It’s often said that no road is long with company. For Grant High School juniors Deckard Hale and Nick Normington, this could not be more true. From elementary school play-grounds to becoming the starting running back and wide receiver for Grant’s varsity football team, their experience together has been one of true grit and inspiration. Hale and Normington first met at Alameda Elementary School, but their bond formed on the football field. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and their years playing in Grant Youth Football together, this bond only grew stronger. Well into high school, they remain close friends.
However, during the early years of elementary school, Hale and Normington didn’t immediately like each other. “To be honest, we knew each other in elementary school … (and) honestly, we did not get along,” says Hale. “We were kind of, like, in our own little worlds.” This would not last long, as they soon began to connect, become friends and eventually get into some trouble together. “I got ‘football banned’ because I made my own clan of people on the playground. We played tackle football. We just tackled whoever (had) the ball,” says Normington. Hale recalls how they “trauma bonded” because of the experience.
They went through this ordeal together late in fifth grade, just before the pandemic hit. When the lockdown began, their friendship continued to grow. “We really became friends because we played Fortnite,” says Hale. According to Normington, they became much closer after a day they spent together. “We … walked all the way to Lloyd Center. We walked all the way back up to Beaumont, and went to … (Everest M Market) and then … Wilshire Park,” Normington
says. “(It) was the first time I ever went out with some buddies, outside my house, by ourselves.”
For their friendship, this was only the beginning. Normington and Hale would later join a football team together after the pandemic came to an end, an experience through which both their bond and football skills began to take off. Hale’s football journey began with some persuasion from Normington. “I convinced him to play football,” says Normington.
As they played Grant Youth Football in seventh and eighth grade together, they connected both as teammates and as friends. “(In) eighth grade, it was me and his’ team… I played all positions, and then he would do kind of the same thing,” Normington says. “That’s when … that connection really started, especially through football.” Outside of practice, Normington and Hale further their connection when they go to the gym together. “Anytime I work out, he works out,” says Normington. “(If he says), ‘Oh I’m going to work out,’ I’m like, My gosh, I guess I’m working out today
too.’”
According to Normington, their friendship can also be supportive during games. “It’s like a calming effect … everything’s going on … coach is yelling and stuff like that. It gets a little bit nerve-wracking, like, you feel pressure, but for some reason when I’m on the field with him, it just feels like we’re having fun,” he says. “It kind of feels like back to the eighth grade … If I’m tired or something, I can lean on him to give me some yards when I’m too tired to run and vice versa … He might be three yards or he might get 30, but we got each other’s backs.”
Hale and Normington are excited to take on their senior year season together next fall. Their connection, built through both school and football, has led them from the playground to Grant Youth Football, and all the way to varsity at the high school level. It seems like nothing can stop these two, and really, their journey as teammates and friends has only just begun.
