Luckily, I brought my very nice, professional sized football. I threw the ball around with a few of the guys and I was aching to play a game. Even after all the guy's showed up, most of them were pretty iffy on whether they were going to play or not. We had more than enough people but I just kind of gave up on trying to organize something.
Oddly enough, it was not until we started playing volleyball the football talk started up again(you know, I had been deprived of volleyball for almost five hours by this point). I was glad we played volleyball though. Normally, it is hard to play with friends just because its difficult to adjust to the climate. Not playing with intensity can sometimes be impossible for me. But, luckily, that was not true today. It was pretty cool just hitting the ball over randomly and since I have been having practice everyday, it was a nice change of pace.
And now I admire beach volleyball pros more than ever. I wonder how they can still jump so high in the sand. They must have some powerful legs.
At any rate, we ended up deciding to play football. It took us about twenty minutes just to get going but whatever. At least we played. I had been waiting to play all day. It was fairly interesting. My team was undermanned the whole game and no one ever wanted to play on the offensive line. On many plays we only had the center. At least the other team always had fives guys on the line, protecting against every blitzer(though I still managed to get a sack).
But apparently I have not gotten over my habit of ripping peoples shirts. Let me jog my memory(I may have more, but these ones stick out in my mind):
- 7th grade P.E. flag football. I cannot remember the victim. I know I did but the details are fuzzy. It was so long ago...
- 8th grade intramural flag football. Victim: Ryan Plunkett. He was running and I missed the flag but got his shirt. I ripped his P.E. shirt and then managed to get his flag.
- 8th grade intramural flag football. Victim: Cameron Bedard. On a run play, I came around behind him and missed the flag but got his shirt. Now for the sad part. I stretch his P.E. shirt, completely disfiguring it but then HE GETS AWAY. I was just sitting on the ground very frustrated with myself.
- 10th grade P.E. flag football. Victim: William Nguyen. Alright now this one was almost surreal. We were doing a drill where a guy runs down a track of people who will try to pull his flag as he goes by. Simple enough. So as he goes past me, I reach out with my hand to grab his flag. But instead of getting his flag, I somehow dug two fingers into the shirt and came out with a large chunk of it. He was so surprised the guy behind him grabbed his flag easy. I didn't realize I had such strength.
- 11th grade bonfire tackle football. Victim: Eric Carpio. Now, I realize if I miss the guy or I hit him and he does not come down, then I should not pull his shirt when we are just out to have fun. But sadly, I cannot think of these small details when I attempt to bring someone to the ground. So as I tackled him, his shirt ripped and I think a bit of it came out and is now lost to the ocean. Sorry! I didn't mean to. I only wanted to tackle you.
If only I was bigger then I might have played football. I am a pretty good tackler for my size and also fairly hard to tackle. The final score was 14-7 if I remember correctly, with no scoring after the first two drives on each side. The other team gave up a few interceptions(I had one of them) and our team had no offensive line and kept turning the ball over on downs.
But my pride from this event comes from a single play. We were at the thirty yard line(these numbers are, of course, relative) and Andrew Park was quarterbacking. Playing wide receiver, as soon as he hiked the ball, I took a step back from the line of scrimmage and he threw me the ball. I then took the ball all the way down the field for a touchdown. I broke around eleven tackles(I may be exaggerating but it sure seemed like that many when I was running) which probably isn't impressive because only about five people on either side can actually tackle(I will demonstrate I can if necessary). I just sprinted past them and if they managed to wrap their arms around me, since they do this weird wrap around tackle instead of actually hitting the guy, I just shoved them off and kept running. It was so awesome.
Sorry, but it's my blog. Go figure.
We called the game for darkness and everyone just chilled afterward. I was pretty tired, especially after having gone to practice already.
But it was so much fun. It is nice to just go down to the beach and play with your friends. It was a nice addition to my spring break, an overall good experience.
Oh, and UCLA advanced to the elite eight. Awesome.
-Seth
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