I completely failed to live up to them on my first day. None of us had been given any guidance on pacing ourselves during college level conditioning and we were excited, impressionable 17 and 18-year-olds. As a result, we gave our all and ran our hearts out on every drill. This did not serve us well. The poorly constructed workout we were performing was formatted in such a way that we would not be able to complete it if we gave our all in every drill, unless you were conditioned at an Olympic level, which we were not.
I completed every drill in the time allotted, but afterwards I almost passed out. I was delirious, gasping for air, and I couldn’t see or think straight. After the running, they threw us into a surprise set of “focus drills” to test how we would be able to perform when we were tired. Every person had to perform the drills perfectly or the group had to start over. This is where our strength coach’s tirade against me began. Despite everyone performing at a similar level, he chose to single out my performance and credited my slight flaws as the reason we had to keep starting over. Even when I performed the drills correctly, he went out of his way to start us over.
“Whistle! Start over it was Fos!”
“Whistle! Start over it was Fos!”
“Whistle! Start over it was Fos!”
“Whistle! It was Fos!”
“Whistle! It was Fos!”
“Whistle! Fos again!”
“Whistle! Fos again!”
“Whistle! Fos once again!”
“Whistle! Are you ever going to get it Fos?”
“Whistle! Are you even trying at this point Fos?
“Whistle! This is pathetic Fos!”
After my mind deteriorated, we entered the weight room and were lectured about our sorry performance. “That was the worst performance by any freshman group that has ever set foot in this program! Some of you did well enough, but the rest of you were pathetic, and some of you…I’m not sure if some of you are ever going to be worth a motherfucking thing to this program!”
We then started weightlifting with minimal instruction. Every time I even attempted to pick up the bar, my alleged bad performance was singled out.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What did I just tell you, Fos?! PULL THE SLACK OUT OF THE BAR FIRST!”
“Fos! I told you to move your feet in. MORE! MORE DAMMIT!”
“Squat lower Fos! LOWER! LOWER DAMMIT!”
Eventually, I was singled out and pulled to the side in front of the entire weight room. “Now look here Fos. When are you going to get a fucking clue about the shit we are trying to do here? We are trying to win football games, not stand around and dawdle. I would have thought by now you would have found a way to rub the two brain cells you have together, so you can get an idea about how you can try and stay your ass in this program! Now get your ass back with your group!”
All the excitement I’d had about fulfilling my dream of finally making it to college football was crushed in about forty minutes. Later, my teammates vouched for me and said they could tell that the coach was singling me out for no reason, but they were too scared to help me in the moment out of fear of being targeted as well. I eventually came to find out I was just another victim of their scheme to get walk-ons to quit the team by targeting them early on. In the future, I watched as others received even worse treatment, and almost every single one quit within their first two years. Micah and I were the only walk-ons who were stupid enough to hold onto our resolve. I never got a scholarship in my seven years with the program.
I held onto my dreams until the end.
It was the worst first day ever.
I woke up in a hospital bed with my arm in a sling.
I swear, from here on out I will not get knocked out ever again. This is just getting ridiculous...
Jaren and Milliard were chatting very loudly.
“Did you see his shoulder afterward?!”
“I know right! I thought his whole neck was going to snap...”
They leapt out of their seats and shouted in tandem as they noticed me. “OH HEY JAMES! WE’RE SO GLAD YOU’RE OK!”
Jaren surprisingly beat Milliard to the punch and overtook him in volume as well. Even Milliard was surprised.
I gave both a death glare and their enthusiasm waned as they shrank away from my malice. “YOU TWO! Why didn’t either of you think it would, oh I don’t know, MAYBE be a good idea to not let the newcomer fight the strongest person here in his second match! You both ran inside, so you knew this would happen! I would have thought you two idiots could have rubbed the two collective brain cells you guys have together,and at least come up with something as simple as that…”
Their lips quivered and they started bawling like babies. “WAAAAAAAAH!”
I physically recoiled at my last sentence. Why would I say something like that? Especially that specific choice of words... I was letting my emotions get the best of me and becoming everything I hated. What Milliard said in the hospital was right... I decided then and there I needed to go back to my old ways of Christ like living, instead of letting my emotions make me like my enemies.
“Look, I’m sorry guys. I didn’t mean to speak to y'all like that. I promise I’ll do my best to never do it again from here on out.”
They continued bawling, wetting the floor with their tears.
I facepalmed. “So do you guys want to tell me more about the school or fighting or something stupid like that?”
They immediately stopped and their eyes gleamed with excitement as they shouted in tandem. “YAAAAAY! JAMES ISN’T MAD AT US ANYMORE! OF COURSE! WE WOULD LOVE TO TEACH YOU EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT FIGHTING!”
Ridiculous. I cringed even harder. They are both so childish! I bet every one of those tears was a ploy to make me think about my actions! I despised them both. On top of that, my situation had gotten much worse. The only thing worse than having to deal with one Milliard, was having to deal with two.
Jaren held up five fingers. “Alright so the first mistake you made in your fight was choosing Marcus. The second mistake was…”
SLAM!
The hospital room door fell flat on the ground. A beautiful woman in a doctor’s coat and glasses knocked the door clean off the hinges. She gave me a death glare that caused both Milliard and Jaren to run and cower in the corner.
She stared at me with deadly malice. “YOU! I HATE YOU!”
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