BY LIAM KEITH

As a senior in high school, you find yourself doing a lot of your lasts. Not that these things will be the last time you do it, but it’ll be the last time you do things as a traditional public school student. Friends are lost and usually most students end up living on a campus several miles away from where they call home. The people forgotten in these scenarios are the athletes who will play for the Friday Night Lights for their final time. Whether they begin to start an athletic collegiate career, or they decide that their last snap of football will be in high school. The feeling must be surreal not performing in front of a true “home” crowd, where you see all the people in the stands Friday night in the hallways on Friday morning. What happens to those who give up the sport, or those who have to dive into a new program and live away from home for the first time in their lives?

Addressing seniors whose last game is impending is hard, a sport they’ve given their summers to working towards. Students have given up their summer in exchange for a sport with high risk and low reward. Many athletes are constantly expected to go to summer workouts and different camps, senior Anthony Ulberg said, “I haven’t had a summer since sophomore year.” Most may scoff at some highschooler saying this without realizing the real implications of this statement. According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in nine and a half months “1,044 hours of instruction is required.” During the period school is open, about 15% of your time is spent in the classroom. For example, here at Truman if you are slated with a full schedule you will spend seven hours and 45 minutes at the high school, which roughly equates to a third of your day at school alone. These figures do not include time for homework, extracurricular activities, and jobs.

Many may ask what are you giving up by playing your last year of football. As senior Javier Mendoza said, “[There’s] nothing like the euphoria in the Friday night lights.” The constant attention from a fan base of people you know. FNL is where stars are created, players feel like they have to put on a show to perform at a certain level. While there is pressure it must be a good feeling, almost an addicting feeling Ulberg said, “ I’ll miss it.” Players will reminisce this feeling while they decide their futures. Most football players’ friend groups are determined by who they meet through football and because of football. The identity of a football player has been long established in many films and television shows, however, it isn’t as exaggerated as they all wear letterman jackets and they feel like they’re above anyone. 

Most seniors will move on to their colleges, as they will tediously comb through details that determine their choice of applications. Some do trades or determine that part time work is what they will choose to do for the rest of their lives. Most of the football players fall into this category and a minority become athletes in college giving even more of their life to the sport. In the perfect world everyone could play their sport professionally, sadly this isn’t a possibility for most.