Journal 4 - Aubrey

 Aubrey Roahrig

English 1109 M-W at 10:30

10/03/20

Journal 4

    Chapter 10 of One and Done really showed me a theme of competition along with inequality. First, Maurice Clarett's car had gotten broken into which then Coach Tressel guided him to file a police report of the incident. So, Clarett follows the guidance of his coach and does file the report. This act ultimately turned against Clarett and the NCAA starts an investigation of how he could have gotten all the money to buy all the very expensive CD's. Maurice Clarett states that the CD's were already in the car when he had gotten it, therefore he could have never stolen any money for them. He says, "I got the car from a guy who repossessed the car and the CDs were with a bunch of stuff in the back seat when I picked it up ... They just happened to be in a car that was loaned to me. That was the extent of my understanding about them. Period" (Clarett 152). Andy Geiger, who Clarett has called a liar in the past is totally against him and on NCAA's side when it come the the investigation. The line "This is when Jim Brown was like screw you too and called Andy Geiger a slave master because he was acting like he owned my ass and could whip me himself or have me whipped by the NCAA" (Clarett 156).  It really made me realize how almost everybody is against Clarett, whether it be his economic status, race, or anything he's always on the short end of it all. All this inveitably ended up in him being kicked off the team and getting back into drugs and crime. 

    A very big role model in my life from 8th grade to senior year was my track teams hurdle coach. The first time I ever met him was when he came to the middle school to help us hurdle better, there was a drill that I absolutely could not grasp in that moment and the words "I can't." slipped out of my mouth. This at the time infuriated him, and I had no idea why and he threatened to make me run laps the next time I said the words "I can't." In fact freshman year I refused to run the 300m hurdles, which was required at Olentangy to be ran by every hurdler. I thought I couldn't do it, but I ran it and hated it, but this race would end up being MY race. I would say about sophomore year he really started to become more than a coach to me. He became a friend and someone I could always come to for anything. He pushed me to be my best every practice and was always a shoulder to lean on for me during hard times, he made running to death at practices worth it. Then during junior year I was crushing my personal records every single race, and during our schools invitational I ran the fastest out of everyone against me and placed first for the invite. After the race he was so proud of me and gave me such a huge hug and I think about that every so often because it was such a pivotal point in my track career. Without him I never would've gotten there. He's showed me that giving up should never be an option, and that you CAN always do it even when you think you can't. I didn't get my senior night due to Covid, but I would've given him all the credit for my accomplishments in track.