“Your heart felt like it would jump out of your chest when the national anthem started,” The first Football game of the 2016 season for the Bison was surrounded with a ton of hype. With the brand new turf stadium, Bison Field West, was built. The day of the first game was nerve racking for some players. A morning walk through on gameday brought confidence in the players for the beautiful afternoon game. About two hours before kickoff, the entire team met back at the school to eat and get their mind right for the first game on Bison Field West. Kick off was at 7:30.
said Junior Alan Hernandez. Friday nights under light is always a dream for some kids. Moving up to playing varsity football was faster and you played against stronger, fast and more talented players. “I remember the first game that I played on varsity it was a lot faster and harder to play. That’s when I started to be scared of getting hurt,” said Hernandez
For some of the players it would be a great game, others not so much. Hernandez started the game with high hopes with not only for this game, but also for the season. The first game was played against Willmar High School and Hernandez’s season would be cut short after tearing his ACL in the first defensive series that the Bison played.
”Getting hurt during the game is always on my mind until I play, then I play hard and forget about the rest,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez recalled the event. “I heard a pop,” Hernandez said, “and knew right away something was very wrong. I was in so much pain. The only thing I could think about was the game and not playing with my friends under the lights every Friday night.” Steve Kipputh, the athletic trainer came out to see what was wrong, all of the Bison surrounded the two of them as he layed on the ground in pain. Hernandez got helped up and slowly walked off the field with the help of his teammates. By the time he reached the sidelines everyone was clapping. Once that series was over all of the starting defense was surrounding him as he sat on the bench with slight tears in his eyes. “The only thing I was afraid of before every game was getting hurt,” said Hernandez. Hernandez would end up being out for the entire season and he played a big role on the Bison defense.
