--- title: Apollos Hester: High School Football Player at East Texas description: Apollos Hester gives the most enthusiastic inspirational speech after a football game canonical: https://time.com/3421973/apollos-hester-high-school-football-player-texas/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-23T16:09:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:23.906Z og:title: WATCH: This High School Football Player's Motivational Speech Will Inspire You og:description: After hearing Apollos Hester talk, you will feel pumped to take on life. og:url: https://time.com/3421973/apollos-hester-high-school-football-player-texas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: WATCH: This High School Football Player's Motivational Speech Will Inspire You twitter:description: After hearing Apollos Hester talk, you will feel pumped to take on life. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # WATCH: This High School Football Player's Motivational Speech Will Inspire You by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 23, 2014 4:09 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 23, 2014 4:09 PM UTC Fans of _Friday Night Lights_ will want to check out this interview with an enthusiastic Texas high school football player who was fueled by his love of the game to make an exuberant and loquacious speech. While the television show taught the world to love high school football, thanks in no small part to the tough, but caring Coach Taylor and his words of wisdom, when it comes to making inspirational speeches, Coach Taylor has nothing on Apollos Hester. The East View High School player was thrilled that his team was able to recently triumph over Vandegrift High by just one point, and he had some thoughts about never giving up, even when you’re down. “It’s an awesome feeling when you know you are going to win, when you know you are going to be successful, regardless of the scoreboard, because of the effort that you put in,” he [told](http://austin.twcnews.com/content/news/304990/high-school-blitz-interview-with-apollos-hester/) TWC News Austin reporter Lauren Mickler in Georgetown, Texas. And even if your team doesn’t win, “Just keep smiling!” This student doesn’t need a guidance counselor to tell him that he should consider a career as a motivational speaker, because he already is one. Take a knee, and let this player’s enthusiasm wash over you. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3421973/apollos-hester-high-school-football-player-texas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3421973/apollos-hester-high-school-football-player-texas/"},"headline":"WATCH: This High School Football Player's Motivational Speech Will Inspire You","datePublished":"2014-09-23T16:09:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:23.906Z","description":"Friday Night Lights fans will want to watch this one.","url":"https://time.com/3421973/apollos-hester-high-school-football-player-texas/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","High School","Football","Students"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3421973/apollos-hester-high-school-football-player-texas/","name":"WATCH: This High School Football Player's Motivational Speech Will Inspire You"}}]}] ```