Seventeen-year-old East View High School football player Apollos Hester's inspirational speech has gone viral on social media. The teenager referenced giving glory to God and gave such a positive message of hope that Christian radio host Rob Dempsey joked that he would make a good pastor.
The wide receiver for the East View Patriots had just won a thrilling one-point victory over the Vandergrift Vipers when he was interviewed about the game. The Patriots were down 28-14 at the start of the second half, but they hadn't given up yet. "At first we started slow ... that's alright, because sometimes in life, you're going to start slow. That's ok," Hester told TWC News Austin.
The teenager admitted that the East View was outplayed in the first half, but he and his teammates were not going to give up. "No matter what the score was, we [were] going to finish hard," Hester said. Their coach told them that although it would be a tough battle, they could and should strive to pull off a win. The Patriots did just that -Hester caught a touchdown pass to help tie the game, and his team pulled off a 42-41 win after Vandergrift failed to capitalize on a two-point conversion.
"It took guts. It took an attitude - that's all it takes! That's all it takes to be successful is an attitude," the high school student says enthusiastically - "Regardless of the situation, regardless of the score board, you're going to be successful because you put in all the time, all the effort, all the hard work, and you know that it's going to pay off. And if it doesn't pay off, you continue to give God the glory. If you still lose the game, you continue to get each other's back."
Hester's positive outlook on life has proved to be contagious. "Win or lose, we realized that we were going to be alright - it was going to be OK ... If you fall down, just get up! If you can't get up, your friends are there to help you up. Your Mom is there, your Daddy's there - God's there ... It's going to be alright," he says.
