Editor’s Note: Senior Moments is a series where seniors periodically share seemingly insignificant moments during their last year that remind them of good times, excite them for the future, or even just simply made their 2016-17 memorable. 

Drive to the indoor facility, go the locker room, see my teammates, and then head to the indoor or weight room. That has been my everyday schedule for the past four years, and I never thought twice about it. After my senior season, I looked around the weight room one morning and realized none of my team was there. I was just lifting with my best friend Bruce, not lifting with my teammate Bruce. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t training for a team anymore.

After my sophomore season ended, I tried unsuccessfully to hold back tears because I knew my childhood dream of playing alongside my brother had come to an end. It was the greatest season of my life. After my junior season ended, I tried unsuccessfully, once again, to hold back tears because I knew how good our team was, and we could have done something special for our town. After my senior season ended, miserably, the fact that my days of playing as a Leopard were over didn’t hit me. It still hasn’t, and probably won’t until next year when there is a new number 3 on the roster.

It is not hard to remember the time when we were the ones looking up to the varsity football players. I remember wanting to buy a Leopard football jersey not with my favorite number, but with my favorite player’s number (23). Before the games started, we ran onto the field to form the tunnel, hoping we would connect on a high five with one of the players. We went to football camp every summer, motivated to be Leopard Ball champions.We ran through the Leopard Head into our elementary school classes excited for the future days where we would be varsity football players. Those players reading to us at the time seemed larger than life, and we never thought we would get that old, but we did.

Senior football players… our careers have seen a lot of change. Since we started playing for Lovejoy in seventh grade, the football program has had four different head coaches in six years, three of those coming while we were in high school.

We have learned countless new defenses, offenses, plays, formations, and schemes. We have watched dozens of coaches we loved so dearly depart to to other schools, each teary eyed farewell harder to accept than the previous.

But one thing that has stayed constant is us.

We have played with and against each other on the elementary school playgrounds, in pee wee, sub varsity to varsity. Nearly all of us can say that we have had a teammate from second grade to twelfth grade, and that is pretty special.

Walking two by two from the locker room to the field with the entire community cheering us on gave me chills every time and I will miss it dearly. The songs that became traditions in our locker room will remind us of the times we had.

Despite our final season, we have had some thrilling games throughout our career. We beat Prosper twice, the last time coming on a game-winning field goal (thank you Red Ice) during a rainy, lightning-filled night. We dominated our first round playoff game in front of thousands at AT&T Stadium. These memories will forever be with us.

Every year, a different group of seniors graduate, and the beautiful balance of personalities in the locker room is forever altered. Returning players hope the new guys will fill the void the seniors left, but each year is a different team. This is why each season is so special in different ways.

I can not wait to see the future teams do better than we ever did, and one day see ‘State Champions’ on the water tower next to Sloan Creek.