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We had a shared stadium in Gainesville . . .

In about 1984 or 85, one of my buddies and I walked onto Florida Field and took a few pictures in the Heisman pose. Or at least I took a pic of him. I don't know if he got me, as it was my camera. It was pretty cool. At that time you could just walk in when it wasn't in-season.

Never played a minute of HS sports. Instead, I found my little niche as the stat guy for football and boys basketball manager. During my sophomore year, I was offered to announce the starting lineups and never relinquished it. Yeah, I was the PA announcer, and that is something that has served me well in the years since. 

I got bit with the referee bug in college, and now ref HS basketball and umpire fast pitch softball. I also judge competitive speech, which I didn't think I would enjoy, but I've come around on it. 

Never played a minute of HS sports. Instead, I found my little niche as the stat guy for football and boys basketball manager. During my sophomore year, I was offered to announce the starting lineups and never relinquished it. Yeah, I was the PA announcer, and that is something that has served me well in the years since.

I got bit with the referee bug in college, and now ref HS basketball and umpire fast pitch softball. I also judge competitive speech, which I didn't think I would enjoy, but I've come around on it.

Announcing is fun - I did that instead of coaching my last few years on the Rez.  

As much fun as playing 8 years of organized tackle football was, playing pickup football with my friends was just as fun.  

Man, I just don't understand this generation of kids now.  We were ALWAYS playing something - pickup hoops, football, homerun derby, street hockey, you name it.  It was always a neighborhood pride thing too - us versus that hood or another.  Same group of 8 or so of us.  Then once we got into high school, it was one group of friends against another group.  Hell we'd have 4-6 team tourneys on Saturdays at different fields around town.   
Miss those days, and not real sure kids today know what any of that means.  They are all into organized travel ball now at age 7 and 8.  Feel bad for them in a way, they never really get to play the game for fun anymore.  

when i started playing in 6th grade, i was a tall, chunky kid. i played center on offense and either end or lb, depending on my weight at game time (had a weight limit, weigh above x lbs and have to play on line, and i was right at the limit all season).

stayed on line and at lb through 8th grade, changed schools before 9th grade and they put me at qb and safety (had grown taller and thinner). yep, went from center to qb. we were a smaller school (3a - mid size for bama classification then), so i also dressed for 3rd string backup qb for sr team. played in final game of season as both qbs got hurt. new kid, 9th grade (was typically only 10th-12th team), away game vs our rivals, yeah i was nervous, lol.

10th grade i played center again cause the center from prior year graduated and no one else had ever played c. plus had starting qb and backup coming back. also played s/lb on d.

11-12th grade the qb/backup graduated, i moved back to qb and s. we were mostly an option team, but i had some decent offensive #'s both running and passing. nothing major cfb worthy though. i was around 6', 150 lbs those last few years, didn't grow much at all.

we weren't very good (never made state playoffs, and only once went .500 while i played), but i was/am proud of my class of teammates. we went 0-10 my frosh year and progressed to 5-5 my sr year. they continued to progress and regularly make playoffs now. feel like we started that change.

i also long snapped for fg and punts. i got offered a couple of scholarships to snap (and maybe try other positions) at some really small schools (d3), but they were academic scholarships as they couldn't do athletic scholarships (ncaa rule). i chose to go to alabama because of an academic program i got into there.

Was looking for an older thread and came across this.  Good stuff.

I played AAA football in WV, which is the highest classification in our state.  By WV HS standards I was a pretty decent football player.  At bigger schools in more populated states I would have been a benchwarmer.

As it was, I was a 6’2 225 lb. Guard/Tackle on offense and Tackle/End on defense.  I was All Conference and All County my junior and senior seasons and Special Honorable Mention All State my Senior season (“Special” meaning I just missed out on Second Team).  I was a captain my Senior year as well.

We were one of the smallest AAA schools in the state and never very successful.  We went 9-21 the 3 years I played Varsity.  There are several Division II football schools in WV and I was contacted by most of them.  The two I was the most serious about were Fairmont State and Concord College (now Concord University).  They both offered me a partial scholarship to come play with an opportunity to earn a full scholarship if everything worked out.

Both staffs were fair and honest with me.  They told me I probably wouldn’t play much (if at all) my freshman season and then have a better shot at playing time each successive year.  Both told me they could see me starting by my junior year.  I think my dad detected some hesitancy on my part and sat me down shortly before I had to make a decision and talked to me.

He told me that I had to be mentally prepared to lift all those weights, run all those sprints, slog through all those practices without the prospect of playing at least one, and maybe two, years.  I loved football.  I still love football, but I didn’t it love it enough to do that.  I have tremendous respect for kids who do but my desire to keep playing just wasn’t that strong.

So, I turned down both offers and went to Concord through loans I took out and some grants I qualified for because my parents didn’t have a lot of money.  There were times I got the itch to play.  One of my old teammates from HS lived beside me and was the Punter for the team.  He tried to cajole me on more than one occasion to play but I never did.  I let myself get out of shape and just got lazy for a while.  I only missed the games anyway.  I never missed everything that goes into getting yourself ready to play a game.

So there’s my Al Buddy story!

Yeah, practice sucked.  

I was ready to stop playing football once HS was over.  Having a fall Friday night to do what I wanted was nice as a FR in college.  Hell, having time on a fall weekday after school was great - for friends, for girls, for all of it.  From 5th grade to 12th grade, I was at football practice every weekday, every fall.  Damn.  

That's a lot of prime hours there.