Poetry

Random Poetry

Sports

I like to play sports.

I don’t dribble up and down courts.

I don’t race on a horse.

I don’t drive around a golf course.

I wrestle on mats and run over people on a football field.

School

School is boring,

even though the class is always roaring.

Some people are even snoring.

I hate it when it is pouring.

We have class in a trailer park.

That leaves me with a big question-mark.

History

No one knows when history started.

It has never been charted.

If you ask Albert Einstein ,

he probably knows.

Humans made lots of foes.

One day the foes, froze.

All the foes went extinct.

Scientists call this the Ice Age.

Football

I like football.

It is basically one big brawl.

It’s a game about who’s toughest of them all.

One of the toughest people is JJ Watt.

He is rich enough to own a yacht.

It ain’t about the money.

It’s all about the game

It’s all about remembering the name.

Track

This year I signed up for track.

It really kills my back.

I would rather go on a football field and get a sack.

When I run a 1600,

I about get a heart attack.

I didn’t do well at our first meet.

At our next one,

it’s all about the payback.

Summer

It is the 4th quarter of the school year.

It’s time to cheer.

Summer is almost here.

School stress will finally disappear.

It’s time to go to the pool.

The most important thing about summer is…

no more school.

Cat

I was told to do a poem about a cat.

so here I go.

They all are so fat.

They act like a big brat.

They like to kill a rat.

Some people hate them so much,

they go at them with a baseball bat

Bacon

I really bacon.

I am not fakin.

I also like the movie Taken.

I do not know how to speak Jamaican.

Takeover

I just need some privacy.

So please get away from me.

I’m gonna start my own dynasty.

I’m gonna make it very silently.

When I’m done we will act violently.

It will be the start of a new society.

Ending Poem

This is the last poem in my PPOW,

so please, take a bow.

I probably won’t write a poem again.

Now that I think about it,

I should have done a poem about a hen,

or about a pitcher,

in the bullpen.

Well now, it is time for me to say,

The End.

March PPOW

J.H. Wrestling

All the success that I had the past two years in Junior High is because of the work I put into the sport and the people who were around me. Especially the people who said I couldn’t do it. The four people that helped me the most are my dad, who has been with me since I first began, Coach Sampson, who has been my coach since I started, Coach Brix, who has been my coach only in Junior High, and Gabe Pauley, who put a beating on me everyday in practice and taught me different moves which I still use today.

I was never really successful in wrestling until 6th Grade, which was the year I started wrestling for Avoca.
In 7th grade I started wrestling practices which made a huge impact on my ability on the mat. At my first J.H. wrestling meet, I finished 1-1. I lost my first match early in the first period, and I said to myself it is going to be a long year if this keeps on happening. My second match I won in a nail-biter. We were tied with about 30 seconds left in the match, and he went in on a lousy shot, which I used to my advantage and got behind him to win the match by two points.

At our next meet, I finished 2-1 with a loss to a very tough Logan-Magnolia opponent, who wrestled multiple times that year but could never beat. After that meet, I went on a win streak until our second home meet. I lost someone that I had beaten multiple times that year. That is when I truly learned to take nothing for granted.

At AAU Districts I wrestled at C-160 along with Gabe Pauley, the tough opponent from Logan-Magnolia, someone from Glenwood, and someone from Atlantic. I wrestled the person from Atlantic and won by major decision, 8-0. Second round I lost to the person from Logan-Magnolia by pin in the second period. Third round I lost to the person from Glenwood. Fourth round I lost to Gabe Pauley by a very quick pin in the first period.

At AAU State I went 0-2 ending my 7th Grade year.

My 8th grade wrestling season started with high school wrestling practice, which once again, made a big impact on how the season went. Before my actual Junior High season started I set three goals. They were: finish the regular season undefeated, win districts, and place top 5 at State. Sadly, I only completed one of those.

Our first meet was in Atlantic. I had two very tough matches against two people who I have been wrestling for years; both of which I have never defeated. My first match was against Cale Roller. I won 7-2. My next match was against Dylan Steinhoff.  He pinned me in the second period. I was disappointed because I didn’t do well that match, and I didn’t complete my goal.

A few meets went by then it was time for districts. I only had one other guy in my bracket which meant that I automatically was going to state, but I still had to fight for a #1 seed. My only other opponent was Cale Roller. Since there was only two of us, it was best two out of three. My first match I won 3-1 because he took a bad shot at the end, so I got around him and got my two points. The second match I pinned him in the first period. It was the one goal that I had set and achieved.

There was one kid that I wrestled all year from Missouri-Valley. I wrestled him three times, and I won all three times. The first two times I pinned him very quick. The third time I didn’t pin him fast, but that didn’t mean anything because I had him on his back at the end of the first period, and I made him cry. I then pinned him in the second period. He refused to shake my hand after the match because he was so mad. The referee docked his whole team two points for unsportsmanlike conduct.

After that, I didn’t lose until our last meet. The guy I wrestled was a behemoth from Southwest Iowa. He had at least 40 pounds on me. I wrestled a very good match, but he walked out with the victory by pinning me in the second period. He ended up getting 3rd at state at C-260. That was our last meet, and it was only two days before state. I had no problems making weight, so I didn’t have to starve myself.

First round at state I had Caleb Hobart from I-35. The match only lasted about a minute, and I came out on top. My second match was against Samuel Kessel. I wrestled very well for the first minute and a half. I almost had him in a cradle, but when I went to flip him over my feet went out of bounds. After that, I was gassed, and he pinned me in the third period. My third match was a close one. At the beginning of the third period I was ahead 5-3. He got a takedown early in the period which tied it 5-5. With about 15 seconds left in the match. I got a reversal which put me ahead 7-5. My fourth match which was sadly my last was one of the best matches I’ve wrestled all year, if not than the best match I have ever wrestled. I lost 2-1 in 2OT. It was the other goal that I didn’t complete, but it will always be there waiting to be accomplished in high school.

I was very upset, but at the same time I was proud because I proved that I belonged in the state tournament, and that showed how much potential I have for high school. It doesn’t really matter what happened in the past 10 years I have wrestled. All that matters is the next four.

Getaway

Getaway

“Hurry up! We got 90 seconds to get the money and get out of here, or we will have the whole state of  Texas on us!” says Lance as sirens were blaring everywhere.

“Wow! There has got to be at least $100 million cash in here!” I yell.

“It is the biggest bank in Dallas!” Lance replies.

Lance and I quickly shoved money into the trunks of our cars. It is a race against time. We are robbing the biggest bank in Dallas.

“30 more seconds!” he announces.

I finish packing the last of the money and yell, “I’m ready to leave!”

“OK, Kane. You’re the driver, so I’m following you.” he says.

“I put directions in your GPS. If all goes as planned that’s the way out of the city, but if not, be listening to you walkie-talkie because I’ll tell any changes in our route.” I tell him.

He gets into the cars and start the engines, and they shook the entire room. He then drove out of the bank parking garage, and we are off. We fly down Main Street, and we are met by two cops, so we make a sudden right turn.

I grab the walkie-talkie and say, “Danggit, Lance. We just left the building and we are already off course. Do you know this city well enough to get out of it?”

He replies, “Yeah, well, kind of. I’m gonna head south until I’m out of the city. Then we’ll go from there.”

He takes a sharp left, but I keep going straight. Three blocks forward I take a left, and head straight for two blocks, and take a another left.

“Hey Lance, how are you doing?” I say. I wait for a response, but I don’t get one. I then take a right and I am back on track. I start to worry about Lance because there are lots of cop cars and helicopters. I was scared because I don’t have Lance with me. He always knows what to do, but for all I know he has been arrested or killed. I just start drove until I was out of the city into this small town in West, Texas with a motel.

I keep calling out on the walkie-talkie, but there is still no reply. I didn’t sleep much that night because not only because my best-friend could be dead, but I am wanted in the whole state of Texas.

The next morning, I wake up and I hide the car in a scrapyard about a mile away from the motel because I bet they might have the car in their records. I walk back to the motel and sit around the walkie-talkie and finally fall asleep.

I wake up to something on the walkie-talkie that sounds like Lance.

I run over and ask, “Lance is that you?”

“Yeah it’s me. Where are you at?”

“I’m over at some motel in a small town called West, Texas. Where are you?”

“I’m south of San Antonio, almost to Mexico. Some guys here say they can get me across the border, but it will cost.”

“That’s fine,” I replied, “We are millionaires.”

“We’ll meet in Lancing, Texas. It’s about an hour away from San Antonio.” says Lance, “It’s a long drive. See you soon.”

I run to the scrapyard, and hop into the car. As I’m driving through town, one of the local police start chasing me, and that turned into the whole town on me. They weren’t anything like the police in Dallas, so it was pretty easy to escape from them.

Now that I know my car has been recorded, I know I can’t go through San Antonio because that would be bad. That makes this drive even longer.

I make it to Lancing without anymore trouble, so I get back on the walkie-talkie.

“I’m in Lancing. Where do you want to meet?”

Then a random man says, “Your friend is at the warehouse downtown. Come with all the money, and make sure you aren’t being followed.”

I enter the warehouse, and Lance is strapped to a chair, covered in blood. I pull out my pistol and out of nowhere come about 20 gang member with different weapons. I run to cover and start fighting to save Lance. I look up and count 17 gang members. I shoot one. 16. Then I just go from there. 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. The last one was the one taking cover behind Lance. His foot was open, so I shot him. He fell down to the ground screaming in pain, so I took a shot and killed him.

“You OK?” I ask Lance.

“Better than I’ve ever been.” Lance joked.

“Well, how are we going to get to Mexico?”

“We’re not.”

“Why? Are we just gonna hide until this whole thing blows over?”

“No, you’re under arrest.” Then cops came in from every direction of the building.

“You betrayed me?” I asked in disbelief.

“I was never with you. I was sent from the CIA to take you down.”

“Wow, after all we’ve been through?”

“Doesn’t matter now, does it?”

Audible

“We are lined up in I formation, and it is a play action. They’re stacking the line with 7 men.  We’re lined up in the I. We are down by five, and there is one minute left on the clock in the fourth quarter. It is fourth down, and we only have one timeout left. Carson what do you do?”

“Call an audible and throw a screen to Ray.”

“Why didn’t you. You got sacked and we lost the state championship.”

“The play clock was at ten seconds, coach.”

“Then use the timeout and go no-huddle the rest of the drive. That’s what you would’ve done in a regular game. That is how you, the one, the only, Johnny Carson, play football. If you want to go play college football, you have to work on working under pressure.”

“It’s hard to think under pressure,” I whispered quietly.

“If you can’t think under pressure than I don’t know if I can play you this season. Your good, but there’s a lot of talent in those school hallways. To be an athlete in this sport you have to be able to do anything under pressure, and I mean anything from your school work to playing out on that field. Go home and some rest, we have practice tomorrow.”

I can’t believe coach just said that. There is no one else to put in. If he is benching me, he would have to play Gabbert. Coach Bryant knows he can’t do that because he had to start him last year when I broke my wrist, and his completion percentage was 30%. That’s not good at all.

On my way home he told himself, “I do not crack under pressure. I’m a junior in high school, and our school hasn’t had a state championship since the 80s.”

I didn’t get much sleep that night. I tossed back and forth thinking about what coach said. The words are still stuck in my head. I can still hear him saying those words.

“If you can’t think under pressure than I don’t know if I can play you this season.”

Those words haunted me. I don’t know what to do, and this isn’t exactly something that will be easy to fix. It will take time, so I will make time. I don’t do good in school, and I’m not good at any other sports, so football is all I got. Because I won’t get into college academically, I will have to go all the way in athletics, and I can’t even start on my high school team.

A few hours later I finally fell asleep, and I woke up ready for practice, but more importantly, I’m ready to prove coach wrong.

On the way to practice I went through what I have to do to get my starting spot back. First off, I have to work harder than anyone on the team, but more importantly, prove coach wrong. That’s just the basics. I have to be perfect at every aspect of the game.

Everything was going pretty good that practice. We had a scrimmage between our offense and our defense. We were down by five points with one  minute left in the 4th quarter. I saw Coach Bryant talking to Coach Johnson and Coach Taylor, our offensive and defensive coordinator. The defence stacked the line with seven guys and our offence was in the I formation. Deja vu. I knew coach was testing me, but he needs to do better than this. I called the audible and I threw the screen to Ray, but the cornerback charged up and took the ball back to the end zone. I threw a pick six, and that ended the scrimmage, and that was the end of practice.

Everyone headed to the locker room, and coach said he wants to talk to me after I’m done changing. Great. That is the last thing I want to do right now, but I have to do it.

I walked out of the locker room, and Coach was right there.

“You weren’t even paying attention to the corner creeping up on the receiver. You were going through the motions. When Ray is running the screen, what is Dex running?” asked coach.

“A fade route,” I answered.

“Why weren’t you watching the defense? More importantly, watching the other wide receivers?” asked coach again.

“I don’t know,” I replied.
To make things worse, school started the next day, and I’m stressed enough with football, but now school? Since I had nothing else to do, I went home, and I slept.

I woke up the next morning with no confidence in myself.

“What am I going to do?” I kept asking myself. “I can’t do this. I’m terrible in school, and now on the football field too. I decided to not go to school because there is no point. If I can’t play football then there is no point of going to school. If I can’t play football then there is no point of staying here. I won’t make it far in life, why not end it all now.

I went to my car, and I just started driving. I got to the highway, and I stomped on the pedal. I hit 120 as I sped past a police officer. I started to swerve into the ditch getting ready to end it all then it hit me. Why am I doing this? To be continued.

From the Football Field to the Combat Field

Pat Tillman

On November 6th, 1976, Patrick Daniel Tillman was born in Fremont, California. He was born to Mary and Patrick Kevin Tillman. Pat is the oldest of his two other siblings, Kevin and Richard. Pat was very good at football and started it at a very young age. He went to Leland High School, and he led his team to the Central Coast Division I Football Championship.

Tillman went to college at Arizona State University to play football as a linebacker. Pat and the rest of the Arizona State Devils had an undefeated season and won the Rose Bowl in 1997. That year Tillman won the Pac-10 Defensive Player of Year and was Arizona State University Most Valuable Player of the year.

Not only did he excel on the football field, he exceeded expectations in the classroom. In 1996 and 1997 he won the Clyde B. Smith Academic Award. In 1998 he won the Sun Angel Student Athlete of the Year. He majored in marketing, and he had a 3.85 GPA in his three years in college.

In 1998, he was drafted to the Arizona Cardinals as the 226th pick. He played safety for the Cardinals. That year he started 10 out of 16 regular season games. In 2000, he turned down a five-year $9 million dollar offer from the St. Louis Rams. His contract with the Cardinals ended at the end of the 2001-2002 season. The Cardinals offered him a Five Year- $3.6 million, but he turned it down to join the military because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He finished his NFL career with 238 tackles, 3 interceptions, 2.5 sacks, and 1 forced fumble.

Pat and his brother, Kevin, enlisted on May 31, 2002. Pat had to leave football, and Kevin had to leave baseball in the MLB.

Kevin was drafted in the 31st round in the MLB Amateur Draft to the Anaheim Angels in 1999. He was traded to the Burlington Indians and only played one year before enlisting.

The brothers finished basic training together in September of 2002. After that, Pat and Kevin were assigned to 2nd Ranger Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington. Tillman and his family lived in University Place, Washington for a year before he was deployed in Iraq.

Tillman participated in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq called Operation Iraqi Freedom. After that invasion, Pat was deployed in Afghanistan at FOB Salerno.

On April, 22, 2004, him and his platoon were in a canyon in eastern Afghanistan when they were ambushed by members of al Qaeda. An Afghan ally was also killed in action that night. The platoon’s leader, First Lieutenant David Uthlaut, and the Radio Telephone Operator, Jade Lane, were wounded in the ambush.

The ruling of Pat’s was being killed by a terrorist in an enemy ambush, but the Department of Defense and the U.S. Congress opened an investigation on it. They never concluded anything, but most of the evidence supports the fact that his death was due to friendly fire.

Although no one will ever know how Pat Tillman died, we do know this, he is a hero. Pat finished his military career with a Silver Star, a Purple Heart, and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Glen Coffee

Glenwood Razeem “Glen” Coffee was born on May 1st, 1987. He was born in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. He went to high school at Fort Walton Beach High School. He then went to college, to play football, at Alabama University where he had a very decorated collegiate career.

His freshman year he played all 12 games for the Crimson Tide in the 2005 season, but it was very minimum playing time. His season- high was 15 carries for 75 yards against the South Carolina Gamecocks. He finished the season with 48 carries for 179 yards, eight catches for 91 yards, and one receiving touchdown.

Glen redshirted his sophomore year, but when he returned Nick Saban was the new head coach. That season Coffee and Terry Grant split time at starting running back. In the Crimson Tide’s first game Glen Coffee scored his first rushing touchdown of his collegiate career. At Alabama’s Homecoming he had his first 100-yard game. He finished the 2007 season with 129 carries for 545 yards, four rushing touchdowns, and 18 catches for 142 yards.

Glen Coffee’s junior year he was the starter in all 14 games the Alabama Crimson Tide played that season while splitting time between Roy Upchurch and Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram Jr. That season he had his best college game with a win over Kentucky; he finished the game with 25 carries for 218 yards and one rushing touchdown. That season the Crimson Tide made it to the Sugar Bowl where he had his season low of only 36 yards in a 31-17 loss against Utah. In the 2008 season Glen finished with 233 carries for 1,383 yards, 10 rushing touchdowns, 16 catches for 118 yards, and 1 receiving touchdown.

Glen Coffee entered the 2009 NFL Draft and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the 3rd round. His rookie year he was the backup for Frank Gore. After that season Glen Coffee retired from the NFL and enlisted to the United States Army to become a paratrooper after a situation with the police.

In June 2013, he graduated from the United States Army Airborne School. He is now a paratrooper at Ranger School, and is part of the 6th Ranger Training Battalion.