The Football Team’s Game Plan: Stay Positive

Keeping up the momentum of their last championship winning season, the Selma High Football team has pushed forward in keeping up their drive for success despite the pandemic pushing back the planned schedule.

At the end of their last season, the team won a Valley Championship title to bring home to Selma High. With the victory of this major win, the team had left off in full force as the pandemic forced the district to go into a shutdown, distance learning.

“Before the pandemic hit we were already back into football mode,” said senior varsity player Jetzael Ordaz. 

The energy prompted by the success of the championship game set the energy in place during the team’s workouts and drills.

“Walking into the weight room, you could just tell that all the guys in there had a championship mentality,” commented first year senior varsity player, Jason San Miguel.

The team had started the second semester of the 2019-2020 school year with drills and early morning practices from 6:45am to 7:45am during the weekdays.

Royal Valle, a senior varsity member of the team, stated the team was “keeping up their success” with their workouts and being in the weight room every morning with practices at least twice a week.

Their scheduled practices came to a quick halt, however, due to the shut down of the pandemic. 

Individually the boys continue to keep themselves physically active in their own ways.

“Most of us continue to work out at home even if we don’t have the equipment we use,” Ordaz stated.

Although their in-person routine had been disrupted along their plans for the upcoming season, the mind-set and determination has not been disrupted.

“The pandemic severely disrupted our plans as we were begging to hit our strides,” San Miguel stated. “It hasn’t affected our goals in any way, shape, or form.”

This driven mentality runs consistently throughout the team as they strive to continue their growth.

“Nothing can affect this team mentally because we know what it takes to be a champion,” Ordas said. He explains that  it’s this knowledge that continues to push them. “What motivates us is winning another championship because the feeling after winning is indescribable.”

The football team also has the support and backing of the school and their supporters in the community throughout Selma.

“We can’t wait to give them another great season,” Valle said.

Despite the list of negative outcomes that the pandemic brought while disrupting the team’s original plans, the players still found some positive outcomes.

“Brightside for all of us is we get to rest our bodies. Waking up at 6am every morning for almost eight months takes a lot,” Ordaz said.

Even in a pandemic, the team pushes themselves to once again bring home a championship title to Selma High when it is safe to do so. They are expected to begin practices that follow state safety guidelines by next week.