Anyone play(ed) football at one point?

#2
#2
Played Pop Warner football when I was 8 years old. Broke my left forearm in practice. Dad said that was it for football. I started playing soccer in the early 60s. Continued to do that in various informal groups until high school. The administration wouldn’t let us form a soccer club unless we cut our hair. I joined the band.
 
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#3
#3
Pop Warner. JV. Varsity (kinda*). Army MWR lol

*Missed a year due to a shoulder injury that required surgery (against my old HS my Soph year). Tried to return my SR year but had already "joined" the Army. Got a good stinger on the same shoulder, and that was it.

I did play the MWR sponsored flag football leagues for the majority of my Army career.
 
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#6
#6
Tin Man said:
Played Pop Warner football when I was 8 years old. Broke my left forearm in practice. Dad said that was it for football. I started playing soccer in the early 60s. Continued to do that in various informal groups until high school. The administration wouldn’t let us form a soccer club unless we cut our hair. I joined the band.
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Hippy.
Where did you go to HS?
 
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#9
#9
I played! I had the build of any classic slot-back! And, I had the speed of a typical right tackle! And, yes, in a big game, I did block a punt ... although, I was playing center at the time. 🤔 True story.
 
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#13
#13
JV. We had a rather large and who's who HS down in Griffin, GA in my day. Was trying out for Varsity in 10th grade and got dizzy doing suicides and try to hold back my next rotation to get my wits and got yelled at. "What are you gonna do in the State Championship, get dizzy and come off the field?" "No! We don't run suicides during a game!" Well, that got my name on the yellow legal pad and I never made the team again after several attempts. They never discarded those yellow pads either. If you ever got on it, you never made it past week 1 cuts ever again. I was a starting receiver and #2 corner at the time before my demise. But, I was also undersized at the time. 5'9" and 150 lbs. And not much heavier graduating college. Upside is I was lightening fast in my day for a white boy. I could turn sub-22's in the 220 sprint. Our coach back then was Brian Bohannan's dad. (Former Kennesaw State coach), and he was an old fashioned brutal tyrant. But, we played good football and put alot of players into college and pros.

I did however participate in a lot of brutal no pad pick up games and have some lingering aches and a crooked finger as a result.

I did hate it for Bohannon though when his KSU coaching ended. He was 72-38 overall with 4 FCS playoffs. Then the university made the decsion to go FBS and have never competed well since. Their decline was more in tune with their FBS quest than his coaching, but he got cornered for it. And he had been their only coach since they only started fielding football in 2015 and he immediatly started making post season trips.
 
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#14
#14
JV and HS. Small school ball. Junior year we had 13 starters. I started at TE, but was the first sub on defense, regardless of position. Had a game where I played three defensive positions on successive plays, CB (normal position), DT and ILB. Actually recovered a fumble that led to game winning score as the LB.

Sr year, nine seniors accounted for sixteen starting positions. In the two years, we lost a total of two games. Had a lot of fun.
 
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#15
#15
Played from age 6 through freshman year in college. My Sr. year I was starting at WR, DB, Kick returner, Punt returner, Punter and Gunner on kick-off team. Needless to say we were a small school of about 50 kids who played. Played a year at Tennessee Tech and decided the grind was not worth it as I went to field at 1:30 and got back to dorm around 7:30. Coached my sons from flag through middle school and was probably the most rewarding thing I've ever done. One of the kids on the team told my son years after I coached him that he appreciated how I pushed him to always be better - I've never received a better compliment!
 
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#17
#17
jps2194 said:
Played from age 6 through freshman year in college. My Sr. year I was starting at WR, DB, Kick returner, Punt returner, Punter and Gunner on kick-off team. Needless to say we were a small school of about 50 kids who played. Played a year at Tennessee Tech and decided the grind was not worth it as I went to field at 1:30 and got back to dorm around 7:30. Coached my sons from flag through middle school and was probably the most rewarding thing I've ever done. One of the kids on the team told my son years after I coached him that he appreciated how I pushed him to always be better - I've never received a better compliment!
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This reminded me of two stories from coaching midget league in Hawkinsville, Georgia. Most teams in those age groups, the offense consisted of reverses and handoffs to the best athlete on the team, I.e., not much in the way of offensive planning.

My team ran the power I. So one night we come from behind to beat the 1st place team in league. The other team was QB’d by the grandson of middle Georgia coaching legend, Bobby Gentry, a fine man and gentleman. When we made our comeback, we brutalized the other team. We ran that power I to almost perfection. After the game, Coach Gentry came up to me and said, “Y’all ran an actual offense tonight.” That was quite the compliment.

The second one is amusing. Good friend of mine was coaching the 10-11 year olds, while I was coaching in the 12-13s. Anyway, during All-star time (I was assistant and DC), we had a scrimmage between the two all star teams.

Charles Johnson was 11 years old.
Yes, that Charles Johnson. LED Hawkinsville to the class A state title, second team all SEC at Georgia and played 11 years for Carolina.

He single-handedly destroyed the 12-13 year old offense in that scrimmage.
 
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