Trip to the Ship 2016

The Trip to the Ship 2016

By Rev. Coach Peter T. Atkinson

Live Video from Practice Speech

Another live view of the speech

Just four years ago we took a trip,

An historic trip to the championship,

And now we’re poised to take another

To join that honored band of brothers,

And put our names alongside theirs

To bear the load that most wouldn’t dare

To do what few break through and do,

To pursue that elusive, chance to dance

To rise beyond your size and advance

Today all the way to the last game,

To be the last team standing, the same

Team that stood together way back when

For then the sun was hot, way back then,

When camp came round the bend again,

You’d sweat, and work, and grow together

With no chance to rest, no rain in the weather

With Coach Jolin when the dawn was breaking

To late at night with the darkness making

It so dark we couldn’t even see our face,

But you don’t need light to run one more race,

Against yourself, your drive your will to win,

So when it comes you can take it on the chin,

And rise up, yes rise high, standing tall,

For though you fall, though you drop the ball

Though you feel you’ve given more than your all,

You still rise up and take the call,

For the Marines were coming, who could forget,

Ammunition cans, grenades, your face dripping with sweat

Your brother on your back, your legs failing,

Your arms flailing, who said football was smooth sailing,

Alongside the Falcons from up there in Queens,

You learned what perseverance truly means,

A lesson we’d need, for if we are to succeed

Indeed, and exceed expectations, I think we’re agreed

It’s going to take more than we’ve ever given,

More than any one us has ever alone striven,

That only in the full combination of all of us

Can we ever achieve the aspiration ahead of us

To say we made it through the duration now in back of us

And join in the celebration that’s now to be grasped by us.

Who knew then we’d be still standing here today,

With only the championship game left to play.

Who knew then when we came out so slow

Beating Hargrave, sure, but what did we show,

That we could pile on yard after yard,

But the win was scarred, our game was marred

By penalties and mistakes, Jamison ejected,

Guilty of a phantom punch somehow detected

By an official on the other side of the field,

The league deaf to our desire to make an appeal,

But what difference would it make unless we could learn

Our season was taking an unfortunate turn.

For the next two games would be more of the same

Gaining fame to our name, but my what a shame,

To lay claim to two losses and owning the blame

Ourselves, not because the other team beat us,

For no one in another color jersey could ever defeat us

No our demons resided uniquely inside us,

Verified by the two game slide that tried to divide us.

And so we tried to run it out of you up the hill,

And we yelled, then repeated it drill after drill,

And the sun shining down, making it hotter still,

We kept beating our heads against the wall until,

We heard Jamison say, “Man coach, just chill.”

And we felt that ever cooling breeze on our face

Looked at the schedule, thought, this is our place,

Let’s win a few games, as the temperature cools

A little confidence can cure the doubts of fools

We’ll be much better in more temperate weather,

And along the way we can play even better together

And maybe our problems will all disappear

And winning itself may clear our fear

And bring in a whole new atmosphere, and it did

We ended our skid, got rid of those Covenant kids.

With tough defense, tackling and sacking

Next we sent Nansemond Suffolk home again packing,

And then on to STAB, who could ever forget,

I know I haven’t forgotten it yet,

We wanted to show Charlottesville that we were legit

A display of redemption we wanted to submit

Submit, oops, No pun intended, of course, well maybe a bit,

I can hear Tyler saying, man it was so lit,

Cause, half way through third they decid. . . .

No we can’t talk, shouldn’t talk about that,

For there was no doubt we’d stomped them flat,

And so onward, ever onward, at home for VES,

After one quarter we knew already who was best,

And we looked it, oh yes, in our fresh new look grays,

It was a shame we’d never get to wear them any more days

For our last two games we’d have to play on the road,

And our missteps early clearly showed,

That if we were going to win this thing,

To sing of victory and earn the ring, we’d have to bring

Our game to every corner of the state

An underdog with a lot of meat left on his plate

Resigned to his fate, happy to wait and contemplate

No matter the date or the distance we’d travel

No matter the opponent who’s game we’d unravel,

No matter the challenge the opportunity was now

Keep winning and the chance would be ours somehow,

We started fast at Randolph - Macon

But though ahead, we just couldn’t shake ‘em,

Until they went and kicked Jahlil in the head,

Naaa, not the choice I would’ve gone with, instead,

You woke the sleeping giants and wound up dead.

We poured on points, we shut them down,

And when the final bell was sound,

We’d all but clinched a playoff spot,

One more win, and we’d surely be in, a shot,

A chance to roll the dice, for only losing twice,

Can suffice to purchase a ticket to paradise,

But that win would need come from the champs defending,

Whose move up a division left their season ending,

Earlier than ours with not much to lose

But so much to gain, and they’d surely refuse

To go away light and not put up a fight

We knew they’d be tough, and man we were right.

They fought and we talked, we talked and they fought

We came from behind, stole the victory they sought,

And when the game had come to nought,

It was more than their character bought they thought,

For they fled their field, left us there hanging,

With no handshake, no fist pumps banging,

But from there we could already hear that victory bell clanging.

And so again we were playoff bound,

Two years in a row we’ve made this round,

But last year it was all we could get,

Those dirty sheets we’d love to forget

This year though off to Virginia Beach

A lesson to Atlantic Shores we’d get to teach,

All our goals just happen to be well within reach

And dialed in we were, all, one, and each.

We started fast, faster than they did,

We kept our focus, we had finally got rid

Of mistakes, penalties, and trash talk,

Learning to let our play be the only talk we’d walk.

Jet sweep, we’d run it and run it again,

They still haven’t stopped it, and it’s been a week since then,

But at the end we prayed together and left as friends

We may have started as boys but we did become men.

And it’s men I look out on today,

Tested by fire, and so I can now say,

There were times this year when I wasn’t sure

You knew what you could do, what your

Potential could be, what you looked in the mirror to see

What as a collective this team could actually be.

There were times I thought you’d settle for less

To accept a version of yourself less than your best

To win the battles that mean nothing and so lose the wars

To be victorious in selfish measurements instead of the scores.

There were times I thought we’d let this chance slip away,

And not get the chance to be standing here today

But now we are here, and it’s all for the taking

To get our redemption, our statement start making,

There is no question we are the better team,

We have the better athletes, we have the better scheme,

We’ve been tested by much harder times than these

Times that force weaker men to their knees,

Situations that would make other men freeze,

Have become opportunities for us now to seize.

It’s all there for us, it’s ours to win or lose

No time for excuses, it’s simply time to choose.

Are you willing to risk and be great

To consummate the hard work and for once create

A legacy that will live beyond your self

To bring home a trophy that will never leave the shelf

What you get to do tomorrow is so precious so rare,

And all of your ring fingers to me look a little bare,

But now our talking is done, but you see talking is cheap,

It’s time now for your play to put you on top of the heap,

And bring home that gold, whooo, it’s yours go take of it,

Opportunities are grasped by just what you make of it.

Are you ready, shhhhhh, I guess now we’ll see

Just what kind of team you will choose now to be.