Five More Minutes

Yesterday morning, I mentioned that I wasn't ready for the last Friday night.

Well, the season is over... I'm still not ready.

Have you ever seen those videos on social media of high school football players taking their shoulder pads off for the last time? Usually, Scotty McCreery's Five More Minutes is playing in the background.

There are hundreds of them, and I swear I watch every one.

It's been a long time since I took off a Lebanon football jersey for the last time, but those videos still get me. Not because I remember every play or even much about that final game. It's the realization that something you've spent years doing with the same group of guys is suddenly over.

No more practices. No more bus rides. No more putting on that jersey with the guys you've grown up playing alongside.

And for Lebanon's seniors, that moment came at Camdenton.

Earlier this season, I described this football team as a roller coaster. Looking back, I don't know that I could've described it much better.

There were some pretty good highs, some frustrating lows, and a few weeks when you really weren't sure what you were going to see next.

The win over Joplin. The loss at Neosho. The trip to Kickapoo. Finishing the regular season with a win at Waynesville. And through all of it, injuries that made an already difficult season even tougher.

Well, the ride came to an end at Camdenton.

We've spent the last few months talking about the games, what went right, what went wrong, and what we hoped to see the following week.

But now that it's over, I'd rather spend a little time talking about the kids who gave so much of themselves to this season.

Because when you start looking beyond the final scores, there are some pretty good stories within this football team.

Landon Klee, for example, is a really good baseball player who decided to come out for football his senior year. He wanted to contribute and help the team, even though football hadn't been his primary sport throughout high school.

Then there's Tom Kraus, a foreign exchange student who came to Lebanon, set a scoring record on the soccer field, and found himself helping the Yellowjackets kick on Friday nights, too.

Two kids who took very different paths to the football field, but both found a way to contribute to this team.

And then you have guys like Ikerd Mizer and Jackson Snyder.

Ikerd... literally the smallest left tackle of all time, but he lined up every week and played his tail off. Jackson was a bowling ball of an undersized linebacker who didn't seem particularly concerned about how much bigger the guy across from him might be.

Those are the kinds of kids I enjoy watching play football.

Not everybody is going to be the biggest, fastest, or most talked-about player on the field. But I appreciate kids who show up, know their jobs, and compete.

And this year, plenty of kids had to deal with more than just the opponent lined up across from them.

Austin Yakle was a tackling machine when he was on the field, but he had to battle through injury. Brody Barker dealt with injuries, too, and continued giving everything he had. Montoya faced his own injury struggles.

For a senior, that's tough.

You've spent years working toward your final season, and suddenly you're dealing with something you can't completely control. You're trying to get healthy, trying to contribute, and trying to make the most of the opportunities you have left.

We see what happens on Friday nights. We don't always see the work, frustration, and effort it takes just to get back out there.

And I think about Beckett York.

I remember Beckett getting his first start as a sophomore after an injury during the jamboree. We've watched him play football and baseball over the last few years, and now he's finished his senior football season.

When you're in high school, four years can feel like forever. Watching these kids from the other side of the camera, it goes by pretty quickly.

One season you're getting to know a sophomore quarterback. Before you know it, you're watching him lead his team into a district playoff game for the final time.

And those are just a few of the stories.

There are plenty of other seniors whose names I haven't mentioned. Plenty of underclassmen, too. Some of those kids were on the field for nearly every snap. Others spent most of their time on the practice field, running scout team, learning their positions, or waiting for an opportunity.

I don't want anyone to mistake the names I've mentioned for a complete picture of this football team.

It takes all of them.

The kid making the big play on Friday night and the kid who spent all week helping him prepare for it. The seniors who have played together for years and the ones who found their way into the program later. The starters, the backups, and the guys whose names most people in the stands might not know.

They all gave something to this season.

And I think that matters, especially after a year like this one.

It's easy to celebrate a team when everything is going right. When you're winning games, the stands are packed, and everybody's excited about what might happen next.

It's a little harder when you're dealing with injuries, losses, and the frustration that comes with not getting the results you wanted.

But those kids still had to show up on Monday.

They still had to practice, watch film, get ready for another opponent, and go back out there Friday night.

That's a lot to ask of high school kids, and it's easy to forget just how much time they put into something that the rest of us get to enjoy for a few hours each week.

I also think it's important to recognize the people who spent that time with them.

Coach Christian and the entire Lebanon coaching staff have given us opportunities to see more of this program than just what happens on game nights. We've been able to visit with coaches, spend time around players, and get a better understanding of what goes into preparing a team.

I'm thankful for that access, but I'm even more appreciative of the work we've been able to see because of it.

Coaching high school football involves a lot more than drawing up plays and making decisions on Friday nights. It's long hours, conversations with kids, trying to help them improve, and working through the difficult parts of a season together.

And the families are right there through all of it.

The parents who have spent years driving kids to practices, showing up for games, rearranging schedules, and supporting them through injuries and disappointments. The grandparents, siblings, friends, and everyone else who's been part of these kids' football lives.

For some of those families, Friday night was the end of something they've been doing together for a long time.

I hope they know how much that matters, too.

I've been thinking quite a bit about the difference between watching football as a fan and covering it the way we do now.

Three years ago, I would've watched the end of Lebanon's season, been disappointed, talked about the game for a while, and eventually started thinking about next year.

I'm still a fan, and I still do plenty of that.

But now, when I look at this senior class, I think about more than the games.

I think about the first time we interviewed some of these kids. The conversations we've had with them. Watching them go from sophomores to seniors. Seeing some of them find success in other sports, too.

I think about how much we've learned from getting to know them, even the ones we haven't had the opportunity to spend much time around.

And I think about how quickly those three years have gone.

That's one of the things I didn't fully understand when we started Jacket Nation Sports.

We knew we wanted to cover games. We wanted people to have a better way to watch Lebanon sports, and we wanted to give these kids more opportunities to be seen.

What I didn't really anticipate was how invested I'd become in the people themselves.

Not just whether Lebanon won or lost, but whether a kid got another opportunity, whether he was healthy enough to play, or whether he got to finish his senior year doing something he loved.

And Friday night, I wanted those seniors to have another week.

I wanted another chance to watch Beckett lead the offense. To see Landon contribute. To watch Ikerd and Jackson battle guys bigger than them. To see Yakle, Brody, Montoya, Tom, and the rest of this team get another opportunity together.

I wanted to see Lebanon win.

I still do.

But the season is over, and for this senior class, so is high school football.

That's a difficult thing to put into words because, for most of these kids, football has been part of their lives for years. It's meant summers in the weight room, practices after school, long bus rides, teammates, coaches, and a routine that becomes pretty normal when you're living it.

And then, one night, you realize you don't get to do it again.

I don't know what every senior was feeling when Friday's game ended. I wouldn't pretend to.

Some may be ready for what's next. Some may be frustrated about how the season went. Some probably haven't even had time to process that it's over.

But I hope, eventually, they can look back on this season and remember more than the record.

I hope they remember the guys they lined up beside. The conversations on bus rides. The ridiculous things that happened at practice. The games they'll still be talking about years from now, even if nobody else remembers them quite the same way.

And I hope they understand that their contribution to Lebanon football wasn't measured entirely by how many games they won, how many tackles they made, or how often their names were mentioned on a broadcast.

To the seniors, thank you for letting us be a small part of your football experience.

To the underclassmen, thank you for the work you put in alongside them. You've got an opportunity to carry some of those experiences into next season.

To the coaches and families, thank you for everything you've invested in these kids.

And to every player who put on a Lebanon jersey this season, whether we mentioned your name once, a hundred times, or not at all, thank you for giving us another year of Yellowjacket football to follow.

It wasn't the season everybody hoped for. There were plenty of highs and lows, and probably a few moments we'd all rather forget.

But for this senior class, it was their last ride together.

And that deserves to be remembered.

Friday morning, I wrote that I wasn't ready for the last Friday night.

I meant it.

And when I see those videos of football players taking off their jerseys, wishing they could have just a little more time, I understand why they feel that way.

I hope these seniors got everything they could out of their years playing football for Lebanon.

And if they didn't, I hope someday they'll look back and realize just how much those years gave them anyway.

Because I know there are plenty of us who would give quite a bit to have five more minutes.