Born Free

Born Free by The Bouncing Souls

Fear is in the air that's the way they want it to be
"Don't trust friends or neighbors everyone's your enemy!"
Kidnapped children on TV; fear runs through the family
They'll put a chip in your arm.
Keeping track of where you are.
With all of this technology have we come so far?
It's easy to get lost, forget who you are

Don't forget that you're born free
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees

People are so greedy, it's almost funny
How many ways can they ruin lives for money?
I see the choice to enjoy the truth in life
In the middle of all this deceit and strife
A nation's future stands in doubt
Peace and love are on the way out
Why can't they just let me be?
How I live is up to me

Don't forget that you're born free
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees

We get the message loud and clear
We refuse to live in fear!

Football part 2

Check out part one if you missed it.

Attending Mountain Camp was a prerequisite to attending California Camp. I can only assume the reason is because California Camp would simply be too difficult for somebody who wasn't properly prepared and in physically fit.

California Camp was held the last week of summer, when I would normally be savoring the last moments of freedom. We were to meet and then leave the school at 6:00pm to make the all-night journey from eastern Arizona to Huntington Beach, California. 

Sleeping on a school bus is not very easy or comfortable. As a result, we got only a couple hours of sleep if we were lucky. I finally fell asleep in the upright position with my head resting on the seat ahead of me. When I woke up, we were traveling very slowly on the freeway and there were cars everywhere. Welcome to California. 

It must have been between 5 or 6 in the morning when we arrived at the beach. We were allowed a bathroom break and then instructed to "run to the pier and back" which overall was probably a mile run. This was surprisingly easy since we were used to the thin mountain air and we felt like we could run all day with the nice sea level air. When we we arrived back we got in our usual formation of exactly straight rows and columns with enough space in between us that we weren't in danger of hindering each other.

Every day at California Camp started the same way, which would our usual football practice regimen. We would systematically go through our stretches in the usual manner, and then we were offered a challenge. We would be given a number with a fraction such as three and three quarters. This number indicated how many jumping jacks we were to do - and we were expected to incorporate the fraction. If we were given three and three quarters, we would need to do three jumping jacks and then stop a third of the way through the last jumping jack. We were expected to be absolutely perfectly in sync with each other, otherwise we were compelled to experience pain.

We were always to be judged on our performance in a manner similar to a Roman emperor deciding the fate of a gladiator - with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Coach London would pause for effect, allowing us to entertain the smallest of hope that perhaps this time we would get a thumbs up. Occasionally he would mess with us by momentarily holding out an upright thumb but then turning it to give us the inevitable thumbs down. 

That first morning we had absolutely zero chance of completing this task due to our tired brains. Unsurprisingly we received the thumbs down, and it was time to receive a thorough anus-kicking.
I don't recall the exact punishment that day but typically one of the scary coaches (Williams or London) would pick a punishment, such as up-downs or leg lifts, and we would do that punishment until we reached our breaking point. That's when we know we were halfway done with that particular exercise. Leg lifts involved lying on our backs and lifting our legs a couple inches above the ground until our whole bodies were shaking, or maybe we would run in place but every time we heard the whistle from the upright standing position, we would touch our chests to the ground and get back up before the next whistle which would likely be in a manner of seconds. More than one time I literally thought my body couldn't go any more, but then after hearing Coach Williams yell at someone a few rows down, somehow I was able to do one more up-down.

After we were punished for not being perfectly in sync, it was time to do another couple hours of intense physical conditioning. After this point, however, the practice we typically did activities that weren't straight up punishment although they were still physically exhausting. For example, one day the coaches threw out a football into the ocean, and a group of 4 people would go and attempt to be the one to return the football. I don't even recall if there was any reward for doing this, but we fought as hard as we could, doing whatever we physically could do, to get the football. As soon as we could get our hands on the football there would be three football players trying to rip it from us. There were even a couple beach tackles as people fiercely fought to best their opponents. After I was done with this ordeal, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Our bodies were accustomed enough to physical exhaustion that I only puked on the first day (more like dry heaved since I didn't have any food in my stomach). We would do seal crawls (which pretty much meant dragging ourselves across the beach with nothing but our arms), crab walks, and lots of other types of animal walking/crawling. We would have to pick each person in our row and move them to the next spot in the line, and then we would carry people on boogie boards. We had moments where we were expected to stand with our hands on our knees and legs slight bent, staring into the ocean. If anybody moved, we were in for another round of punishment. I remember in one such situation, Coach London was pissed about something. A good indicator to us that he was angry was the fact that he chucked his coffee as hard as he could on the beach. This is was a very vivid and terrifying memory, and I don't remember the punishment we received but I know that I survived. 

California Camp was not always 100% butt kicking and work. After our grueling morning practices, we would hang out on the beach for a several hours and go boogie boarding. Coach London brought a trailer full of boogie boards and wet-suits and we certainly put them to good use. It was always a good feeling knowing that the worst was behind us that day and we could relax for a while on the beach, eat Jamba Juice, hang out on the pier, and generally have a good time. During the middle of the week we were able take a day off and visit Six Flags and spend the day riding roller coasters.

After our morning practices and boogie boarding, we would have lunch and then have an actual football practice on a grassy field that we were able to use all by ourselves. We would go through the same ordeal of doing the jumping jacks, getting the thumbs down, and getting whooped. This time though, once were through the punishment, we were done with the conditioning (until the end) and could focus on actual football. We would practice tackling, running our offense and defense plays and everything else that I imagine every other football team does. After several hours, we would run sprints far longer than we wanted to, and then finally we would be done. It was time to get some sleep so that we could wake up the following morning at 5am and do it all over again.

I came back from California Camp about 15 pounds heavier from an increase of muscle mass. We arrived back home on Sunday morning, and I was absolutely exhausted. We were able to enjoy a day off and the next day, after the first day of school was over, we were out practicing.

I learned a lot about what success looks like from this experience. I understand that it comes with a price.

We expected perfection in the upcoming season. However, we were in for a bumpy ride...