00:00It was terrible. I mean, we've all worked, like some of us, our entire lives to play this sport.
00:06This is one of those sports where everyone is always in on it.
00:09You play it from young to old, and you follow the sport for your whole life, and it was crushing.
00:15I have aspirations of playing up in college. Some of the other guys do, and to know that we wouldn't
00:19have this year
00:20to play the sport that we love and also get that shot to continue, it was devastating.
00:25We had the suspicions that we weren't going to field the varsity team all through fall camp.
00:31So that was starting back in August, somewhere around there.
00:35But the official word that we dropped our program came around August 1st, second first week in August.
00:41And we've been trying to find replacements ever since we've reached out to Rocky Point,
00:45and we had to go through a long process to get here.
00:47And now we're here two or three weeks later, and just starting over.
00:51It's the greatest days I've ever heard.
00:52Ever. I was, I came out fresh out of the shower, coach called me, he said,
00:58All right, Mac, I'm glad you had the shower for this one, but I got something to tell you.
01:02But what? He's like, you're playing.
01:04And I'm pretty sure my entire house heard me scream when I heard that news.
01:07I was eating pizza, and coach called me, and he told me to get another slice because I needed to
01:11gain some weight.
01:14So I did, and we love pizza.
01:15So I actually found out off of an Instagram post, which is, we weren't, wasn't supposed to happen.
01:22My coach wanted to keep a secret until they all showed up.
01:24But I saw it on Instagram, and I mean, we texted, like, in our group chat.
01:30Everybody was so excited, and I love our guys.
01:34I was sitting down on the bus on the way over here to come play some JV, and I got
01:39a call from my dad.
01:39It was, it was exactly 2.53.
01:42I remember, remember the moment down in the minute, I got a call from my dad, and he's like,
01:45by the way, you're playing varsity football.
01:47And I stood up in the bus, and I screamed to all my JV teammates that we won the, that
01:52we won the lawsuit.
01:53It was a big moment.
01:54I just got dropped off at Rocky Point for JV practice, and a coach told me,
01:58you got good news and bad news.
02:00I asked for bad news first.
02:01He said, you're going to be working a lot harder.
02:03I said, the good news is you're a varsity athlete.
02:05So I was pretty excited.
02:07It's been awesome.
02:08All the coaches here have been super-duper welcoming to all of us, and the players too, like Peyton.
02:13I mean, it's just been, we've really assimilated right into the culture.
02:16We fit in.
02:16There was no, no conflicts, no nothing.
02:19It was just joining this new team, learning the playbook, and having fun and playing some football.
02:22I mean, honestly, we were all happy once we found the news.
02:26We know they've been fighting for this for a few weeks now,
02:28and we believe that everybody has the right to play football, especially these guys.
02:32They work very hard, I can tell you that.
02:34And we've only been with them for a couple days now, and we just treat them as our own.
02:39We see them as family.
02:40Coming from a team with just over 20 guys, having the extra reinforcements really helps,
02:45especially just getting through practices, having those extra guys to get real game-like reps.
02:51It helps us out a lot.
02:52It would be awesome to come out with this new team and this program and start setting that precedent
02:56and start winning some football games and really show what we can do
03:00and play with these amazing teams that have been working really hard, too.
03:03So it would be amazing to have the fruits of our labor.
03:06So what are some of the things that you guys have done to bond with your new teammates?
03:12Just show slides and talk to them.
03:14Just, you know, after a fitness team, making, running a play or track or, you know, running a route or
03:20something like that,
03:21we just talk to them, say, you're good, listen to that, just, you know, being nice.
03:26It's like anything else.
03:27It's another team, it's another family, and you just adopt the name and you keep going.
03:31And how excited are you guys when you're going to get, you know, the eagle wings on your helmet?
03:35Pretty excited.
03:36So excited.
03:37So excited.
03:38The entire community is excited about it.
03:41You know, kids should get the, kids should have the right to play football.
03:45And even my dad, I told my dad right away he's excited about it.
03:48Everybody's pumped up about it.
03:49And we're very welcoming and we're looking to get to work.
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