A last-minute stop of a two-point conversion helped undefeated Texas school East View High hold on against district 25-5A rival Verndergrift. The Patriots won 42-41, and quarterback Josh Covey threw two touchdown passes.
The game’s biggest star, however, was Covey’s teammate Apollos Hester. The senior wide receiver, who caught one of those two touchdown throws, became the biggest thing in Texas shortly after the final whistle blew, as a postgame interview with local news affiliate TWC News Austin ended ended up going haywire around the Internet.
Tapped to talk about the thrill of Friday’s contest by TWC’s Lauren Mickler, Hester stepped atop a two-minute soapbox, preaching with unrivaled enthusiasm about the heart of his team and the virtues of determination.
“Sometimes in life you’re going to start slow,” he said. “That’s OK. We’re going to start slow, but we’re always—always—going to finish fast. No matter what the score was, we were going to finish hard. Yeah, they had us during the first half. I’m not going to lie. They had us. We weren’t defeated, but they had us. But it took guts; it took an attitude. That’s all it takes. That’s all it takes to be successful—is an attitude.”
He goes on to throw water all over himself and tell the audience, “You can do anything you put your mind to.”
A stunned Mickler left the field and quickly posted the broadcast onto YouTube, where it’s been seen more than 771,000 times.
Not one to miss out on an opportunity, Hester’s gone and created a Twitter account to support the rush of attention that’s come his way. On Sunday night he tweeted,
I was not expecting this kind of love! Thank for all the support.
— Apollos Hester (@Apollos_Hester) September 22, 2014
Texas forever.
Photo via Lauren Mickler/YouTube
