One would usually think that a first former at a Friday night football home game would be busy playing with his friends. That was not the case for me. I remember the very first time I was the water boy for the varsity football team. It was last year, while I was still in the fourth grade. I asked my brother Matthew, a third-former at the time, if I could be the water boy. My brother told me to ask Coach Agtarap. So I nervously walked up to Coach Agtarap and asked him if he needed any help with the water. He said, “Sure, we need all the help we can get.” He explained how to do give players water and when to run onto the field. After a couple of games, I finally got it down. I went to every home game, and was a water boy at all of those games.

Doing the water rounds became really fun. It makes one feel like he is part of the game. After finishing my second season, it still feels that way. I remember the most fun I had doing the water was the  varsity game against Greenhill.  Cistercian may not have won, but being at the game was really fun because I got to watch all the great offensive and defensive plays.

The good news about being a water boy is that anyone can do it. All you have to do is ask Coach, like I did, or come ask me if he isn’t around. If you are on water duty, you better do a good job or you might not be able to do it again. Also, you have to get to the games at least ten minutes early, so you can make sure everything is set up.

There are a lot of cool perks that come with being a water boy. You’ll get to come into the locker room during halftime, go onto the field if there are any injuries, and be a part of the huddle during a timeout or at the end of a quarter. You also get to interact with the players. They are all very polite, and really nice to all of us water boys. But there is some danger to being a water boy. When someone gets tackled out of bounds, it can be terrifying if you were not expecting it. It happened to me once, and I could not stop shaking for five minutes.

Also, if you get really good at water boy, then when you grow up you can be a college or NFL water boy, who have an average annual salary of about $52,000. The next time you are going to a Varsity football home game, maybe try out being a water boy!