My Favorite Sport In My Life

It was volleyball heading into freshman year that changed it all for me. I realized if I was going to pursue my dream of being the best libero, I had to work my butt off. It definitely wasn’t easy, I had bruises, scars, and was sore day after day that summer. I still was very frustrated because I knew I could get better but it just wasn’t in God's timing. When it came to freshman year volleyball tryouts I went in calm, because when I’m nervous I don’t play well. I heard from coaches “Great pass, Jamaica!” or “Nice job, Jamaica!” but then it came. The day where we found out what teams we got on. My dream was to make varsity, but that wasn’t the case this year. Will the JV coach pulled each of us into his office and he said to me “You will be the starting libero for JV and for

My freshman year I made the Varsity soccer team. Every practice I had to strive and work harder to be able to keep up with the upperclassmen skill level and talent. I was finally getting to where I wanted with consistent practice. I became a starter and the upperclassmen would pass me the ball more and help me on the field when there were opponents on me. It wasn’t until the middle of the season when everything changed. We were playing against a school who was very skilled and talented. It was in the first half of the game when one of the girls on the opposing team had the ball and was dribbling it down the field. It got past our midfield players and two defenders. I was the last one before it reached our goalie. I ran towards her and with everything I had I kicked the ball.

I had always wanted to go and try out for the school volley ball team but i wasn't sure if i was going to make it or not. I made the first cut and then the second cut. At the last tryout i put all the effort i had into it, hoping that I could make the team. The final cut came and i was not on the list. I was devastated. This was very hard to take. I told my parents that i didn't make it and they said that they knew i tried my best and that there is always next year in high school. Sure enough they were right. Coming into grade 9, I made the volleyball team and have been playing ever since. I thought that i was panicking and it was over but it turns out that i was just choking and thanks to my parents they helped me out of that

Coach called the first few players that were competing against the New Jersey players. He called me up to the mat first. My opponent walked up in front of me. Adrenaline rushed through my body, half shivering from the intensity. The coach had to blow the whistle three times for the game to start. One, two, and three. As soon has he blew that third whistle I was slammed to the ground! He called me back up for the second round. I wasn't giving up now. I could hear strangers I didn't know cheering me on, and my Dad cheering making the biggest fool out of himself. Once again he blew the whistle three times, and I charged my opponent head-faced right on the ground penetrating his neck with my hand! That was my play in this tournament, although I tied my opponent. There were around 10-15 players left to compete for the state tournament to end.

In 2014 I began attending Chase High School. I would always joke about how I would be the one to get lost and hide in a locker until three o’clock but when the first day rolled around I wasn’t nervous because I knew most of the seniors and I was on the volleyball team. I loved my freshmen schedule, I had classes with all of my friends, I liked most of my teachers and best of all I had first lunch. Volleyball season was starting off decent, we hadn’t won any games but we were having fun and I was a starter. After about three games into the season the JV team was practicing one day in the AUX gym and that is when my volleyball season took a turn for the worst. We were practicing our hitting lines and it was my turn to hit, the setter set me up but they pushed the ball too far back and

I open my eyes and see that I’m surrounded by a volleyball net and hundreds of people in the crowd. I look to my side and see Kerri Walsh! All around me are signs with, “2016 Rio Summer Olympics” on them. I realize I’m actually in Rio at the Olympics and I’m playing sand volleyball with Kerri Walsh!! Woah. Kerri hands me the ball and tells me I’m up to serve. So I nervously shuffle back to the end line, still in awe that this is happening. The score is 20-19 and we’re down by one. I serve the ball and the other team retrieves it, hitting it back over. We volley back and forth 5 times, until Karri set me up and I hit the ball so hard that I get a kill! The crowd is going wild! It’s tied up with 5 points to go. I keep serving. We

Our car rolled and bounced along the grey and dusty gravel road that reeked of gasoline and exhaust. Finally, we came to the entrance of the patchy green fields to start my first practice. I soon learned that there would be no need to be nervous as we all worked hard on this team and all became friends and were very serious about the sport. Every week we attended the five hours of practice and worked our butts off every practice. Finally, It became time to talk about our first games together that were that weekend. Before practice started coach pulled us aside and talked to us about the tourney. We were excited and prepared, but I think all of us were a little nervous. When we got to the tournament we warmed up for our game and and did some quick warm up drills. The game started and my chest was pounding out of my chest thumping so hard I could feel every beat. FWEEE! The whistle sounded and our team advanced on the field passing and running around. The ball was passed to me and I panicked and passed it right back. I realized that I needed to calm down so took a little break on the bench and settled down and got back out on the

There are about 40-50 career-ending sports injuries a year and I was one of them. Back in 2013, my father forced me to go out for football. That was the best thing I could have done until… One day everything changed.

On July 1st, I had a volleyball tryout and I thought I could not do it and that I would not get on a team. I was so nervous I couldn't stop thinking about the tryout all day. I had kept thinking to myself that I wasn't going to make the team. That night I went to the tryout and I tried my best and I tried to have fun and be happy. Towards the end of the tryout they sectioned us off on to courts to play, I was so let down because I was not on the best court and I kept thinking that I would be on the second team which was the B team. After the tryout, I went home very

I instantly felt dismayed at the remark the coach had said to me and left wondering what I'd done wrong. As I got home, my dad asked me how the practice had been that day. I confided what the coach had told me and he advised me to forget about it and to work hard during the practices. So, every time I played volleyball I played hard and rigorously, even when it was just meant to be for fun. My dad also supported me by taking me to the church building so I can practice there, we'd set up and start doing drills. I ended that volleyball season playing the most with the junior varsity team. The coach congratulated me because he noticed that I had improved a lot since the beginning of the season. Once I began my junior year and tryouts came, I was more confident about my ability to succeed, this newfound faith in myself led me to re-join varsity and to become starter of the

I started to see improvement, and my coach must have noticed as well, because he invited me to come to the varsity tournament that weekend. I was excited for the opportunity to prove myself, but after sitting for the first two games, I worried that I wasn’t going to get my chance. When I saw that I wasn’t starting in the third and final game, I gave up nearly all hope that I would get to play. I was starting to wonder if all my hard work was even worth it, when, all of a sudden, my coach told me to get ready to go in. As I entered the game, I felt a little nervous, but I knew I was prepared. This was the opportunity I had been waiting

Every player on my team was capable of playing great, but it didn’t always turn out that way. Our coach absolutely hated when we missed a layup so that is what we practiced to begin with. At first we missed a couple, but then we got in a groove and didn’t miss at all. It looked like we were going to have a good game, until I saw the other team. Every kid was tall, except for the point guard. Our team did not have much height, most of us were a little bit above five feet. As warm-ups came to an end, we took the floor. Coach put the five tallest kids out there (including me) in hope that we would stop some of their aggressive drives to the basket. We shook hands, and the game started, there were twenty minute halves for the game. In the middle of the first half, we were down big time 21-6. We needed to get something going, so my coach yelled, “TIME-OUT,” and the referee granted him with a time-out. “That is pathetic,” he exclaimed. “You guys need to get something going right now, or else it could be too late, to come

A few months ago late in August 2016, the most nerve racking day of my life was approaching. This was the day after Woodbury High School's three day volleyball tryouts, and I had to wait two terrible hours to see if I had been cut or made a team. The teams would be posted on the doors inside the activity entrance of WHS at 12 o'clock sharp. Previously, the three days of tryouts lasted four hours each, it was held on four courts that felt as though you were in the sahara desert when playing. The courts ranged from beginner to advanced, so some days I would do great on the worst court. The coaches would constantly move me around which nearly gave me a heartattack.

Sophomore year came, and I was nervous because now there was jv dark and varsity to worry about. I came to tryouts, and gave all my effort on volleyball as well as my friends. They had made the teams, and I never expected to be in jv dark. My best friends didn 't made it to jv dark but I couldn 't miss this opportunity. In addition, I was depressed that I could not be with them, but I needed to be in a team that I knew it was going to help me become better. It surely did because now there was more tasks that I could do. My serves were something no one could receive. Consequently, the only horrible part of jv dark is that I never had the chance to play. I came to practice everyday and I followed instructions, I never complained if we ran, but the coach never showed me that I could be in the court. I did showed her, I tried to show off my abilities in volleyball for her to notice. As a result to that she always put me aside. In effect of this, it brought me down I

It felt like things were really looking up for us. Then, it happened. Two girls went to a upperclassmen party and posted pictures on social media. The pictures were spread around and eventually got back to our coaching staff and athletic director. It was all the talk, of course. Everyone was taken aback, but intrigued at the same time. Since when do freshman get caught doing things that normally juniors or seniors do? For the next week it was like World War III was happening in the tiny town of Sebewaing. The consequences were not as severe as expected, but they still were not pleasant. Our team was upset and did not know what we were going to do. We lost our other setter and were down to only 7 girls. In volleyball, there are six girls on the court at a time, which resulted in little breaks for anyone. We had to change our whole rotation and everyone had to play different spots. I had to be our only setter and it was definitely a