Confessions of A Back-Up

Hello...My name is Ricky and I was a career back-up. 

Face it, being a back-up on the high school football team is not the life.  Most of the time it meant going through all of the team's running and conditioning,  holding dummies, and getting pounded by the starters while manning the "scout" team and....doing a lot of standing around on Friday nights.  While the starters picked up the cheerleaders after the game, we back-ups usually had to pick up the cups and Gatorade. 

The one bright spot to this was that I was not alone.  In fact, I was part of an even more tightly knit team than the varsity itself.  I was a member of the "sideline crew."  The sideline crew was a band of misfits that had been cursed with either an early maturing stud in front of them or some combination of poor genetics and attitude when it came to football.  While we were all different, we had two goals that we all hoped to achieve every Friday night. The first was to not fall down while running through the sign (embarrassing even within sideline crew circles).  The second was to somehow make a big play that got us noticed.  Often this meant jumping onto the pile at the end of a tackle or faking an injury late in the game so that the PA announcer would call out our name.  Occasionally though, one of the sideline crew members would find themselves in a situation to make an even bigger play that was actually meaningful in the game.  Although it did not happen often, when it did, we all took some joy in the event even if we hadn't been the one who had actually made the play.  All for one and one for all.

It is because of this, that I read with great delight about Belton's Ryan Stinson and Carlo Mosnia's efforts on Friday in the Tigers victory over Ellison.  Mosnia, who came into the game after an injury to starting kicker Tyler Pate, kicked a 31 yard field goal late in the fourth quarter to give Belton the lead.  The victory was cemented when Stinson, who was in for injured linebacker Tyler Vail, recovered a fumble with 52 seconds remaining to seal the victory and put the Tigers in great position for their second straight playoff birth.

Speaking for the millions of members of "sideline crews" throughout history.....Thanks for making our week!