Air Bud

By: Trey Darnall

It was a cold day in October at Notre Dame high school. The football team was practicing when Dylan Freeman, the running back, saw his dog sitting there watching them practice. When they had a water break Dylan went over and pet his dog. The dogs name was Buddy and he was a Golden Retriever. Dylan loved Buddy and played with him all the time when he had time to.

When  practice was over he walked home with his dog. When he got there he decided to take him to the park. When he got there Dylan went to see his friend he had a football. They were playing catch and all the sudden Dylan over threw a pass to his friend. When the ball was in the air Buddy chased after it.

Buddy leaped up into the air and caught the ball. When Dylan and his friend saw that their jaws dropped in amazement. They went over to Buddy and got the ball. They thought maybe it was just luck that the dog caught it but it wasn’t. They threw it up in the air again and Buddy caught it again.

Then they thought of this crazy idea that the dog could play for their football team. The next day at practice Dylan took Buddy to practice and asked his coach if his dog could play football. The coach laughed and said “Are you crazy a dog can’t play football.”

Then the quarterback threw the ball and Buddy chased after it and leaped into the air and caught the ball. The coach was amazed and said “Maybe a dog can play football, but i’ll only let him if u make his pads for him.”

Dylan said okay and went home and got started making the pads. The next day he came to practice with his dog in pads and ready to practice. Since the dog couldn’t do tackling drills they just made him to catching drills. They started with a machine then they used the starting quarterback so Buddy would get the hang of catching balls from him.

Their first game was only two weeks away and Buddy was ready to play. They called Buddy “Air Bud” because he flew when he leaped to catch the ball. There first was against Clemson. They started playing and they put Air Bud in. The defense laughed but Air Bud made them pay. The first play they threw it to Air Bud and he ran all the way to the endzone. After that they never stopped scoring. Upsetting all their opponents by at least 35 points.

They made it to the playoffs and met with Clemson again in the first round. Clemson was ready for them this time. Notre Dame only beat them by 6 this time. In the second round they met with Auburn only upsetting them by 3. They were in the semifinal game when Air Bud caught a pass and a defender landed on him and hurt Air Bud.

Everybody on the team thought the game was over when that happened but it wasn’t. Notre Dame ended up scoring and winning by 12 points. Air Bud and Notre Dame was heading to Dallas for the FBS championship game. All eyes were set on Notre Dame because they didn’t have Air Bud.

Notre Dame started out really slow with a turnover their first 2 drives. Luckily there defense held up and only Oregon only scored 6 points. The next drive for Notre Dame was a great drive they kept moving the ball. They ended with a touchdown and the lead with 3 quarters to go.

It was downhill from there on out until they got to the fourth quarter. Oregon was up 20-10 with the whole 4th quarter left but Notre Dame rallied and got 14 unanswered points and won the championship game 24-20. They celebrated all night. Even Air Bud was healed enough to party a little.

They figured out that it wasn’t the dog that got them to the championship game. It was them, they had the heart it took to win a championship. It’s not about how good your team is. It’s about how your team cooperates and gets along that really counts. It’s not what your record is that gets you there. It’s the passion and the hard work you put into it.