Team sports are all about one thing: commitment. This same thing is true for just about every aspect of life. Whether you are going to school everyday, attempting to be part of a relationship or throwing a football fifty yards, no person can overlook the aspect of commitment.

This theme as become apparent over and over again during the Garfield football season, and it’s repetitiveness has become exceedingly frustrating. Prior to the start of the season, Jay Schulkin told you of his ties as a fan of the team he believes in year in and year out. Two games into the year, it became apparent that commitment would be the most important part of the team’s success this year.

The two of us, along with an innumerable amount of purple and white fans have made our way out to games in the heat, the cold, the dark, and the light. In the beginning, it was positive. Even through a loss to Ballard, we saw positive things the team did that got us giddy about the season to come. In week two, the defense stepped up and put on a show against Juanita in front of a screaming section of Bulldog pride. Never before had I seen fans so excited and optimistic about the gridiron. The spirit was infectious. The team especially felt that they were finally good enough. Good enough to do something special.

Two weeks and two 40-plus point blowouts later, I sit here wondering, what happened?

For the first two games of the year, the defense was the strong point of the team. However, following the second game, against Juanita, the defensive coach quit for personal reason. In the next two games the team gave up 57 and 47 points. After the third game, a 57 – 6 rout by Eastlake, a coaching dispute between the head coach Scott Laigo and his nine volunteer assistants surfaced. When the dust cleared, nine coaches were no longer part of the Garfield Football program.

Whether these coaches quit or were fired is up for debate. However, athletic director Peggy Jackson-Williams made it clear when she said that, “[the coach’s] services were no longer needed.” Laigo had essentially fired his entire coaching staff.

The next week Laigo took a whole new lease on the program. He closed practices to anyone except players and trainers. He hired Joe Bland as a coach and had him keep order around the field.

However, the team lost many players to injury or ineligibility. Anthony Stewart went down with a knee injury. Endure Dinish followed him off with a shoulder problem. Lardell Simms left the Redmond game with an ankle injury. And the team suffered its yearly ailment of cramps in the second half of the game.

All of these aspects of past teams that we thought we had finally gotten rid of, have come back to haunt us as fans, and as a team.

As a fan I continue to follow our football team with pride and spirit. The entire situation with coaches, players and fans has cast a shadow over a very promising season of Garfield football.

Players on this team are trying to lift that shadow. Senior Andy Durland talked about the coaching situation and his feelings toward the future.

“We committed to [the coaches],” he said. “We had more people in the weight room this summer than ever before and we did all the work they asked us to do. For them to give up on us like that is a b**** move.”

However, his displeasure with that situation does not take away from his optimism for the rest of the year. He feels that the team has committed itself under Laigo as it’s head coach and still plans to compete every down of every game for the rest of the year. Even in the Redmond game last Thursday, when the team started the fourth quarter in a 47 – 0 hole, the fought back to put points on the board and get momentum for the remainder of the season.

The team has yet to play Roosevelt and Franklin, as well as Woodinville, Lake Washington and Inglemoor. The players have said that they plan to show up ready to compete. The important aspect that we call commitment, the one that has brought our team so much joy and so much pain during this roller-coaster ride, is showing it’s face once again. These players believe in themselves, in their system and in their coach.

Whether there are 12 coaches on the sideline or three, there are still football games to play. We as fans have the choice to believe in our team or give up on our team just as it’s coaches did.

I know there are many fans who are committed and who will continue to fill the stands each week. But, for the rest of you, there are still football games left to play. I hope you will join me in showing your spirit and your support. Will you be there? Will you believe?

I believe.