This year's Seniors made up our first freshman team. They are the first group to complete the four year program implemented by Coach Blankenship. A program that requires dedication, and sacrifice. A program that asks for your deepest commitment. Coach Blankenship's program asks players to believe that the depth of pain, effort, and preparation they're capable of, exceeds the vision they hold.
Those seniors play their last high school football game tonight. For many, it will be their last football game, ever. The last. When they step on the field against Saint Ignatius for the Division 3, CCS Title, they'll have the opportunity to achieve what every Aptos Football Player has tried to, and only one team has.
Tonight, when you're down on the field, take a glance up into the stands. Look past the people you expect to see, like your family, and friends. Look past the people you recognize like the families, and friends, of a teammate. Look past the 10 year-old boys wanting to be you, and the teenage girls waiting to claim you.
Instead, look for the faces of men you've never seen. Look for men you've seen in the same place, at every game, standing alone. They'll be there, you can count on it. Those men are the regrets of boys who didn't play for a championship, but know they could have. Those men are the shadows of boys who finally confessed their arrogance, as fear. Those men are the ones who come back, year after year, with one hope, and a prayer.
They come with the hope that this team of boys will be different, that they'll play with desperation, and purpose. They come hoping this team of boys will play like their lives depend on it, as if the only way to become a man is to leave the boy on the field. They come with the hope of seeing themselves resurrected through you.
They come with a prayer for you to finish your past while it's still in front of you.
They come with a prayer that your effort, and commitment, will be rewarded.
They come praying that the depth of your commitment will forgive the refusal in theirs.
They come to get their championship through you.
You don't need a trophy to prove anything to yourself.
You don't need one to prove it to the people who know you.
You need one if you want the world to remember who you were, and what you accomplished in your time, together.
