An American Story

1999 St. Charles Football team induction to  the Saginaw Co. Hall of Fame

This story  is a story that has to start with the 1998 football team were we  had so many players and so much talent that two way starting players (as were the most of us) for the 1999 team has to move down the J.V. in order to get any playing time. drinking was ramped , attitudes where horrible, it was said that parents were bribing kids to play, and it showed, we were a 3and 6 on the year. with our biggest win of the year being caped off by players breaking into school grounds and vandalizing practice equipment. the worst part of it all is the student body didn't even care how we did, now the parents on the other hand had different Ideas. they were debating on whether running the coaching staff out on a rail or possibly burning them at the stake.(because they must have been the cause of it all,the athletes or the parents couldn't be held responsible )The rest of the town had taken it as normal or  par for St.C football at the time (how could you expect anything different?) 
   Then it started, I don't know who was the first, but the first that I heard it mention was  by Jason Dinniger, It was after  watching  Chesaning win there state championship, Jason mention that next year we are gong to be down there. I just said ya sure. but I was thinking you don't have a clue about the level of discipline that those other teams have. I just shook my head an walked , but we did  have a core group of guys ( which turned out the Marjory of the team) that were working out pretty religiously and my mid summer I had bought into it.   Then we started to talk about going undefeated and winning a state championship, and to our dismay, no one believed us. We got answers like not with that coaching staff, not with your line, not with your defence, and the most devastating blow was the fact that we only had 14 to 19 guys sign up, there is no way we could even finish as good as we did last year, we would have to play Iron Man football,  offence, defence, kick off,  kick return, and punt we are going to be wore down by the 1half.  Instead of buying into it we used it as motivation to work harder than ever before we had no fun at camp and we worked our guts out (some times literally)
By the time our first game came around we were jacked we looked in the stands to see our parents, a few faithful fans, and Grandma,  that was it, I guess it took them a  little wile to catch on that we were serous about this thing, but as soon as they did  watch out, and the rest was history.
     the thing about our story isn't that its rare but it is common.  you see our story isn't just a football story, a St.Charles story, a Saginaw Co. Story , or even a Michigan Story, But its an American story. you see it wasn't the Aristocracy in Europe that were getting on leaky boats, selling themselves into indentured servitude to chase after a dream.  It was the down trodden, the tired masses ,the ones that were told that they were  going to amount to nothing, those were the ones who where walking away from bread lines to go and starve in the wilderness of north America. Its the under dog story, its the belief that no matter what the odds are we can win with out any special deals or handicaps. Its the story that's played out ever day, every time a single mom fights to give her kids a moral foundation, an education, and an opportunity that she missed out on,  it happens every  time a two people keep together a marriage when every one around them said they should quit,  Its what happens when some one breaks generations of additions by kicking the habit to the curb, when you chose to live with the time you have even though you have been told the time you have isn't long, its the story of a man that fights off financial ruin, The business owner that wins after there 3rd or 4th time, its the couple that, after miscarriage, and miscarriage , and every ones said to quit maybe god never meant for you to be parents,  you  and god find a way to make it happen. No this is our story, which is an American story, and the reason why I think it should be added to the collection of great athletic story's is because it needs to be told , remembered and passed down, not for our glory but for future Hope, because if enough of  our story's are erased, changed or destorted,  there will be a time when people will stop believing  that the American story's is possible and if that happens we will cease to be Americans.
So do I believe we deserve  it? Na I think They Do!