At Virginia, there is a saying
that we are not Freshman, but rather First Year students. This is because
Thomas Jefferson felt like learning didn’t end after college, it was just the
beginning.
And at college, my education as a
student of kicking was just taking shape.
I was very eager to start the
next chapter of my life at UVA. The first
few days of the first week of practice were for the First Year players
only. Ah, good ol “Two a Days.”
Things were going well, I was
comfortable with both my kicking and my acclamation to college football. I had even been given the same number I had
in high school, “5”.
Then the upper classmen showed
up.
As I was walking out to the first
practice with the whole team, I heard one of the starting corner backs, Tony
Covington, talking behind me. As it
turned out, Tony was also number “5” and apparently didn’t like the fact that a
first year, let alone a kicker, had his jersey number as well. I knew not to look back. Instead, I looked ahead and quickly walked to
the practice field. I ended up having my
jersey number changed to “18,” which would end up being my number for the
duration of my college career.
At the end of the first day, all
of the first year players were informed that we had to report to one of the
Captain’s room after dinner. As it turns
out, the upper classmen were going to start a new tradition, head shaving. I had always had a lot of hair on my head,
except for when I was born. So the
thought of having my head shaved did not go over well.
As I sat in the chair, I expected to have a clean shave,
like the military upon entering boot camp.
However, as it turned out, each upper classman had a challenge to come
up with the ‘best’ or should I say the ‘worst’ hair style. Let’s just say that my style was part of a
math equation, an uneven set of ‘equal’ marks.
