Through the many ups and downs that the football team has faced this school year, our team was still able to compete in the top conference in the city! For eight weeks, they put up a good fight on our blue field and inspired others around them. We interviewed our three seniors: Lawrence, Elijah, and Thomas.

Q: What about football makes you the most excited?

• Lawrence: What makes me the most excited about football is really just going out there and competing with my brothers. It's nice to share good moments with the people that you love and I love everybody on my team.
• Elijah: It’s about creating a family, man. Winning is the best thing, especially with the people you put in work with all the time. It feel great, man.

Q: What makes someone a good football player?

• Thomas: They IQ. Like, being on the field and knowing what’s going on around you, what you need to be doing, and then predicting what the other team is going to do. Your game IQ and your physical attributes are going to help, but that can always be worked on.

Q: As you're leaving Brooks, what are you looking forward to in college?

• Elijah: My major is going to be electrical engineering, but Imma still be playing football on the side, though. And you know I have no left hand for the rest of my life, almost, but I really wanna come back to Brooks and help with the rebuilding of the teams. Really wanna communicate with the new generation. Make sure my boys Bryce and Dialo straight Dave straight. 

Q: What’s the best way to build a bond with teammates?

• Lawrence: I say being in tough moments together builds bonds. Like if we doing conditioning and both of y’all struggling, I feel like when you struggle together with somebody, that really builds the bond. If you always having good moments with somebody, you not really prepared for how to face adversity, so when you in adversity with somebody in yo team, that strengthens the bond when y’all push through.

Q: What makes Brooks football different? 

• Thomas: Work ethic, for sure. You talking bout all the crazy workouts you do. We do a lot of work. It's a mix of the work and the workouts we have to do here.
• Elijah: And our coaches, too. You got coach Myles. Like, Coach Myles is a once in a lifetime. 
• Lawrence: I say it’s the training style. Coaching-wise, that mixed together with our work that we have to get done. Whatever classes you gotta take. If you decide you wanna take a bunch of AP classes, a bunch of dual credit classes, and then you come to football practice. We got 2 hours after school, then you get home at like 7 and you like got like 3 hours to do work before it’s 10. On C-days, we practice 5 hours. We get out at 12 and practice till 6. Nothing changes regardless of the situation. We still going to practice for a long time. We still going to put in work regardless.

Q: What was your favorite moment of the season?

• Elijah: My fav moment of the season is when Nalls got the player of the week. Noah hit that boy, Nalls scooped up that ball, and that boy was running so slow. I was celebrating, and as me and Zay was celebrating, we was literally catching up to Nalls, like running to him. Nalls is like pick up, truck, run.
• Thomas: Vertis got that boom stick. Nobody saw it bro, but Christian picked up whoever he was peddling and he slammed him. 

Q: What’s special about the underclassmen?

• Elijah: We talking bout the juniors? Cause the juniors hard. Dave kind of put in work, too. I haven't seen what Dave could do. One thing that I like about the underclassmen is their grind. The boys is really different. As seniors, I never had an underclassmen hype me up before, and they do it like continuously, and they do it cause they’re so ready to be leaders, and they’re so ready to overtake the field at one point. I felt like I’m ready to get these boys off the field. They really are ready to lead the team and grind on the field. They also make me feel like once when all three of us leave, they going to be in good hands cause they want it for real, so it’s like entrusting them.
• Lawrence: I like they athleticism. I feel like they probably one of the most athletic classes in the school behind us. You know they got, like, a bunch of athletes. They athleticism make them different, though, cause obviously it’s a mental part of the game, but if a team has more athletes than another team, that team’s going to win. You can’t coach god-given athleticism that some of them got, so I feel like that’s what makes them different.

Q: What are your career goals besides football?

• Thomas: After football, I’m not tryna play college football just because I just have the drive, but becoming an engineer, making money, that’s it. Making money.
• Lawrence: Aside from football, Imma use that as a way to get a free education and possibly play at the pro level, make some money. Aside from that, I do want to be a psychologist. I want to major in psychology and possibly minor in child psychology or developmental psychology. A lot of people have mental health issues, and they don’t really have an outlet, especially young black men. A lot of young black men have mental health issues, and they really don’t have a way to express those issues, and I feel like me, I can be a safe space for them cause I’m a black man, and I feel like they’ll be comfortable telling their issues to me because I’ve possibly been through the same things that they’ve been through.

Last remarks: 
Thomas: The football team is co-ed. If you are a girl and you want to play football, join! 
Elijah: Class of 2040 watch out for us! Brooks empire coming back!