With the beginning of school came the newest additions to the Midgets, a group of kids with big hearts and a lot of grit; but, many had never played football before. The schedulers were not kind, pitting the Red Devils against the top three teams in the league in their first three games. In those three losses, the Midgets learned what it meant to play as a team and decided that those three games would not dictate the rest of their season. Practice was different; they ran a little faster, hit a little harder, and were quick to encourage each other. They policed themselves when someone wasn't hustling or giving 100%, and they weren't always polite to each other about it. There were a lot of high fives, and the older kids were quick to put their arms around the gritty newcomers and bring them into the Midget football family.
Coaches were smiling and nodding their heads, and parents were hugging their kids after practice to reward their efforts; the players sensed that they had rounded the corner, and they wanted to get better and for the scoreboard to reflect the hard work that they had put in for the past several months.
In the next three games, the Midgets turned their season around with dominating wins against East Limestone 2, Tanner, and Clements. Their last game - against the West Limestone Wildcats - would determine whether they would have a winning or losing record. Looking at the scoreboard, the Midgets lost their last game to West by the score of 20-0.
The Wildcats were just too big and too fast. But, watching the Red Devils play, everyone who had followed them all year long knew that they really were winners despite what the scoreboard showed. Opposing coaches complimented our coaches and players at the end of the game on how much they had improved following those miserable first three games.
Even the game announcer said after the game that, while he couldn't say it while he was announcing, he had seen (and heard) some of the hardest hits of the 2013 season by Elkmont in that last game against West. When it would have been easier to fold after beginning 0-3, the Midgets decided to fight instead and finished the season 3-4.
A group of kids who started the season getting to know each other ended the season as a team that played with pride and intensity - a truly special group of kids that was proud to wear Elkmont's colors. The best way to describe their play is that they played like they didn't want to disappoint each other. A lot of words can be used to describe this year's team - hungry, intense, gritty, hard-hitting, relentless, passionate. But, at the end of the day, they are just a group of kids who played a game they love, for a group of coaches they would go to the end of the earth for, with kids who would become their closest friends; and they became a really good team in the process. By any measure, that is a winning season.
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