It was 9:30 p.m. on a night in early September, and piles of homework and papers were strewn across my kitchen counter. But my glowing computer screen tore me away from the piles of untouched work, and I waited in anticipation, counting down the seconds until I could make my next pick.

Homework would have to wait.

It was my first time trying out Yahoo’s edition of fantasy football, and I was in the midst of picking what I called a “super team.”

Fantasy football allows participants to pick players from different teams to join their online team, and based on the performance of these players in each NFL game, they gain a certain number of points.

I decided to join the SHS Journalism league, comprised of exclusively journalism students, making the entire competition much more enjoyable. Nothing is better than a little friendly competition against some friends, right?

I set out to create my “super team,” filled with players from the San Francisco 49ers, and their just-as-talented, bitter rivals, the Seattle Seahawks. I also added a few players from other teams to strengthen my group.

With stars like running back Marshawn Lynch, quarterback Russell Wilson, wide receiver Percy Harvin, quarterback Colin Kaepernick, wide receiver Anquan Boldin and running back Frank Gore, my team seemed unstoppable at first glance. Game in and game out, these players seemed to be superstars, so I was confident I was able to succeed in my league.

The opening game of the NFL season on Sept. 4 pitted Seattle against the Green Bay Packers. Although I missed the game, I saw the highlights immediately after and was thrilled with the results.
Seattle won 36-16, with players on my fantasy team contributing to the imbalanced score. All I needed was for San Francisco to deploy their 2013 season heroics into their opening game, and I would be in good shape for the start of the season.

Sure enough, San Francisco pulled off a 28-17 victory against the Dallas Cowboys with my fantasy players excelling and earning me even more points. I beat sophomore yearbook student Joshua Deng 139.44 to 127.74.

Amazingly, I also ended opening weekend at the top of the league.

I was all smiles going into the second week. With no injuries on either Seattle or San Francisco, I was sure that my players would repeat their first-week feat and add even more points to my already high score.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Seattle’s afternoon match on Sept. 14 against the San Diego Chargers went horribly. Lacking their usual grit and firepower, they lost  30-21.

Not a good start. But I was counting on the evening matchup between San Francisco and the Chicago Bears in the first official NFL home match at the new 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium to bring me some points.

To my surprise, San Francisco also lost to Chicago 28-20. In a game with so many ups and downs, the players on my fantasy team underperformed and impacted my score tremendously. I lost 75.92 to 92.38 to senior Robby Gragnola’s fantasy team.

These first few weeks have been both exciting and devastating, and because this was my first time participating in fantasy football, I did not know what to expect. Who knew that there could be such a strong sense of competition, perhaps even larger than that of the NFL, in the world of fantasy sports?

I am hoping my “super team” will lead me to victory, which I will constitute as anything other than last place. As the weeks pass by, there is nothing I’m looking forward to more than seeing the Niners and Seahawks clash and perhaps generate a boatload of fantasy points for me.

I now know why 19 million people all over the world play Fantasy football.