My first varsity game on the field was actually a substitution. I was running ECO my first year and the U got injured right before halftime. As we walked onto the field and my heart was racing with pride, the R brought me back to earth: "Bury your flag and whistle in your pocket, don't pull out either of them and you'll do fine."

Not a cent. Another rookie lost some skin off his butt, though. :cool:

Update
 

Well, I finished my first 2 games last night (9th/JV DH) and they both went well. The second (the JV) was better than the 1st and was tied with 3:00 left in the 4th.

I caught a ride up with the R and we went over some stuff prior to the game/pre-game. I didn't get run over and actually remembered most of the advice you guys gave me. Other than a few times after a change of possession making a first move toward what was the "new" offense instead of behind the defense I think it went well. Evidently the rest of the guys on the crew thought so too since they said I did well.

Thanks for all the pointers and advice (especially the one about not moving if the runner is coming at you - that happened a couple of times and each time thought about that post).

Great news, welcome to the club :)