Okay, let’s talk about how I tackled the Crestwood High School football piece. Honestly? Just walked right onto campus last Tuesday after class let out. No fancy appointments or nothing. Saw Coach Miller near the field house wiping down equipment – dude’s arms were covered in grass stains already. Grabbed my notebook quick and went straight up to him.
The Approach
Coach looked busy but gave me five minutes if I helped haul tackling dummies. So yeah, dragged those heavy foam things while asking questions. Real down-to-earth guy. Said stuff like “We ain’t building robots here, we’re raising young men.” Wrote that down word-for-word in my pocket notebook.
Meeting the Team
Practice hadn’t started yet, so I hung by the water coolers watching players trickle in. Noticed two things right off:
- Quarterback Jake Peterson fixing his gloves for like five minutes straight – real perfectionist energy
- Lineman Marcus Johnson sharing Gatorade with freshmen without being asked
Just straight up walked into their huddle later – got a few weird looks but nobody told me to scram. Even snapped some pictures with my phone camera when they started drills.
The Raw Notes
Later that night I dumped everything into my laptop while eating cold pizza:
- Coach Miller quote: “Our playbook’s simple – outwork ’em Monday through Thursday, out-hit ’em Friday night.”
- Sophomore cornerback Devon: Wears his dead grandpa’s dog tags under his pads
- Water boy situation: Turns out it’s the principal’s kid doing community service? Wild
Didn’t pretty any of this up for the blog. Just typed exactly what my chicken-scratch notes said with zero edits. Why? Because fake polished crap ain’t real. You want authentic? Here’s the messy truth.
Finished around 1am and hit publish. Woke up to three parents emailing me saying it’s the realest thing written about their kids. Guess getting grass stains on my shoes was worth it.