Personal Statement

Soft helmets, cold bleachers, running from the Chick-Fil-A cow under bright lights on a Friday night. Those are my first memories of football. At 3 and 4 years old my mother would bring me to the Ardrey Kell High School Stadium to watch my uncle play football. I always wanted to wear my soft helmet football uniform my mother bought for me so that I could be like my uncle on the sideline tackling imaginary opposition and running with the football from the Chick-Fil-A cow who scared me into the end zone at the end of the bleachers. I was first exposed to football on the Ardrey Kell field and now 12 years later it has become my sanctuary. My passion for football grew from those early days watching others play. I learned to read defenses and various other plays while playing the game of Madden and watching NFL teams on tv until I was old enough to get on the field and put all I had learned from watching others to the test. At age 6 I began my football career in Pop Warner’s Tiny Mites team under the leadership of Coach Lance Rucks who helped set a solid foundation in football, who helped me hone my skills and taught me an appreciation for every position on the field. This early start helped me to increase my football IQ, field vision, and ball handling skills. Moving on to playing on the middle school team under Coach Raymond Franks, where I learned to leave it all on the field, give 100%, 100% of the time, and be someone that my team could depend on. Football introduced me to a world much greater than myself. Football has taught me how to work hard, dig deep, and give my all to something. Football inspired in me a leadership spirit; to help my teammates and others, the ability to be coachable; understanding that I can learn from any and every situation on and off the field, and a mental toughness that grew from adversity, sparked by my integrity, honor, respect, and my love for the sport. Now as a rising high school senior, I have won the Knights Defensive Player Award, 2 Defensive Player of the year awards, and I was named to 2 leadership conferences. I was second in the conference for interceptions as a sophomore. I will be a 4-year Varsity letterman come my senior year in both Football and Track and Field. I also volunteer in the community, work within my church, and work hard while in school. I work very hard to find a balance between them all. In college I want to major in Business, attend a school that will give me an excellent education, and represent that school to the best of my ability in the football uniform on Saturday.