My First Parallel-Personal Narrative

Throughout my childhood I could never say I had the most exciting life, even now I can still say that about my daily routine. Although my family put effort into nurturing me into a well-rounded member of society since youth, I never felt any change or progress personally; it was more as if I simply adapted to whatever expectations my elders had of me. I know this feeling did not apply to me only, in fact, I was once in a classroom full of fifty-two people who accommodated to whatever came their way.

The pressure was on. Myself as well as my middle school football team had been practicing for weeks to beat our opponent, Southport Middle School. They had beaten up the year before and it was our turn to pay them back.

Sunday April 24, 2016. This was the date of this tournament. The team that I’m on is called the Berlin Bulldogs. Berlin is the town that we support, and Bulldogs to support that we’re a tough and strong team. We played eight games and lost 3, won 3, and tied 2 of the games. Most of the parents that we had to support us, were supplying the food and drinks so that we wouldn’t starve or run out of drinks. We had a chant, a great team, and the best coaches that guided us through the success that we needed. The worst part of this tournament was that we’re a 2nd league team and we were playing against the best of the best teams. The strange thing was that we won against one of those teams by 10 points (they must have played against really easy teams to become the best of the best teams!). The fields that we played on had the greenest of grass, but the fields were horrible because there were many areas that had holes and many people on the teams came off the field in pain because of falling into those holes.

It was a brisk fall evening, and my seventh grade youth football team and I had traveled to Aberdeen to play the undefeated Chiefs. We had worked harder and longer than we ever had that week to show that we were a threat in the league and ascend from our third place ranking. We knew it was not going to be easy; the Chiefs’ team had the fastest running back in our division, and they had scored more total points per game than any other team in the Southeast Idaho Youth Football League. The field was neater and greener than we had expected in this town. It was a great day for football, and I was with all of my best friends. I knew going in that it was going to be a learning experience whether we won or lost that night because the Chiefs were

The Swans victory against the Eagles in the Grand Final was unexpected when comparing the individual talent between the two sides. The Swans credited and prided themselves on a commitment to play for each other and win against the odds. This was referred to as the ‘Bloods’ culture. Paul Roos emphasised on a defensive style by drilling the Swans, including Goodes, in hard tackling skills, resulting in the team destroying their opposition. Paul Roos was a huge influence on Adam Goodes' sporting career and his belief in Goodes motivated him to reach his maximum performance. In addition to Adam Goodes’ physical and performance attributes, he contributed strong mentality and drive into the Swans as much as any other team

Our season was coming to a close, and we were all excited for our final game of the season; that is, until we found out that the coaches and parents of the opposing

It was Max Cipriani’s first day of tryouts for Dominion Middle School and he was eager to get going. Dominion was only about 5 minutes away from Max’s home by car. Mom, his brother Sam, and Max get there 10 minutes early to kick around for a bit. Max, having already met the coach from last soccer season just said hi and runs to play. He kicks the ball around with some friends from last season. They shoot around on Max, who was the substitute goalie from last year’s team. The sound of the soccer ball and being stopped was continuous. Boom, Clap. Max was a kangaroo, jumping back and forth to block the shots. A couple shots were blocked by the goal post.

Before I knew it the game was starting they got the ball first that meant that it was my time to shine. I walked onto the field, my adrenaline was rushing through my body I was ready to show

As we traveled from Winner to Rapid City, we made many stops, from Pine Ridge to the Bad Lands. As we pulled into Rapid I started getting excited but also getting a sick feeling to my stomach, like stomach had butterflies but also was in knots. As we got to the Civic Center, I was more nervous than excited, then I saw some old hand game friends and went to scrimmage with them. As my team and I were scrimmaging my sponsor was in a meeting, a few minutes later, being team captain or head guesser, I

TWEEEEEET. Boom boom, boom boom. I heard the beating of my heart as I picked myself up from the ground. Trailing 1-0 with just over a minute left to play, the referee had blown the whistle for a penalty kick, and my coach was calling my name to take it. I stepped up to the spot, it was the last play of the game. I stared into the keeper's eyes. Left or right, left or right. He blew the whistle. Strategically placing the ball into the lower right corner, I could smell the celebrations, I could hear the parents and teammates chanting my name, but instead, all my senses were snapped back to reality when the keeper hit the ball out of bounds. That was it, I had the chance to win the championship for my team, and I blew it.

I drove home from breakfast pumped for the game and more ready for this game than any I had ever played before. I just had this feeling in my heart, that if we all came together as a team and laid everything out on the line, we could come through with our first Monadnock victory. Hours passed, and there was still a nervous pit in my stomach. Bus time came, and we boarded united as a team. Nearly an hour later, we would arrive at our rival’s school. Together, we walked onto the field with an air of confidence and swag. We worked through the usual warm up. Our nerves were still buzzing when we heard the sharp squeal of

Sports often puts another commonly accepted misconception to rest: that we should forget about our failures. Regardless of its outcome, that fateful match had been the best performance of our team of the entire season. Although yes, we fell short of our goal and failed, it would be a disgrace to act like the whole ordeal was all a waste. In the coming days as that match played over and over in my head like the numerous reruns on the “Saved by the Bell” channel (I have been consistently assured of its existence), I realized the extent to which I had grown as

The game was to be decided by penalty shootouts. Once again, the odds were in our favor, we had the best goalkeeper in the league. Despite having to shoot second we all remained confident that we would win. No goal was prevented for the first thirteen rounds of penalty kicks. In the fourteenth round of penalty kicks, the St. John’s striker quickly took the shot and missed. It was up to me to win the game. I set the ball on the ground, took three large steps back looked at the goal and took the shot with all the power I had in my right foot. I missed. My shot hit the top of the crossbar and bounced back to me. My heart sank, I had failed at my job to deliver for the team. We battled back and forth up to the twenty fourth round, when the player from St. Johns finally “made” his shot by protest because it had hit the crossbar gone in and gone out. All Devin needed to do was make his shot to win the game. Devin took the shot. He missed. It was over, our perfect season had come to an end. We had come so close but ultimately

Thus, the purpose of this report is to analyse different aspects and contributions to a local game of Australian Rule Football, to determine areas of praise and improvement.

It was time to take the group photo with our trophy. The team gathered in rows and smiled. We took one holding up a one for first place and then with a double U for the win. Then the fan section surrounded us for a group photo. After we took individual photos and the crowd calmed down, we loaded the bus to return to Eureka in victory. We were escorted