Olivia Moore

Junior Malachi Gittens-Ampadu walking off the field. “Going into a game, you got to feel like your him, but not cocky or confident,” shared Malachi.

Junior Malachi Gittens-Ampadu is a football player at Sunlake High School. The game against Hudson was a home game at Sunlake High School. Malachi felt that he and his team were preparing for a loss and he didn’t think it was a good mentality to have going into a game. He said, “Coming into the game, I feel like as a team, we were expecting to lose. A lot of people on the team knew we were gonna lose and I said that’s not a mentality that you should have going into a game. Going into a game you have to feel like your him.” Malachi believes he could’ve done better in the game; he thinks he could’ve made better plays in the moment. Before the game, he was hoping to get more playing time as a running back, but he got in on special teams. Malachi stated, “I go in first play of punt, sprint downfield, Evan kicks it right. My angle was off of pursuit, but I manage to hawk him down and make the tackle.” Malachi has a big load to carry coming from Canada because everyone doubts the football skills of Canadians. For him, football is life; without football he doesn’t know what he would do. He said “…to be honest with you, coming out of Canada, there’s a chip on my shoulder because everyone thinks they can’t do anything. They think we run backwards.” Malachi didn’t have a lot of faith in his team because of their mentality. “During the game, I didn’t really have much faith in some of our players,” he continued.