Walking into the field house that Friday night, the last Friday of my senior footballseason, got to me a bit. All my life I've been told how fast this season wouldgo, but I didn't believe it until now. Though I was excited, I was feeling sad,for this would be the last time I played football as a Marlow Outlaw. I realizedthis could either be the worst day of my life, or one of the best.

Whenwe pulled up to our opponent's field, we all were pretty excited about the game,though we weren't saying much. There wasn't a person in the locker room whodidn't look focused. Coach gave his pre-game speech, we recited the Lord'sPrayer, and flew from the locker room onto the field.

Excitementincreased as game time neared. Finally kick-off time came. The game startedgreat; we had chosen to receive the ball. They forced us to punt, but their puntreturner fumbled and we got the ball deep in Owls' territory. We could not,however, take advantage of the turnover, and were forced to punt again. That wasthe start of one of the worst played halves I have ever experienced. Ouropponents were slaughtering us with a score of 28-7 at halftime.

As wecame out of the locker room for the start of the second half, our team lookeddifferent. We were on a mission and nothing was going to stand in our way. Weplayed like champions. We left it all out there on that field. We ended up comingback and winning by two touchdowns. It was the greatest feeling of mylife.

Even though we were three wins and seven losses for the year, wewalked off that day feeling like champions. The best explanation I can give wouldhave to be the motto, "No one can do it alone, but together we can doit." We did play together that gloomy night, and we conquered a possiblehuge defeat.

It was sad walking off a field for that last time, but Iwouldn't have wanted it to end any other way. We were champions, and it feltawesome. We had done something no one thought we could do.

As I lookback on that Friday night, I see a band of brothers who pulled together toaccomplish something great. No, we did not win state, we didn't even make theplayoffs.

Sure, those things would have been great, and I take nothingaway from the teams that accomplished those feats. For our team, we had our statechampionship game that night. I will remember it as long as I live. We becamewinners not because we won, but because we played.