Your Football Fanatic
August 21st, 2007 Posted in Florida Sports, High School Sports, High School FootballBill Demkoff wasn’t just the biggest guy on the team. He was also the wildest. He was our own 6-5 rock star, complete with the long, stringy hair so common to ’80s hair bands.
The first day of summer practice, Demkoff paused during morning warm-ups and let go of his breakfast. That was when I knew I was in the wrong place. Freshman football was for men, and I was just a 14-year-old boy with a Dallas Cowboys coat and a Joe Montana rookie card.
Today, I’m a happily married 34-year-old father of two. Life is good here in Central Florida, but I’ve never regretted anything as much as walking off that football field without ever playing a single down. Today, I understand that the football field is where bonds are forged, where tears are shed and where boys become men. Sports are the stories of life, all wrapped neatly in a single season of nine or 16 or 162 games and topped with a bow we call championships.
I never made a single tackle, but a tingling sensation takes over every time I walk onto the sidelines under the lights. I can sense that something magical is in the air, something that will change lives both for the good and the bad. It’s why I tell the stories, a deacon constantly spinning new yarns and hoping on-so-much that it will never end.
For 10 years, I’ve been writing stories of wakeboarders who crash and burn and rise again, fishermen who win bass boats on the lake the same weekend they were supposed to be shopping for one in the city, of boys who play four games with dad watching, four more with him in the hospital and then one final home game the day after saying goodbye.
From T-Ball to the Daytona 500, the best stories are out there, just waiting to be uncovered. My only hope? To unwrap a few and share them with you here. I hope you enjoy our inaugural year.
Have an idea? A beef? A BBQ recipe? I’d love to hear from you. Send it to me at rwhite3135@cfl.rr.com.
