On the Ponies Football team, every practice and game with the Stillwater Ponies is seen as a family reunion. Players reunite with their teammates after a long day separated by class hours to do one thing: play football and spend time with their closest friends. But no team is complete without their reliable captains: Jayden Leach, Connor McCormick, Eddie O’Keefe, and Mason Wilson. These young men sat down to explain their history with the game and where they hope the team can go.

Every story has a beginning, and this one is no different. All four of our team captains have played football since elementary school as in Minnesota, you become eligible to play in third grade, though some began playing even earlier. McCormick remembers playing football in the park with family and friends. 

Mason Wilson recalls his earliest memory of football. In one of his first games playing with his childhood team, the Bangles, Wilson remembers clearly his lifelong best friend doing a celebratory double back-flip after their first win. “He was eight. Double backflip!” 

O’Keefe’s first memory of the game has a different ring to it: 

“My earliest memory - It was my birthday. We had a game against a really good team, and we got absolutely destroyed. I wasn't even close… it was like 40 to zero, it was awful,” laughed O’Keefe. 

Leach had a similar sentiment, “I remember my first practice. I got wrecked. I got destroyed, but I got right back up.”

This fighting mentality instilled at a young age is central to the Ponies' fighting spirit. Our Captains emphasize this, along with passion and a love for the game. 

“We’re gonna play with a lot of passion. I think it’s a really special group of guys,” stated Wilson. 

The weight and title of Captain do not go unnoticed by anyone. Each Captain was voted in by their peers and former leaders. Each chosen to be a leader.

Leach stated that “being a leader, you’re an example of how the team should behave … an example of the expectations.”

“You're a leader, you're supposed to lead by example. It means just doing the right thing and really taking responsibility for the team more than yourself and always putting the team above yourself,” explained Wilson. 

Leadership means many things to the Stillwater Ponies; a friend, a teammate, and a brother. This football family has triumphed throughout the first half of the season, creating a brotherhood of passionate players who play as one. Time will only tell what these driven young men will do.