Freshman vs. Varsity football

The contrast between the Freshman and Varsity Football teams at South is truly mind-blowing, while there are some similarities, the differences you simply will not believe. 

Varsity football players at South tended to receive fewer injuries than the Freshman team.

 “I’ve gotten two concussions, a dislocated shoulder, pulled my rotator cuff, and I still come back every week,” said Mason Slayden, 9. 

Whereas Junior Ben Murray has only gotten his fingers stuck in his helmet with no major injuries. 

“Infamously, Beasant dropped a bottle of salad cream in the kitchen and tried to control it with his barefoot.the bottle tore a tendon in his big toe and the stopper missed two months of the season.”  This is a crazy injury that happened to Dave Beasant from mirror.co.uk.

The difference between the time consumption of the teams shows how much time varsity football really takes up. All of the interviewees were asked if they spend too much time focusing on football, rather than spending that quality time with their family and at home.

 “Yes, I only get to see my parents for about an hour after practice, eat dinner, do homework, then go to bed,” said Brock Ivy, 12. Most of the players after games (if they win) celebrate their win in the locker room with their friends and then go home and go to bed. 

All of the Freshmen said they would keep their football schedules as the balance between home and football is good enough for them.

 “I be chillin, we ain’t even do anything just go into our separate rooms unless my mama wanna go to a movie,” said Mekhi Ashby.

It was a very common aspect of the football players to be inspired by relatives to play. 

“My mom, she suggested it because I wasn’t gonna play because I really don’t care but she wanted me to so I did,” said Damari Ardrey, 9.

Another example of how people-based playing football off of family influence is when Cameron Gillespie said, 

“My older brothers both played, and I idolized them, so I started playing to be like them.” 

Playing Football for South definitely puts pressure on the individual because they are representing an entire high school. 

“Yeah, I guess. It’s more like a job to improve because you have the school behind you” said Dylan Love, 9.

The senior varsity quarterback, Matthew Suchanisk said having the school behind you makes it more pressuring to play better, but it makes the game more fun in the long run.

The majority of the players started playing football at a young age, usually around kindergarten through second grade, however, some of the freshman and varsity players just started playing last year from their friends telling them they should. 

Slayden and Suchanisk agreed that football is family, quoting Slayden saying “Football is family, we’re family” that’s the truth about the team, its all or nothing.

Even though there are conflicts among the freshman team, it is still a rare occurrence that the players hold grudges. 

Grant Dunnaway said that there has been some issues on the team with offensive words people have said, that is the biggest conflict of the season. Dunnaway also stated that they all took sides in the beginning, but once the problem was worked out, they knew it wasn’t necessary to continue to argue and stayed the joined, committed team they know they are.

All of the football players agreed that they had athletically improved since joining the team from all of the practice, training, and games. 

Gillispie talked about how the training so consistently builds up your body because of how much they practice every single day. 

When the varsity players were asked, Is playing football on the varsity team different from playing on the freshman team, it really was the same answer all around.
“Yeah, but not as different as you would expect. Obviously the crowd is the biggest difference,” said Gillispie. 

Going to a freshman game is way different than a varsity home game because more of the school is interested in watching the older boys play to represent the wholes school rather than watching the Freshman team who really only represent the freshman team.

The players were asked if they get nervous before each game, and although the most popular response is “yes, before every game” among the freshman, there were some who begged to differ. 

“Once you hit someone, it’s game time,” said Carson Mattson, 9. “The adrenaline is like no other sport,” said Austin Cummings, 9. “It’s a whole different experience being out there,” said Dylan Love, 9. 

The varsity side to being nervous was way different, all of the varsity basically said the exact same thing. 

“I really don’t anymore, I get a little anxious, but that’s it.” Said Gillispie. 

It is clear that there are very broad differences between the varsity and freshman football teams at South. The varsity players are much more experienced, stabilized with their thoughts, and they know what they want and how to get it. Freshman are more so the babies of the sport right now, and it is probably common for the varsity team to think the freshman have no clue what they’re doing.