Highly comical high school athlete cliches

So my writer and myself are talking the other night as he's transcribing his quotes.

"Why do high school girls always talk about coming together as a team?," he asks after covering a girls lacrosse game.

"I guess it's the female version of what boys say, which is always 'Stepping up," I reply.

So then we start talking about some of the funny, ordinary, run-of-the-mill things high school kids say that never seem to get old. It's almost as if they've taken a cliche class.

I think my personal favorite would be when anyone uses the word "just."

"I just wanted to go out there and play good defense," Johnny said.

Really? You didn't want to score any points? You had no desire knock down your free throws? Wierd.

 

"I'm just happy to be here .... hope I can help the ball club."

"We've just got to bring our "A" game every night and if we do that, we'll be fine."

"I just had to throw strikes, and I knew my defense had my back."

 

"If we continue to get the clutch hits, good defense and strong pitching, we'll be OK."

Really? I'd think you'd win more than your share of games that way. May be just me, though.

 

"We work hard in practice and do what the coaches tell us."

... because if you don't you won't play?

"I just had to be there for my team."

... like you'd be anywhere else?

 

"I gotta give all the credit to my linemen. They really opened up the holes for me."

 

No lie, a team that dominated the smaller classifications and had won like three state titles in four or five years won its third title in a row. And the players and coaches all said, "Nobody thought we could win!"

Hell, EVERYBODY thought they could win. It would have been a bigger story if, with everybody back, they didn't win. But the "us against the world" mentality is one HS coaches especially love.

 

I don't know which one is worse. I gave 100 percent, or I gave 110 percent.

 

"Early in the season, the pitching is ahead of the hitting." - high school baseball position player and coach on a team that is shut out. Uses this line even if season is half over.

 

This. A thousand times, this.

 

"Kids say the darnedest things." -- Art Linkletter

 

Is this a newspaper, or Penthouse letters?