The Origin of Unknown Playmaker

November 21st, 2008

CIF Football Playoffs

Eastside High School vs Mira Costa High School

As pregame warmups take place, all of the seniors are being approached by this 1 coach. Focused and ready for attack, my mind is visualizing how i can affect this game from a cornerback position. At the corner of my helmet i notice the coach making his way towards me next. In a short but effective speech, he checks how I’m feeling, tells me how he plans on using me. Then the most memorable words came from his mouth.

Those words threw me off, because I never saw myself as such. But he don’t lie, and he’s a straight shooter kind of coach. 

Fast forward to the end of the season award ceremony. After already winning Special Teams Player of the Year, the coaches present a new award for Hardwork and Dedication throughout the first 4 years of our school’s inception. Again blindsided by someone actually acknowledging the amount of plays I’ve made that seemed to go unnoticed, they call my name. Walking up to the stage the coaches are holding up this vibrant purple and black blank letterman jacket. Which leaves me in disbelief because earlier in the season I had already came to terms with not ever having one. My mom hustled day and night between commuting back and forth from Lancaster to LA during the week and doing hair on the weekends. So after finding out how much letterman’s jackets cost, I knew that was insane to even consider asking for just a jacket. But now I actually earned one on my own.

It came time to getting it customized, and I already knew what message I wanted it to say. A Bob Marley quote from one of his interviews stuck with me and he said,

“The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?”

After thinking how I can apply that quote to my play style and the reason why I won the award, combined with the words the coach told me before my final high school football game, I decided to go with…