossed it to me, scoring our very first point. They scored again, and we went to half time with the score being 6-1. Normally, a standard frisbee game is first to 12, but the game was taking so long that the referee announced the game would be the first to 10, which hurt us. They only needed 4 more points, we needed 9. But we kept playing.
The second half was looking awesome for us. We picked up our game big time and started scoring points. Before we knew it, it was 7-4. A devastating turnover made it 8-4, and our hopes started dwindling. We called a timeout, got pumped up, and starting playing our hearts out again. We started coming back! Despite them yet another goal, we were able to bring the score to 9-7. It was game point for them, and we knew we had to pick it up.
Keep a couple things in mind. I was gimping around the field. We had no subs, and at this point, we had been running around for over an hour and a half. They had 3 subs and were keeping fresh legs on the field. We were tired. Both teams started to bicker, a lot. We called several LEGIT fouls on them that they got angry about. The trash talking started and everyone was on the brink of losing their tempers. Not to mention, it was game point for them. They needed 1 more point! We needed 3. The task seemed impossible, but we kept playing.
After bringing the game to a tie, 9-9, we threw the frisbee to them to kick off what would be the final series of the game. Despite the other team turning the frisbee over 2-3 times, we couldn't seem to seal the deal! They threw the winning pass (so we thought) and the game was over.... until we called a foul. A player dove into one of our players and we made the call. After getting in position, we got them to miss a pass. We got the frisbee back, attacked down the field, and scored the game winning touchdown! It was an amazing feeling to know that we had come back from such a huge deficit and won in the playoffs! Despite being outnumbered, out conditioned, and outplayed in the first half, we were able to make the biggest comeback that I have ever been a part of, outscoring them 9-3 in the second half. It was a sweet victory after a long, hard played game.
I will never forget the game I played in tonight. The lesson learned here is to never, ever give up! Never accept failure, even when you are inches away from it. Maybe everything is telling you that you can't do it. But guess what? You still can! Choose to not fail. Choose to achieve victory in whatever setting you are in. No one can take it from you if you want it bad enough and work hard enough for it. Choose to be great. If you're in a hole, if things aren't going the way you want, if you're injured or hurt, if you're struggling to just get by, choose, like we did tonight, to make a comeback.
I'm glad you wrote this article about comebacks. I remember a time when my brother and I were losing in a competitive game of Super Smash Bros. The odds were against us as we were down to two lives left against 5. It seemed impossible to turn the game around. Our moral was down and soon after, it quickly became a game of 1 vs. 2 as I had 1 life left against two opponents. The impossible "comeback" was alive though as one opponent was finally eliminated leaving to a match of 1 vs. 1. We were still the underdog but we kept our heads high and through a turn of events of throwing and hitting with electricity, we escaped with the narrow victory.
ReplyDeleteYou just ruined everything.
ReplyDelete