“Striving for greatness allows you to win many battles and be proud even when you lose the battle.”
The emotions after a high school football team loses their playoff game might be one of the saddest things to witness. Seniors done forever. A shot at state - no more. When you’re in high school, not much else matters.
I was a photographer for the Providence Academy football team this year, and it was one of my favorite jobs I’ve ever had.
On top of that, they went undefeated in the regular season, making it a super fun season to capture with my camera.
They were favorites to go to state, but got upset in the 2nd round of Sections in the last few seconds. It was heartbreaking to see.
It’s been nine years since I had to feel the sting of my football career being over, but those feelings came rushing back while photographing the end of their game.
As I was reflecting on what happened on my drive home, I kept thinking about the idea of striving for greatness.
Even with the loss, I know there were guys on the team that worked really, really hard to be great. They worked so hard they went undefeated and were a top five team in the state.
Yes they got beat, but when you work that hard, you can’t help but keep your head high.
Call me lame for being inspired by high school kids, but these guys really showed me some things this year; some things that I’ve forgotten since my playing days were over.
In anything in life, we all lose at some point. But if we put in the work to do our best, we can be proud with whatever the outcome is.
