literacy narrative revised #1

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Romelo Perry Literacy Narrative Revised #1 UWRT 1101 Robert Arnold I turned and looked to the stands where my mom was sitting and saw her cover her eyes in a panic and when I turned forward, all I saw was 3 kids from the opposing team running towards me as fast as they could and in shock, I did not move. “When you catch the ball or recover the ball while on defense you’re supposed to run towards the end zone, son.” My rookie team coach explained to me as I went over to the sideline, not knowing what at all I had just done and why everyone was so happy. “Now get back out there and help our offense score a touchdown”, and I took to the field in excitement knowing that I had done something good and helped my team drive the ball to the end zone to score a touchdown with little time remaining in the game. I did not know whether we won or lost, because the rookie league didn’t keep score. I just remember that play out of all the plays I would make in my 8

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Page 1: Literacy Narrative Revised #1

Romelo Perry

Literacy Narrative Revised #1

UWRT 1101

Robert Arnold

I turned and looked to the stands where my mom was sitting and saw her cover her eyes

in a panic and when I turned forward, all I saw was 3 kids from the opposing team running

towards me as fast as they could and in shock, I did not move. “When you catch the ball or

recover the ball while on defense you’re supposed to run towards the end zone, son.” My rookie

team coach explained to me as I went over to the sideline, not knowing what at all I had just

done and why everyone was so happy. “Now get back out there and help our offense score a

touchdown”, and I took to the field in excitement knowing that I had done something good and

helped my team drive the ball to the end zone to score a touchdown with little time remaining in

the game. I did not know whether we won or lost, because the rookie league didn’t keep score. I

just remember that play out of all the plays I would make in my 8 years of playing football

because it was the very first big play I had ever made.

When I went home that afternoon inside I felt kind of embarrassed that almost every

player on my team, knew that I was supposed to run when I caught that ball and I did not. So as

my family and I walked into the house, I turned the living room TV to a college football game

that was about to start and I sat there for the rest of the day watching every game that I could,

trying to learn the actual rules and regulations of a game I was starting to play. I thought that

maybe watching college football, would help me understand the game better, and it did, but I

wanted to learn everything about the game. The following day I was in the living room all day

Page 2: Literacy Narrative Revised #1

long waiting for the NFL games to begin and I watched them all day, as well. I quickly started to

like the New England Patriots and my mom to this day still tries to convince me that the Dallas

Cowboys is the best team in the NFL and we will never agree on that.

As I got older and more experienced with football I figured out there was more to the

game then just hitting the person in front of you, which a lot of people that watch the game think

that, that is all football is and it’s really not. You have to create a hole for the running back to run

through, so you have to not only hit the guy in front of you, you have to turn and push him in a

way of making the hole for the running back as large as possible. If you are really good you can

just push the guy in front of you onto the ground every time and land on top of him and he wont

make the play, something lineman call a pancake and getting pancakes are really exciting. If

your team was passing the ball you were going to have to block the guy in front of you or maybe

he wouldn’t be in front of you and came up on a blitz, which is when the linebacker or even

defensive back would run up to the line of scrimmage and rush to try and get past you to hit the

quarterback. Lineman aren’t allowed to go out for a pass on a pass play as this would be too

many receivers down field and cost your team yards. You could though, have eligible lineman

that could go down field for a pass and you would have to tell the referee before the game that he

was going to be an eligible receiver. Tight Ends, the position I played, are at the very end of a 7-

man front and they were allowed to go out for passes and block which I thought we were very

important to the offense because we could do both, but every position is important on the team.

By the time I was in 6th grade, I had learned every job for each different position on the

offensive and defensive line. I had the most knowledge and experience on my recreational team

in 6th and 7th grade and since our team ran the same plays as the middle school and high school,

just less advanced, it was really easy to adapt to the style when I got the chance to play in the

Page 3: Literacy Narrative Revised #1

future. In 7th grade, my last year of playing with my recreational football team, we made it into

the playoffs without losing a single game in the regular season and we knew we would be a hard

team to beat. I think my favorite thing about the playoffs is that one of the players and one of my

now best friends on the team rented an RV for our away games and all the players would pile in

the RV and ride to the games together.

We beat the first 3 teams in the playoffs, without a problem and then our quarterback got

hurt riding his skateboard during the week right before our last playoff game and it was going to

be at home. My coach knew that I knew every position, every play, every players job at each

position and I was one of the bigger kids on the team, so he put me at quarterback in practice that

Thursday, 2 days before the game and I perfected the position before that 2-hour practice was

over. I probably had to learn the steps to give the running back the ball for at least 45 minutes,

because you have to take certain steps so that way you don’t get into the running backs way

when he goes to the place where he is supposed to run the ball. When the game came Saturday,

the quarterback that played before he got hurt came to me and said, “You got this and even if we

do lose, you were one of the best players I’ve ever played with.” And I went on to the field and

did all that I could to help my team win and we got into the fourth quarter down a score and of

course Cinderella story, won the game with like 40 seconds to go and the other team almost

scored back, but they did not, so we got state trophy medals, which I still have mine somewhere.

I don’t think I will ever forget how cold that day was and how muddy my white jersey got. I

cried from excitement and hugged all of my teammates and a lot of them went to the same

middle school as me and played with me there in 8th grade.

My high school offensive line coach worked with me on the plays that they ran while I

played on the recreation team my 7th grade year. He mostly worked with me because he knew I

Page 4: Literacy Narrative Revised #1

had a lot of potential to be one of the best lineman we were going to have while I was there.

Anything that I ever needed, he would do his best to give to me, anything I needed to know or

didn’t understand, he would try to explain to me and he was basically like a father to me and I

still talk to him like everyday to this day. He played football in college as a lineman and he

didn’t go to the NFL, but he came back to the school he graduated from and coached me and the

other lineman. He taught Civics and Economics to me my senior year and during class he would

always tell a story that me and him had to the students or just make fun of my voice, because I

have a really high pitch voice for a teenage boy, but I love him and I will never forget all he has

done for me. I will never forget something he said to me while we were having an afternoon

session one day, he said, “Romelo, no matter what happens, if you get hurt, if we suck, if you

don’t like anyone on the team, you have to set the example for all the guys in and out of school.

You can’t be like everyone else, and you can’t let other people bring you down. We are going to

need you to be the voice and leader of our team while you are here and you will have a huge

impact every season you are here.”

I played for our middle school team my 8th grade year and was already put into a

leadership role, with being named the lineman captain. We didn’t get playbooks and were just

taught our plays in practice that we had and a lot of the guys didn’t know the rules and what

different fronts meant or how to block them, so with the knowledge I gathered from my sessions

with the high school offensive line coach, I offered help to the guys on my team after practice. I

just drew up different fronts for our offensive line to see with the basic x’s and o’s and

considering which play we were running how each one of us would block it up. Some of the

guys were amazed that I knew so much and at their position and I just preached to them that once

you learn even and odd that it will become way easier to understand and all of them would be

Page 5: Literacy Narrative Revised #1

able to play each separate positon on the line. At the time, they didn’t know what even and odd

meant because it was how the offensive line in high school split the defense and knew who to

double team and who not to double team, also depending on how well the player was.

Recreational and Middle school football was a much slower paced game then it was when I got

into playing high school football. I played one year on the Junior Varsity team at my high school

and I think they kept me on JV that year so I can adjust to how different high school football was

then anything I had ever played before and it was.

I wasn’t the best player, I wasn’t even the best lineman when I was there, I wasn’t the

biggest, strongest, or fastest, but how much I knew and how hard I worked made me stand out

more than a lot of the other guys on my team that were more talented and athletic than I was. We

were issued playbooks and every play in the playbook we went over in practice and if you didn’t

exactly understand the rules and your job on the play, the playbook explained it to you by your

position. After a week of having the playbook I learned every positions job on each play in the

playbook and when we would run a play in practice and someone wouldn’t know what to do, I

could tell them before anyone else and it was a lot of what my coach meant when he said I had to

be a leader and take control. Even in certain classes, I would stay after practice and help some of

the guys that weren’t quite as smart as me to understand the information they were being taught.

I even helped some of the seniors out with their work for some of their classes they were in.

As I progressed through the year and took weightlifting as a class, I just could feel myself

getting bigger and smarter and I really liked it. Sophomore year I was lucky and got moved up to

play with the Varsity team, I wont lie and truthfully say that I did not play rarely any minutes,

unless we were just killing a team and our coach put everyone in. But that year I think I learned

the most of any year, because I was able to see how fast Varsity High School football was and

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how serious it was. I don’t think there is any other feeling of nervousness than running out on a

Friday night under the lights, it is absolutely my favorite feeling and senior year at every home

game I was the first one to run out and the ovation of the crowd was so amazing.

I was a started at tight end my junior and varsity year and we made it to the second round

of the playoffs both years and we lost to the same team. My junior year I am convinced that we

had a better team than we did my senior year, but in my senior year we won the Conference

Championship for the first time in over 20 years and being apart of that group with a lot of the

guys I won the state championship with was so special to me. Walking under the bleachers

waiting for the smoke to shoot up at me and hearing our fans chant and 300 violin orchestra play

for the last time was one of the most depressing feelings I had ever felt before in my life and

playing in my last high school football game and losing broke my heart and all I remember was

running over to my coach and crying my eyes out right on the sideline in front of everyone with

no care in the world on who saw me. And now I want to be a football coach just like the one that

I had, so I can impact peoples’ life, just like mine did with me, and I still have to stay literate in

the sport and continue learning the different changes that are made.