It’s the end of another season around here. We watched our last Friday night lights football game cheering on our favorite OLine man #79 — it’s gonna be a novel so keep scrolling (@deadnutquaileye 😉).
Payton has learned so much over the last four years playing for this team. There were games when he was a freshman that I would come home frustrated because he hardly got time on the field. That changed the next year when our man child was given the chance to play at the varsity level due to an injury of one of his teammates. Thanks to coaches and upperclassmen he learned to love this game and how to be a better player.
He started this year playing center and moved his way around the line to left guard, right guard and left tackle, filling holes where they were needed when teammates were sick or injured.
This team has seen everything this year and there were so many unexpected twists and turns that I wouldn’t have seen coming. They were ranked 1st in region at the start and did so well in their preseason games. It all changed when two of their key players were injured in a region game and handed the team their first loss. They traveled to Cedar and won the next week but after that they suffered the loss of another player that quit the team, leaving the boys to find a new way to play and win. It would take three more region losses before they were able to find a groove that handed them a much needed win and their chance to continue to play towards a state title. They called it a revenge tour because they would be playing the same teams that beat them in region play.
Their game against the undefeated region champs and the #1 ranked team in 4a was one of the most memorable moments of watching them play. They battled like I had never seen them before and came out with a win in the final seconds of the game.
Things didn’t go their way this last Friday night and the revenge tour ended in a loss eliminating them from going any further.
I’m going to miss yelling for these boys even though I knew they couldn’t hear me. Truth be known I probably wouldn’t know these boys with their helmets off and the numbers off their chest and backs but you bet I know that line of brothers Payton fought in the trenches with game after game. Life of an OLine mom.
