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Practices like this were \u201cah ha\u201d moments for former Coffee County football player Matthew Pittman. In these moments, Pittman said he knew that as a team, they could do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven in our summer practices, I don\u2019t know what it was about that time,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe it was that time of the year or something in the air? I don\u2019t know what it was. But my team, we had a bond and we had been through a lot, and we knew that we were going to be perfectly fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Playing since he was a child, Pittman said he was always a nervous player getting wrapped up in the excitement. Helping him to calm that nervousness, was him just getting out there and knocking up against another player and being alongside his teammates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe nervousness of it was always huge,\u201d he said. “It\u2019s a big part for me. I was always a nervous player. It\u2019s something about that feeling when you\u2019re on the field and the lights turn on, finally. You go out there as soon as that first whistle sounds, you don\u2019t think anymore, and you just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pittman added that the bond he and his fellow players shared was what made playing football so special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA solid team starts with fundamentals,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s then about teamwork and forming a bond with your teammates. Once you\u2019re solid on teamwork, it\u2019s all about persistence and just staying at it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recent graduate himself, Pittman said that he encourages current players to make the most of their time playing under the lights and with their teammates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would cherish the time they have,\u201d he said. \u201cI hate to make it so sad, but it really\u2026 it passes you by so quick. You never realize it before you\u2019re out of the moment and that you can never do something like this again with these people.\u201d GN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THIS PRACTICE wasn\u2019t like all the others. It was the last practice before the season opener; the official start of the season. You could feel the tension and excitement amongst the players. It was almost as thick as the humidity. He wiped the sweat from his face with his jersey and looked around at his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n