by Anthony Fama

The COVID-19 pandemic has filled many students’ lives with isolation, but for these three students at the University of Maryland, football is a safe haven from all the stress.

It all started with an idea among three friends — Trey Hammond, Jakob Fong and Jim Joyce, who are all juniors at the university. They all came together and sat on a couch in their South Campus Commons apartment and decided that they weren’t going to let the pandemic get the best of their semester. 

It was then that Hammond, a lifelong Baltimore Ravens fan, brought up the idea of playing football at the Chapel Fields. 

“We had to do something this semester, we can’t just sit back and not have fun,” he said.

Joyce and Fong were on board with the idea, and these friends have played on these fields everyday since classes began in late August — never missing a day on the field unless weather got in the way. 

Determined to get on the field at whatever cost, finding time during a virtual semester wasn’t always easy for the group. A variety of economics and writing classes required attention, especially for Fong, an economics major..

“With this major, it requires a lot of work, and I felt bad sometimes to have to let my friends know I couldn’t do a certain time,” Fong said.  His time spent throughout the day is “wasted” when he does not have his classes, he added. Since his schedule is so spread out, it’s hard for him to find time to play football with his friends. 

Fong wasn’t the only friend in the group who had to adjust on the fly in order to go onto the Chapel Fields. Joyce had many issues of his own and still managed to find himself catching the football from his favorite quarterback, Hammond.

Joyce broke his hand the first week in September, forcing him to wear a cast on his throwing hand. Even though he would wince through the scorching pain every time he put pressure on that hand, he wanted to make it work. 

For an entire month, Joyce had caught and thrown the football with his friends with his opposite hand and as hard as it was for him. 

 “There was nothing in the world that could stop me from hanging with my best friends,” Joyce, a sociology major, said.

This friendship among the group had developed a lot since the start of their freshman year. Hammond and Fong started off as roommates, but as time went by, their friendship blossomed as they realized they had much more in common. 

“It took some time for us to gain the bond we have now”, Hammond, an economics major, said. While they have vastly different music tastes, their love for football kept them close. 

They started playing football with each other every week during their second semester of their freshman years. This was when they met Joyce in their ECON200 course. 

One day, while the teacher was lecturing, Joyce was confused about an assignment and asked Hammond and Fong a question. Although they were complete strangers, the three future friends sparked up conversation about football and found themselves exchanging numbers.

After their ECON course at around 8:45 p.m Joyce would walk back to their apartment, and talk about  football with Hammond and Fong. This led to three years of a bond that “cannot be broken,” Joyce said.

All three of the students have played sports growing up and this year was the first time for them where it didn’t feel the same. They all have taken part in intramural football and basketball at the university and it was an “area away from schoolwork” for the group.

“This year has been a social hell for all of us, and we had to do something about it,” Fong said. All athletic activities at the university were put on hold despite Maryland Sports programs picking back up again. Throughout this time of nothingness, and with no activities to take up, this group took it upon themselves to have some fun.

The hearts of the friend group fill with pure happiness when the sound from the message app from their phones ding, and the text from Hammond comes in saying, “Football 4 p.m., let’s go fellas.”

As the friends take their first steps on the well-cut grass, there is always one common theme for whenever they are able to have the opportunity to go onto the field.

It’s their love for the game of football that allows these three friends to go on the field everyday, and without it, they said they would be stuck at home all day.

 “All three of us would be out of shape watching television all day,” Joyce said. 

The moment of calling a slant route, where Hammond throws to Joyce, who is sprinting across the middle of the field, while Fong guards him. It’s that play working to perfection, and the satisfaction of Joyce pulling in that ball for a touchdown, is the reason why the group plays until the sun goes down.

Featured photo: An empty Chapel Fields on a cold December afternoon. This is where the three friends played football almost every week.