Well, today was the big day for all those dreamers who imagine themselves dancing down the sideline of Lavell Edwards Stadium for a sixty-yard touchdown. That's right, today was the big day for walk-ons. Last fall I had an inkling that it would be fun to go and tryout for football team. My friend Stephen Glenn and I looked like misfits at the tryouts. We both wore soccer cleats (that's all we had), soccer pants, and we were probably the only receivers without gloves. I lasted for about the first 15 minutes. After that I started to taste blood in the back of my throat. Everybody who has been out of shape and tried to put your body through a rigorous workout can relate to that taste. I felt like I was going to die if I didn't get a drink of water, and I think I was the only guy out of a hundred that was hunched over with hands on knees after doing the initial warm-ups. Needless to say, I wasn't the prospect they were looking for.
The tryout was definitely not a waste of time for any big time BYU fan though. I got to catch balls from the up and coming Cade Cooper who hopes to be BYU's next great at the QB position. I also got to catch some balls from former BYU great Brandon Doman as he showed his young apprentices how to put the ball on the money. It was an honor to be at the receiving end of his perfectly timed tosses.
I don’t know what I would have done had they offered me a position on the team, because of the time commitment. The tryout was more or less just for me. I have always dreamed of playing college football- maybe in the next life. For now I will be content with cheering on my team from the sideline.
10 comments:
There once was a day when I drempt of being a BYU cheerleader. I went through the entire try-out process which lasted for a week- the same week as the SF ambassadors' trip to Missouri. I bypassed the ambassadors trip to try out, only to realize on the first day of try-outs that it was not for me. That was a good realization.
I'm proud of you Jonny.
hey jonny: i too have always dreamed of being a college cheerleader; however, because of silly gender stereotypes and biases, my dream still lies dormant in longing-for-cheerleading heart.
what did the warm ups consist of, exactly?
sounded like fun--i love the taste of bile in the back of my throat. congrats on a job well done (you know skinny tried out when we were freshman?)
you're an inspiration to us all jonny!
If eternal life is about eternal progression... perhaps your dream will be realized, if only for a split second.
Instead of being the football/cheerleader pair, Jonny had to propose to Mel at the high school instead of on camera after a Bowl win... but that's okay.
Yes... tell us more about the process. What warm-ups? Were you divided into positions? Who else did you see? Did you tell Coach Bronco that we're all so proud of him?? etc. etc...
I'm disappointed the picture wasn't of you in your soccer cleats. How did Stephen Glenn do??
I just told Michael and he said he wants to go back to BYU to try to be a football player too. Maybe we'll wait a few years.
The warm-ups consisted of sprints and other drills that you see football players doing before games. That's right, I was exhausted after the "pre-game" warm-ups.
Amy: All the coaches were there except Bronco. Unfortunately I wasn't able to tell Bronco that we're all very proud of him. We did break up into positions, and I went with the receivers. The guys that were in my group had probably been working for months to get ready for these tryouts. They definitely deserved to be called back. There were a few who were pretty talented, and it will be fun to see if they end up getting any playing time.
Stephen Glen did pretty well for never having played high school football. They never had us run a 40, so they didn't really get to see his speed. I was pretty disappointed that we didn't run a 40, because I wanted to see what my time would have been in comparison to some of the guys on the team.
I thought about taking a camara to the try-outs to document my adventures, but I didn't. I thought it might be a little over board.
You can always tell your kiddos that you tried out for Bronco's BYU team.
jonny.
that's freaking rad!
i'm jealous.
how's the mcat prep going? april right?
good show.
eckhart's a mormon.
sometimes i miss provo and sometimes i don't--but mostly i do.
wha?! give me his name, i'll kill him!
ok maybe not. but i'll send ike and nick down on him. that's actually pretty funny, i've never really seen abby with boys.
and good luck with the mcat prep. sucks you guys have to do physics...
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