Michigan Football: Wolverine Fantasy Camp — Part I

Posted at 6:00am — 5/15/2008

Michigan Football: Wolverine Fantasy Camp — Part I

The Dream That Will Never End. An experience of the football camp last year:
Rick Leach under center with Davis close and Lytle deep. I was Rick Leach in my backyard when I was ten. I remember my Dad and I playing football in the living room with my little yellow Michigan football. We would watch the Michigan-Ohio State game, which at the time was the only televised game of the year. During the commercials, I was Gordie Bell taking it to the end zone. I remember playing football with my Uncle. I had an old while plastic helmet on but to make it a Michigan helmet I would take black electricians tape and make it into a winged helmet. I guess some dreams never die. I would dream about being a Michigan football player then at age ten and thirty something years later, I still have the same dream.

I have just said goodbye to Kim and I am on my way to Ann Arbor to live that dream, sort of. For the next 48 hours, I am going to be a Michigan football player. I am going to join 112 other dreamers in team meetings with the coaches, three practices, dressing in the team locker room, eating team meals, wearing a Michigan game jersey. Running out of the tunnel at Michigan Stadium while my name is being announced and my picture is shown on the scoreboard and my fan (Kim) is cheering me on to victory because victory is the only option in this dream. Nobody but nobody had better wake me up from this dream.

We pulled up to the Campus Inn in Ann Arbor. It is a beautiful hotel nothing but first class for these two days. The young man meets me at the car and takes my bags while I check in. The girl behind the counter says, “Sir, are you a member of the Michigan Football Fantasy Camp.” I proudly acknowledge her grinning ear to ear. After all, I will experience everything a player goes through for two whole days. Every camper was to meet up at the second floor for pictures in our Authentic Michigan jersey. What a feeling to have “MORENCIE” on the back of my number 7 jersey. Remember me being Rick Leach when I was ten. He wore number 7.

After pictures, we were forced to return the jersey until Friday. I walked into a large room and there sat the players on my team. My Michigan team. I sat down at a table with about five other people and had a great conversation about … Michigan Football. I am sure you could have guessed. We all come from different walks of life, different parts of the country, different occupations, different ages but we have one thing in common. Everyone here loves Michigan. It is what will bring us together for the next two days and help mold us into a team.

Looking back on those two days, we went from not knowing anybody to actually feeling like we were part of something. That is what makes sports great. One of the great things that come out of these two days is the friendships that were made those few days. Maybe not life long friendships but friendships that you will remember because you shared something with them that not many people have had the opportunity to do. There were players from Arizona, Michigan, Maryland, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, and Florida. Oh yeah, there was a guy that lives in Columbus, OH but he didn’t want that known so he picked a small town near Columbus. The coaches did not have to worry he was not a spy. He was a Michigan Alum. There was one young guy who was my linebacker partner. He had just graduated from Michigan and was now living in New Jersey. I do not know his last name but his first name was Mike. We practiced together for two practices and at the end of the whole experience; it had felt like I had known him for a month not two days. After everything was over Kim and I went to the M-DEN to spend, a lot of money likes usual and he walked in with his parents and his sister. It was weird because it was like he was a friend not some snotty 21 year old that I had just met yesterday.

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Written by Morencie124

Go Blue — Wear Maize!