By 
During my sophomore year of football, I faced one of the hardest choices in my life: I was ready to quit the game I loved.
I came to Carroll because I was offered a scholarship to play quarterback on the football team.
But during the fall semester of my sophomore year, I was ready to hang up the shoulder pads.
I grew up watching and playing football. But my passion for the game had died.
Football was no longer fun to me.
I went home that winter break to decide whether to quit or stay. I even had to decide whether I was going to come back to Carroll or not.
I wanted to stay at Carroll. I had met new friends, had great professors, and had started a relationship with my current girlfriend.
Plus, fly fishing in Montana isn’t too bad.
Growing up in Oregon, with a river only a mile from home, I shouldn’t have been surprised I would make my decision during a hike in the woods.
Winter break passed, and only a few days before my flight back to Helena, I went on a trip to the Redwood National Park with one of my best friends, Joe Johnson. Joe and I are from Grants Pass, Oregon, so a trip to the Redwoods is a short drive.
We headed down south to Northern California and started our day trip.
I played football and basketball with Joe in high school. During Joe’s senior year of football, he tore his ACL and MCL in the first game of the season. His injuries ended his senior season right after it just started.
During our first hike through the Redwood Forest, I told Joe I was quitting football.
Joe nodded. He looked disappointed, and you could tell he wished he had an opportunity to play a sport in college like myself. But he calmly supported me.
“I would do anything to put a helmet on and play the game again,” he said. “It sucks you don’t want to anymore.”
At that moment, I knew I shouldn’t quit. My decision came moments after the words left his mouth.
If I left, I would have given up on myself, my teammates, my family, and Joe, someone who didn’t have a choice to hang it up.
As much as I disliked football, I was given an opportunity to continue playing, something one of my best friends couldn’t do anymore.
I came back to Helena for the spring, and my passion and motivation for the game I once loved surged back. Finally, I was excited to be around it again.
After a long winter ball full of lifting and exhausting running workouts, spring ball was in sight. I couldn’t wait until spring practices started. I just had to get through the last winter conditioning.
We were doing a drill, pushing towels across the concrete with our hands. I hit a divot of broken concrete, then pop.
I tore my throwing shoulder.
No more spring ball for me.
That summer, I ended up getting surgery and had to spend June and most of July in a giant bulky sling. I missed my junior season. Then, I had to sit out my senior season and help coach. I couldn’t throw the same, and it continued to hurt.
In November, I finished my not-so-fantastic football career at Carroll College.
I’m grateful I never quit.
I don’t think I would be the same person I am today if I quit football. I know I would have regretted the decision.
Graduating from Carroll and finishing my football career would have never happened if I hadn’t gone hiking in the Redwoods with my friend Joe.
