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To your right, you'll see a picture of me wearing a white Under Armour head band, white jersey with purple trim, and a tear running down my face. Yes, I cried in 2003 after we (Elder High School) won the Division 1 Ohio High School State Championship. It was the sweetest feeling. Well worth the tears that I shed and well worth the hard work, bumps, bruises, sweat lost, and blood shed that season. We had won the state championship the previous season and it was great but there was something about the fact that we had gone back and done it again.

Elder High School had been playing high school football for over 80 years with out a high school state championship under our belt. In 2002, my junior season, we went up north and came back with our first ever state championship. In 2003, no one said we would repeat. The critics told us we had lost to much talent and too many seniors from the previous year. We didn't listen to them though, just kept our focus. Our team motto was "One game at a time." We knew that had to be our mindset all season because of all the talk of how we could or couldn't repeat as state champions. We didn't want to get caught looking ahead and lose the games that really mattered, the only one that truly matters, which is the one you are playing in at the time.

Anyways, long story short, we did it. We went back up north and kicked butt the whole way up and came home, back to back state champions. We had to make a statement to our critics that no individual player made up our team, we all played together, and that's why we were champions. Plug and chug, spill and fill, sounds simple right?

We weren't always the fastest or the strongest team on the field but we always had the most will, determination, and heart.

Still hasn't truly sunk in how big of a feat what we did as team truly was and is. I'm sure the older we get, the better the stories will get, and the better we will feel about that amazing season we had together as Panthers in 2003.

If you want to know more about that season just comment and I'll gladly answer any questions in my upcoming posts.