Introduction-Dear+reader

Jacob Bastarache Mrs.Dabrush Sec.2 6/5/12

Dear Reader, What your going to read is about football. Everything in the following book are from facts in the NFL and other football leagues. The stories and poems are original and from my imagination. I have put a lot of time into the planning, writing and editing process for each genre and hope you enjoy them and can become involved with the stories. I have chosen football (America's game) to research and write about for this long of a time because it is something very important to me. Before I started to play football I was not a very good student. I never really tried my hardest and gave up easily when problems were too difficult for me. After I got interested in football I discovered that you must meet a certain grade average to play and immediately began to apply myself more in school. I went from B-'s and C's to A's and B+'s. It has also taught me valuable life lessons about team work and how hard work does payoff. Therefore I believe I owe it to the sport that turned my academic career around to learn as much as I can about it. You may not feel the same way about football which is by far my favorite sport but all of these stories have one thing in common. Hard work and determination. The most important thing to learn in life is that trying your hardest and never believing you will fail is the key to success. Take Emmet for example in the story __The untold tragedy of Willie Young.__ Even thought he has no help around him and it his him against the odds he does not give up to avenge his friend and it pays off for him in the end. Creating these stories was fairly easy for me because I took what I learned from football and applied it to themes and story lines that would be interesting for the reader.