Fred was a very average normal 18 year old student at Mountain View high school, or at least most people think he is.  Fred is 5’10”  220 pound running back who is a total beast.  Now that is the other side that his close friends and team know and that is the more true side.  Fred is on the Mountain View “Wolverines” or MVHS varsity football team which is in Park City, UT.  They are probably one of the smallest high schools in the country with 340 people enrolled there.  But their football team and Fred make up for it. 
They are ranked number 2 in the nation for football, they had a heart breaking loss last year in the championship against SSHS or South Shore high school out of Miami, FL.  They were winning ever game by at least 20 points and South Shore barely made it in but MVHS lost 27-14.  Sure they had some great athletes but what was so good about them thought Fred, he never could figure out why they barely made it in but still whupped our butts.  We were completely ready for that game but we lost.   Maybe it was their three 352 pound lineman who played on both sides of the ball.
  Well Fred wasn’t going to let that happen this year he has been training all offseason and has gain 20 pounds of muscle so now he's 240 pounds and he runs the 40 meter dash in 4.1 seconds so he is a monster now and no one can stop him.  They also have Bill the 6’6” 215 pound wide receiver who can catch anything, Jimmy the 6’1” 190 pound quarterback who can hit a fly with a football from 100 yards away, and Timothy the 6’6” 290 pound tight end who also can run fullback and will run over anyone.   The Wolverines also have a great shutout defense with the captain of them, the 5’10” 180 pound cornerback who seems small but is insanely fast and smart and had 16 picks last year and saved the game about 25 times his name is Jake. Were stacked with great athletes who have been playing together since pre school but we still lost that game.  “Whatever” thinks Fred, he needs to stop being caught up in the past and start worrying about now, about this season. 
Our first opponent was the other big high school team around here that we have a rivalry against, “hardly” thinks Fred because we have beaten them by at least 30 points ever time we play.  But he likes playing them because they get to go through their whole offense and he gets to score a lot.  Also Jake gets to shut them down and get some good stats so it’s good for all of them.  Well the games about to start.
“Are you ready for some Wolverine football” yells the announcer right before the game, everybody is really excited for this game and the kickoff of our new and hopefully improved season.  Then they come out from the tunnel and everybody starts yelling and cheering them on.  The captains go out onto the field (Bill, Jimmy, Fred, and Jake) and we win the toss, we elect to kickoff first so we get the ball in the second half.  The ball is kicked and it’s a booming kick from the guy I forgot to tell you about, his name is Will and the 7 years of travel soccer really shows.  They catch it in the back of the end zone and kneel it.  Their drive starts at the 20 yard line and they throw it deep to their main receiver who is 6’7” but Jake is there to swat it, wait no it’s picked off and he runs it back to the 30 yard line.  “That’s the way to start the season off right” said Fred and Jake was smiling, he was so happy.  Fred thinks to himself “lets do the same thing on offense” first play is a screen pass and it’s knocked down “lets run some, huh Fred” say Jimmy and Fred agrees and is excited.  They run it straight through the middle and I swear Fred broke at least 10 tackles and brings it in for the touchdown.  Fred’s got a big smile on his face because he knows this is going to be a good one, if you take one look on a player on the other teams face is mad and sad because they know this is going to be a long game.  The Wolverines keep scoring and the final score is 54-0, Fred has 4 touchdowns, Jake has 3 picks and lots of touchdown saving swats, and Jimmy threw for 340 yards and 5 touchdowns connecting with Bill 6 times for 2 touchdowns and with Timothy 8 times for 3 touchdowns, what a night. 
Everybody is so pumped up and excited after that shutout and we all are ready for school in the morning.  We go to school and everybody is giving us high-fives and fist bumps and anything else you can think of.  It was a good two days for us.  We continue throughout the season and go 27-0 with no one coming within 10 points of us.  Now it’s playoff time, and were going in with the number 1 seed.  Were all excited then we see Benny, the quarterback and free safety of the South Shore Sea lions and he just laughs and we chase him until he hops a fence and runs home to his mommy.  They  all laugh and make jokes like “I think that he ran all the way back to Miami” but why was he here.  That kept Fred up until 4am thinking about that. 
It was 7am, Fred was tired but he knew he had to get up so he did and went to school still thinking about what had just happened.  He passes the field like he always does before school, but this time he noticed something strange.  He walks up and sees that somebody spray painted the field goal posts.  That made him so mad because he knew it was Benny.  It said “Wolverines suck, Wolverines will lose” and other stuff that was even worse.  The first game of the playoffs was a blowout and we won handily 67-3.  We keep playing through these games like there is no challenge winning them by sometimes 50 points then we get to the finals and guess who were playing.  Except this time we have the home field advantage well at least where were playing is closer to home than last year. 
The Wolverines start off strong and are only down 17-13 at the half.  “Were doing better lets keep it up guys” says Fred and Jimmy says “We want this one and we won’t back down from this, lets go out there and work 115% lets go” he yelled then Jake said.   “ Never quit on 3” then the team says “1” “2” “3” “NEVER QUIT”.  
We go out and take it to them getting an early score to go up by 3 but they hit the field goal to tie it.  It’s the fourth quarter and it’s been all the defense since the end of the third, nobody scores and it goes into overtime.  Fred knows he’s not gonna let this one slip away since it’s so close and he also knows this is his senior year so this is the last time he will play with these guys and with this team. 
Fred goes out there and the next plays to him it’s fourth down and 6 yards to the first down.  It’s a sweep to the right side and he gets the ball, breaks some tackles, and turns the corner, no one can stop him going full speed, then there is Benny.  Standing right in front of Fred waiting to make the tackle with a mean look in his eyes.  Fred sees him and all the hatred from the past 3 years and the spray paint cycled into this hit and Fred trucks Benny into the air and runs for a touchdown.  Benny is lying on the field unconscious and the medical staff rushes out onto the field.  “TOUCHDOWN” yells the announcer “WOLVERINES WIN” “WOLVERINES WIN” everybody is yelling and screaming with joy.  What a hit by Fred and it turns out Benny got a major concussion, 3 broken ribs, a shattered elbow, and a broken tibia.  He was a mess.  He will never play football again, it was a shame, he was a great athlete.  Fred thinks to himself “Karma” and “that’s what you get when you mess with me before a football game.
That was the best day of Fred, the football team and my life.  Time to talk about myself, I’m Barry the school reporter/writer for Mountain View high school and this was the most memorable moment in my entire life.  I’m 35 years old and I’m still friends with a lot of them but most of them are in the NFL so I don’t get to see them much but it’s definitely worth the isolation.  Fred has gone on to set lots of records in the NFL, including most rushing yards in a season (3,122), most yards per rush average (10.1), and longest run ever (106yards), oh yea and the most rushing touchdowns in a season (54).