Freshman Experience
Athletics – Salvatore Carfagno, Class of 2018
Posted January 26th, 2015
It was the week of June 9th, a day or two after my eighth grade graduation. I stepped onto the field on a hot, summer day. This started my career as a St. Augustine Hermit. I felt very overwhelmed, and I had the feeling of butterflies in my stomach. I was with kids, more like men, who were all older, bigger, and stronger than me. There were just three or four freshmen there. We went through the drills and listened attentively. Then at the end, it was time to “run a little,” per Coach Reardon. Well, let me tell you, it was not my idea of just “a little” running; it was more like a lot of running. If that tells you anything about how the day went. Now, when you read this, I don’t want you to think that the football program or any program is horrible. I don’t want you to get scared either. As time went on, we got pads and started doing some hitting. I felt welcomed and felt a sense of team when I stepped on the field every day.
The freshmen would go against the freshmen, with encouraging words and screams from the other players. Time went on and we crawled closer and closer to the start of school. The freshmen players grew from just about three to over twenty kids. We split up into a freshmen team and varsity team. At this point I really felt welcomed and could already sense the brotherhood among us. Time came for our first scrimmage against Paul VI, and we came together as team and played our best. Unfortunately, we ended up losing, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that we played our best and the sense of “team” was there. We recently traveled to Camden Catholic and beat them 21-0. We are getting better every single time we step foot on the field. I am thankful that I decided to go out on that hot day in June and saw all those kids throwing up. My advice: if you want to try a sport, try it. You never know what can happen.