High School Football: A Personal Statement Analysis

Ever since I could remember, soccer had been in my life. If there was a soccer team that needed a coach, my father was always the first to volunteer. There were almost too many strenuous weekends spent hours away from home for soccer tournaments to count. My entire family, consisting of my parents, my siblings, my dog, and myself, packed in a mini-van heading to a city that I had never heard of for soccer games. But when I entered high school, all that would soon go away. I kept playing the same sport that I always had, although now I had to wake up at five in the morning for six hours of high school soccer practice in the smoldering summer heat in order to make the high school team. High School sports were more competitive than anything I had done before. I put in as much effort as I could to make the Varsity High School team, staying out past dinner to practice even longer. I was utterly divulged in soccer and trying to be the best I could be. Soon, I would regret placing a game over spending time with my family.

I had apprehensively tried out for high school soccer, knowing that kids from surrounding towns, who had all played travel on flashy, winning, teams, would be my competition. All I had wanted was to make that freshman team, to be part of a soccer program that in recent years had been a championship winning team. Fortunately my hard work payed off and I made that team. It was during my time in the school soccer program that I had not only grew as a player but met some of the people that I now call my best friends. The team required dedication,

Soccer has always been a sport that I’ve loved throughout my childhood. I’ve watched superstars like Sami Aljaber and Yousf Althunyan put on epic performances through the expression of soccer. However, I never truly understood what soccer could do for me until I signed up for my first soccer team. It was in high school, and I was only sixteen years old at the time. I was very excited to have my own team, and to have my statistics being recorded throughout the season. I definitely wanted to test my skills on the soccer field against true competitors that wanted to win just as badly as I did. There were local schools that we had to compete against, and then if we made it far enough, we would get to compete at the state and national levels. When I signed up for my high school soccer team, I truly didn’t know what to expect. I expected to have some fun with my new teammates and friends, but I didn’t realize that it would teach me a valuable life lesson about hard work and discipline. This paper will explain the ups and downs that I’ve had throughout my high school soccer years, and how it helped me become a better person today by instilling positive traits such as hard work, determination, and discipline.

When I started my soccer career during my freshman year, I began in the junior varsity team. I was not so familiar with sports until I started playing football and soccer. I once believed that I was not good enough to join the team, but after committing myself to conditioning and being determined to give my best to every practice, I proved myself wrong. Not only did I make it to the team, however I was also a starting player. For the following year, my sophomore year, I transferred into a different high school. There, I played in the Varsity team as a right defense for my sophomore and junior year. This year, 12th grade, I will be a captain for the soccer team. I was able to not only build strong friendships with my teammates, but also with

For most of my life, I was skilled in organized sports, especially soccer, which I had played for many years. After a successful soccer season my freshman year, I thought that I would make the JV team for sure. At tryouts, I went through the motions of each drill. I breezed through the conditioning tests, doing the bare minimum for each test. I didn’t try as hard as others, as I felt that I was more skillful than most of my peers.

The next big milestone in soccer for me was when I was a freshman in high school. I went to Troy High and didn 't think I was good enough to play high school soccer. If it wasn’t for my best friend’s dad, I really wouldn 't have played. He told me that I would regret not playing and that I had a lot of potential. I decided to try out with my three best friends and we all ran and did exhausting fitness exercises for weeks during tryouts. First, we’d have to do five laps around the track. In the beginning of the season, those five laps are a killer. By the end of the second one, I am usually out of breath. After that, we’d get into groups and do stations, like jumping over bars or doing sit-ups and push-ups, basically anything to get us into shape. The third part of practice was sprinting. I like sprints because I am way better at running faster for one-hundred yards, than doing a long distance run. The next part of tryouts were the best, all the girls would get put into two teams and we’d just scrimmage so he could see our real soccer skills. Coach Haviland, who was the varsity coach, decided teams after the tough two weeks. He said I had a little maturing to do on the field and that I will be on varsity in no time. I was shocked! I didn 't even think he was considering me. I had a lot of fun with the Junior Varsity team and made lots of friends. By

Soccer is my favorite sport, no I don’t watch it on tv, nor do I have a favorite soccer team. So, it all started when I was eight years old I believe I told my mom that I didn’t want to do a certain thing anymore and that I wanted to play a sport a.k.a soccer. She of course told me sure. So she signed me up for soccer a couple of days later. I was so happy I was jumping up and down with excitement. Little did I know that I would love the sport. So, the day of the first soccer practice I was nervous I never done anything with the team and I had these questions running in my head like what if no one likes you here? Or what if you like the sport? Or what if you aren’t even good enough ? but I let these questions slide and I had learned how to play the sport. In that amount of time I thought no more like Challenged myself and said “ Cassie you can do this you are going to be apart of this team and you are going to be the best.” From then on I challenged myself, I practiced almost all the

“When your legs can’t run anymore, run with your heart.” Spring is the best time of the year, because it is soccer season. Spring of 2016 was a special time to me, because I was a freshman at Wahlert Catholic High School trying out for the women’s soccer team. I went into the first open gym scared, nervous and excited all at the same. The open gyms were for use to get in shape for the actual season and for the coaches to get a better look at our soccer skills. Previously in the year of 2014 I played for a club soccer team called DSC or Dubuque Soccer Club. After that 2014 season was over I decided to quite DSC and try something different. So going into open gyms I knew that I was going to be a just a bit rusty because I haven’t played soccer in a while. As open gyms went on some upperclassman were telling me that the coach was very impressed by the skills I had. Being only a freshman it was very flattering to know that the coach thought that about me. Knowing this it drove me to keep pushing myself hard and hard, because my goal was to make it on varsity.

Brian Pham Lyon English ERWC, Period 3 23 September 2014 Personal Statement On March 21st, 2014, I came into my high school football coach’s room, preparing to talk to him about joining his team. Being in his presence at first was extremely nerve wrecking.

Every student athlete dreams of playing the sport they love in their future, whether it is in college or even to go play as a professional. I have played other sports in my life, but soccer has always been my favorite sport. I decided to drop every other sport I was in to play soccer. It was a pretty hard decision because I really did like playing other sports, but I really wanted

Stephen is a senior transferred to WCSU from Miami University in Ohio, it is better known for the home of the famous NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. That one fact made it a little easier to bond and converse with Stephen as I am a huge football fan and he happens to coach football. It wasn’t Stephen’s idea to transfer but his parents, they decided it was too expensive for him to go to school so far from home. He therefore transfer here and now lives in his parents basement in Ridgefield CT, and he commutes to school. Stephen is majoring in media studies and he hopes to do something in the field of being a promoter or a publicist. Stephen coaches high school football mainly to freshman's and he also is part of a baseball league. Stephen also loves to sing even though he claims he isn’t so good at it.

I have always been told that I got blessed with my genes. Everything I do athletically just comes natural to me. I have had the opportunity to play multiple sports whom of which I have had success in. In all of the sports I’ve participated in I have loved soccer the most and track is just the most natural sport for me. I’ve played soccer for over half of my young life. Soccer just makes me happy when I play. I have also been blessed by being average at soccer too. I didn’t do well my 9th grade season so coming into being a Sophomore I wanted to change that. I worked hard in the off-season and I became a varsity Captain and I finished the season 3rd in the area for assist and was a 2nd team All-District player. I was proud of myself but i knew I didn’t give it everything I had.

I remember it like it was yesterday; looking out at the defense and trying to decide on which play to call. I was in the single biggest game of my high school football career so far. It was my first time playing the Evangel Eagles, our biggest rival and the back to back state champions. It was my freshman year, and I was the starting quarterback. So there I was, my fourth high school football game as a starter and playing against some of the biggest guys I had ever laid eyes on, who, coincidently, all wanted to tear me limb from limb. I gazed out at eleven hostile pairs of eyes across from me and racked my brain for what play could possibly work to get us into the endzone. There was just under two minutes left in the game and we were up by

While I was in high school, I developed a deep love for education. I was fortunate to have excellent teachers in nearly all of my classes. These teachers challenged me daily to think about class topics in a different way. Whether it was through seminar discussions or research papers, my teachers in high school made me excited to come to class. When the school day ended, some of those same teachers became my coaches.

This was the case for me, after ten years of playing soccer I decided to quit to try middle school track. Soccer was becoming unenjoyable and more of a stress from my family than a release. I had suffered an injury and never recovered, but my parents would still push me in hope to keep colleges interested in me. I enjoyed track, but missed playing so I decided to play soccer freshmen year. It was just how I remembered, but better. High school soccer was soothing and easier than club soccer, allowing me to still have space to breath. Freshmen year I made JV at a new school where I knew no one. I met many amazing people who pushed me to my best and a coach that understood my style of playing. My JV coach, Trahan, would push me to my limits, challenge me, and make me a better player while not trying to change my style of