One Last Time

Breaking away from the Cubs for a bit here I recently placed a call to my best friend from back home to "remember the good old days".

Patrick and I grew up always playing sports together. He was a year older than me so his senior year was a bittersweet moment for both of us because it was the last time we would be competing on the same field together.

Talking to him brought up so many memories of football, basketball and track that it made both of us realize just how much we miss it. Having been obsessed with the movie Top Gun, Pat nicknamed us Maverick and Goose due to our friendship.

We were always known by parents and friends as the two guys on the team that never quit no matter the score. Pat and I both look back on that now as what made us such good friends.

"I don't really know how we got along so well when you were are darn Hawkeye fan," Pat said.

It's true, we were so different that we worked so well together, on and off the field. We always would challenge each other to be better no matter if it was on the football field, the track or the hardwood.

We would always give each other a hard time for mistakes we made and pushed each other constantly.

"Yeah, you remember when you dropped that sure pick 6 against Guthrie?"

Yeah, I remember it well, but Pat doesn't let me ever attempt to even try and forget it.

No matter what the score was we were always playing to the final whistle and never gave up. It's what made our bond so strong. We both knew we would never let up and let the other one down.

"That's something my mom always would say," Pat said. "She always said that by the end of games you and I seemed to be the only ones still trying, even when we were losing by 40."

Basketball and track were full of moments Pat and I could talk about forever, but the memory that stands out the most was our final football game of his senior year.

We weren't the best team by any means that year. Actually we had a lot of problems! Our starting quarterback got hurt the second game of the year and left us playing an experienced and much less talented quarterback. For most of the year, it was Pat and I continuing to work and never giving up as we suffered devastating loss after loss.

We finally got our quarterback back for the finally three games and were able to put things together on both sides of the ball for the first time all year. Heading into Pat's senior night we were 2-7 and knew this would be the final football game we would ever play together.

We were playing against are biggest rival, the Earlham Cardinals and the game had so much emotion involved in it. We weren't fighting for the playoffs or anything but there was a lot at stake against are rivals and it being the end to our season.

I remember standing there with Pat before we headed down for special teams, "One last time kid".

Pat and I both will always remember this game because our team came out differently than we had all year. We had a different level of emotion that surrounded our team. All the details of the game elude both of our memories to be exactly correct. But we both ended with interceptions against the Earlham quarterback, who ironically became one our good friends now in college.

The one moment that stands out to both of us is that our last football game together, we won. No matter what had happened that year, all of the tough losses and all the sweat and tears that went into trying to get better, it all ended with a W.

I will forever remember the moment in the locker room following the game when Pat didn't want to leave, didn't want to give up the jersey. It was an odd feeling to have as I knew I would have another year to play football. My time wasn't up yet but it seemed as if it was. No longer would I be on the same field as my "wing man". It was almost like it was over for me as well because everything would be different from that point on. The guy who always pushed me every day in practice would no longer be there.

As I was picking up my things and getting ready to head home, I gave Pat a hug and thanked him for all we had done together in football. Our time playing football was up but the memories we had together would live on forever. And so for one last time we were the final people to exit our locker room after the game, not quite wanting it to end so quickly.