My Hockey Lesson Lessons

It was my senior year of high school football and all I could do was sit on the bench with an injury. It was so frustrating because all I wanted to do was be on the field playing with my brothers like I have since freshman year. I was just so happy to be on the field on those Friday nights and just get to play the game made me so happy when I first started playing. Until I got a big head and started thinking about myself and what I was going do that game or how many touchdowns I was going to score that game. I stopped thinking about the team because of my success. I think this might be a lesson I needed to learn and if I did not, I would have had a big head my whole senior year and never would have saw the real reasons why I loved playing

Naturally, however, I got apprehensive in some plays and hesitated or did not move exactly as I should have, which would usually result in a goal or near shot, but it was not the end of the world. Near the end of my last season on junior varsity, I was goalkeeping against one of the toughest teams in my county, and was being hammered by their offense. At one point, I rushed forward to steal the ball from a forward, hesitated, and collided with the player. The sheer force of two players running towards one another and crashing jolted me, and I was on the ground, okay but a little confused. The player beside me struggled to get up, and she could not. I must have been in shock, because I could only sit and stare as the school trainer hurried over, and an ambulance was called for. She was ultimately taken to the emergency room, and doctors determined that she had broken both bones in her shin. I was given a red card, and later a three game suspension as a result, even though the accident had been unintentional. Something like this had never happened to me, and I was not only dumbfounded, but I lost a great deal of confidence in myself as a

I have not and will never forget those series of events. This time hurt me but also helped build upon my character. It was my freshman year of high school. I had decided to play soccer, which was not a hard decision for me since I had played travel soccer pretty much my whole life. Also my brother was in high school at the time and played for the boys soccer team, and had my dad as his coach. He loved it and was having a great experience playing high school soccer so of course I like to follow in my brother’s footsteps. I was very nervous at first. There were over eleven seniors on the team, and they were pretty intimidating to me. During the summer, I played with the varsity often and enjoyed it. As I kept playing with them and performing well, my nerves lessened. Finally when the actual season rolled around, I was put on full varsity. All my hard work had paid off. I was one of the two freshman put on varsity. I was ecstatic. I was actually very lucky at getting put on varsity because at this point in my life I played purely out of natural talent. I was never one to put in extra work outside of practice and be disciplined in the way I lived my life. I never really strived to be the best I could be. Making varsity made me somewhat of a threat for the older girls. Some were happy for me, others did not like the thought of a freshman on varsity. These girls were hard coore they were bound and determined to make it to state that year. They were not going to accept anything less than amazing. This put an incredible amount of pressure on us younger girls. I remember going to every practice nervous that I was going to mess up and they get mad at me. I never really felt at ease with them. In the first few games I got good playing time. I was doing really well. I was finally getting comfortable out there on the field, but that was not the direction God was taking me and with one swift kick of the soccer

From the age of three, my life was nothing but Hockey. With a father who was a hockey player and a brother 3 years older already playing hockey, it was clear which sport I was going to get into. Once I started walking, my parents put me on the ice to learn the game of hockey. I instantly fell in love and I have continued playing to this day. Once it came time to play high school hockey, it all got serious. I was a freshman on the varsity team with my brother, who was a senior at the time. This was nothing but an emotional year for me, it was my first year in high school and my last year to play on a team with my brother. Once my brother graduated, he decided to go onto Juniors hockey, which is what I would do once I graduated. By the time I graduated high school, my brother would exceed the age limit for juniors hockey, so

I felt my heart racing as I imagined making the top team in the club. I knew right then and there that I was going to try out for the team as soon as I discussed it with my parents. After my parents’ approval, I went to the first tryout with high expectations and aspirations. The tryout was going well at first; my skill was evident on the ice. I was making quick passes and skating hard. I will never forget the fateful pass that happened next. I remember the play in slow motion. I passed the puck through the center ice, a precarious move, but it was intercepted by the opposing team and as a result they scored a swift goal. Groans from the other players could be heard and my heart sank. That pass would determine my fate. After the tryout, I undressed slowly replaying the pass repeatedly in my head. Coach Ruben walked out of his office with the list of players who made the team in his hand. As he posted the list on the bulletin board, all the eager players ran over, examining the list of names. I stared at at the list for what seemed like an eternity searching for my name, but it was not there. I stifled my disappointment and followed my parents out to the car. To my ten year old self, my dreams were crushed and I assumed my hockey career was over before it even

It all started when my mom walked in my room and asked me if I wanted to try out for a summer hockey league in 2017 that was a 2004 and 2003 birth year team. I wasn’t interested at first because I didn’t know any of the 03 players as I am an 04 player. Then she told me I probably wouldn’t make it because the 03’s are really good. So I decided why not right? Then at the tryout there weren’t as many 03’s as I thought there was going to be. I then thought they

I sat in the corner of the locker room, just looking, waiting, and most of all there was a lump in my stomach I couldn't seem to get rid of. This was the region 5 WAHA Kohlman Cup tryout room and there had to have been 30 others looking for my spot that I wanted on the team glaring at each other. There was a coach in the room that went by the name coach Buster and by the looks of it he was just as uncomfortable as all of us, sitting there and staring into the sea of players just waiting for the ice to be done resurfacing. The buzzer went off.

We were playing Fond du lac, and they were good. So our teams gets on the ice and we start playing. We score two goals right away in the beginning. They were starting to get mad. After we scored to make it 3-0 they started sending out kids that would hit our players. Our team then started to retaliate. So we were getting penalties and before you knew it the score was 2-3. We started to realize that it wasn’t worth retaliating. There was about two minutes left in the game, and we played shutdown defense. Nobody was getting a shot on our goalie. The game ended 3-2 us so we were on our way to

It was my first year playing lacrosse and most of the other girls on my team had played for two to three years. Going into our first game, I had practiced with my stick and was fairly confident in my ability. However, when I stepped onto the field of my first lacrosse game, I was mistaken. The girls were much stronger than me and had obviously practiced much longer than I had. In one of the plays, I had the ball in my stick and was running down the field. I was so excited that I had actually touched the ball, I had forgotten to cradle. My defender quickly checked my stick and brought the ball all the way down the field to score. I was so mortified after my first game that I used my embarrassment as fuel to my fire. I practiced as much as possible and tried to always have my stick with me. Annoyed, my mother would always complain when I bounced the ball against the house to practice catching. I set the goal of score one goal in my season and leading up the championship game, I had still not netted one. In the car, my dad made me close my eyes and visualize myself scoring a goal. At the time, I thought this was silly and that it would not work! However, as I ran down the field with the ball in my stick, I cut to the center and beat my defender, just like I had envisioned. Frustrated, the defender slashed my stick in the 8 meter and I got a free shot. I could not believe that this was happening. I had a

My first Opening season game was two years ago at the Blues Hockey stadium in ST. Louis Mo. It was a cold day, The sun was barely shining and I had just got to ST. Louis driving thru the city making our way to the hockey rink. The traffic was horrible and not safe there was tons of people walking on the streets trying to get to that game. When we finally got there we pulled into the parking garage and got out the car after we did that we put on our jerseys and went to the side of the garage and watched tons of people rolling in and not to mention the band that was there. After the band was done we went inside and found our seats when we got there we had an unlimited buffet of food to eat, I had chicken tenders, hot chocolate, soda, and hot

In my four years of playing hockey for Bishop Dwenger we had never lost as many games as last year. Being a junior came with responsibilities; I was an upperclassman and I had to prove that I could turn all of my hard work into a successful season for my team. After losing so many games, I began to feel like a failure to my team. Not only this, but I was also the captain. This meant that I had even more responsibilities.

After for playing on the Ocala Lightning for two years, in 2013, I went to try out for the Olympic Development Program (O.D.P) or the Florida state team. I felt excited and ready to be beast at this try out. The try out was near the Space Coast so it was a little bit of a drive. As we were driving I was worried, nervous, and filled with the jitters like I am on ITBS days. Finally the moment came where I had to face the try outs by myself because I knew absolutely no one there (except my parents). I went to get my number so the Coaches could evaluate the players. I was so timid that weekend I spoke to other players and coaches about five times, that’s it. The try out was two days of hard work and I

Thankfully, they didn’t tell me that only boys could play hockey, even though it could be a tough contact sport. Instead, they enrolled me in ice skating lessons so I would be prepared to play on a team. I went into my first lesson and told my instructor right away, “I’m wearing hockey skates and not figure skates because I don’t want to be a figure skater—I want to be a hockey player!” After taking lessons, I joined the Mainline Mustangs, and I loved every minute of it, even though I had to hide behind a towel or jersey in the corner of the locker room whenever the team changed before and after a practice or game. I may have been the only girl on the team, but I loved playing my favorite sport. However, that whole experience was tainted during our championship game. We were facing the best team in the league and we were down by five goals in the final period. We knew that we weren’t going to be able to make up the deficit, but we tried our hardest anyway. As two players fought for the puck in front of the other team’s goalie, I waited at the hash marks so I would be ready if someone got the puck to me. As the fight for the puck continued, it slid out from their sticks and straight to mine. I couldn’t believe my luck. The two players and the goalie hadn’t realized what had happened. I looked back at my coaches as they screamed at me, “Shoot the puck!

Today, I’m not going to miss the game. I instinctively ran through the hallways as I 've done throughout every Friday. My hockey game is always on Friday we have a match against another AA team, sometimes we lose and sometimes we win but today’s the big game, I can’t be late. While running I took two immense steps one at a time down and out the stairwell. “ Not going to be late, Not going to be late.” I just repeated this phrase in my head over and over again as I dashed out the main entrance, nudged someone and squeezed my way through the automatic door.

By working with girls with varying levels of athleticism and knowledge, I was taught how to be a team player who builds off everyone’s skills. I also learned how to continue fighting even when you are losing the battle. I learned many lessons from games. I think the most important lesson I learned is you should never give up. Never giving up is important in sports as you can always come back and win. In light of all my reasons I chose to play a full-time summer sport, travel softball, instead of going on family vacations.