Since i was very little my life revolved around the sport of football. I played football for a number of years on numerous teams like the HFL Eagles and Hamilton Revolution. When i was growing up the only two sports i played were basketball and football. I had never even heard the word “lacrosse” until it was my brothers sophmore year in highschool and he started playing. At a young age & with me not being in highschool i knew little to nothing about lacrosse except that it took athleticism, it was physical, and fast paced. The the only programs for kids my age were in Robbinsville so i never really looked into it. I knew it was defenitely a sport that peaked my interest from the first time i watched it be played. My brother and i have always …show more content…
I knew how the coach was going to be from watcjing my brother play seasons prior and he wasnt exactly what most would call a coach. He never played the sport of lacrosse so he only knew what he could dig up on the internet or find on tv. As an incoming freshman i was put on JV but unlike the majority of the JV players craddaling, catching, and throwing wasn’t a problem for me because of all the practice i had with my brother. I started on JV mainly at defensive midfield, i was just getting used to the game but i already knew it was for me. From what i can remember we didn’t do that bad my freshman year but the JV records/stats were never recorded so i cant give exact details. As the season progressed i started to think to myself maybe i wanted to pursue a career in lacrosse rather than football. However i was only a freshman with three more years still to go so my mind wasnt made up. Skipping ahead to after my freshman year going into my sophmore year of lacrosse we still remained with the same coaching staff who was given little to no respect by my fellow teammates. Since he didnt know much about lacrosse most people thought that they didnt have to abide by his rules and with him being extremely passive noting was ever done about the situation. But me ,as a sophmore, i was just extremely excited to have earned a spot on the varsity team. Although …show more content…
After my sophmore season a senior created a petition to get the coach we had to resign and after 100+ signatures he stepped down. We were on the hunt for a new coach which took several months but soon enough we had to look no further. We got a new coach named Coach Roc Azzrello who played lacrosse at CW Post and Colgate so he was very expericnced in the sport.My junior year i started off playing the same position as years prior a defensive midfielder but later in the season my coach moved me to defense once again for speed reasons. After he moved me to defense our team showed more improvment and let in alot less goals. In all the years of lacrosse programs at Hamilton West we’ve never made it past the first round of MCTs (Mercer County Tournment) but this year we beat Ewing 8-4 to go onto round two of the tournmant. After advancing to the second round we faced hopewell where we were defeated 19-1 but we did the best we could do with what we had. After being eliminated from MCTs we had one regular season game against Edison which we won 10-11 in overtime to end our regular season with a reocrd of 9-7. Which is the best record in my schools lacrosse history. Also we ended up making it into the state tournment where we faced Rumson Fair-Haven who were ranked 2nd in our division. We lost 20-1 in a very big upset however it was the first time Hamilton West ever made it to states. With all of that being said i believe that i
The summer team consisted of tournament’s in the state of Florida, also one big trip to West Virginia. So this year to me was not the most important year to be the starting pitcher to me, because there were seniors looking for schools to also play for and coaches needed to give them a shot before lower classmen. So this year I started a couple games, I also closed a couple just as a sophomore. I wasn’t the best on the team, but I knew if I did my best and worked hard for next year I could be. After the summer team was over I felt good about where I stood skill level with everyone. So at the end of the summer my coach talked to me and asked me to go to a new school, he will be coaching at (Keswick Christian) so deciding where to go was almost
My Freshman year I played midfield for the JV Lacrosse team. Heading into my Sophomore season, I wanted to play Varsity and figured that if I worked hard enough during the off-season I’d be able to make the Varsity team. As tryouts approached, I felt I had trained and was ready to compete for a spot. Unfortunately, during the pre-tryout conditioning I became ill and was unable to practice for several weeks and missed the tryouts completely. I was not able to play Varsity as a Sophomore.
Bare with me for another blog post about volleyball. This weekend was the Badger Region Volleyball Tournament, which my team participated in. When I walked into the building, the memories flooded in with scenes from the elevator adventures, cheese fries, and design your own sweatshirts. The first day, my team didn't play up our full potential, with my team only winning one out of three matches; which meant that we didn't place in any of the brackets, meaning zero chance of receiving a medal. However, at the end of the second match, I got switched from being middle all-around to libero ( a position where you only play back row on offense and defense). I guess it's an honor, but it puts a lot of pressure on me by labeling me as the best passer
In track my junior year I wanted the great opportunity of going to invitationals, and even regionals. Then my coach took away that opportunity from me, by choosing my other teammates over me to go. I think my coach did this because he saw no potential in me as he did the others. I know I should’ve fought against his decisions, but instead I just kept quiet during the year because I didn’t want any problems. The situation never did improve as the season went on. Since I made the decision to keep quiet about it. Afterwards I actually improved myself, and found a better coach to help me for next season.
That cold February, I learned how to pass and shoot, practicing the motions until I was comfortable with them. On team runs by the Hudson River, I watched as my ball bounced out of my stick and into the water. Lugging my equipment between home and school every day, I fell asleep on the subway, resting my head in the net of my stick. Though I was exhausted, somehow lacrosse had given me something to fight for.
Our team was coming off an undefeated season and the JV team before us went 5-5 with the same coaches we were about to have. But I started the season with an open mind, hoping to again go undefeated. With Jack being my position coach, we spent a lot of time together and immediately a bond was formed. His coaching philosophy was always to be a friend not a parent, to teach not to yell and I took this to heart. The feeling I was being respected and not treated like a stereotypical teenager was eye opening to me. I was able to have full conversations with Coach Jack as if he was a very wise friend of mine, which is the best way I can describe him. This taught me something valuable, you can have a conversation with anyone no matter the age as long as there is a mutual respect. Throughout the season Coach Jack treated me as a student of the game, a padawan if you will. He would always explain to me his thoughts about coaching and explain a play call to me to make sure I understood all the aspects. All of these explanations seemed to follow the same phrase, “When you become a coach...” At the time I didn’t know coaching was the career I wanted to pursue, but Coach Jack did. He saw in me love for the game and a passion to stay involved in the great game of football, even after my playing days were over. After one season on JV, both Coach Jack and I moved up to the varsity level my following year. For the third year in a row our team went undefeated in the regular season, though we stumbled in the semi-finals of playoffs and were knocked out of the championship race. All that loss did was fuel our fire for our final season. I however was not aware that I had already played my final season of football. Diving for a football in the beginning of my senior summer, I broke my wrist. One surgery and several months in a cast kept me sidelined from competing with my team. Although
I am not an exceptional athlete. I never won a swim meet, scored a soccer goal or aced a tennis opponent. It took me 4 years, 3 stress fractures and endless pleading from friends and coaches to finally land my back handspring in order to make the competition cheerleading team. On a whim, after my friends convinced me that lacrosse was the ultimate game in town, I agreed to give it a shot. With little hand-eye coordination and a borrowed lacrosse stick, I ventured onto the field for the first time. After a few days of dropping every pass, suffering a few ball strikes to the head and breathlessly running around the turf, something unexpected happened. I caught a ball. At that moment, I resisted the urge to drop the borrowed stick and break
Me being one, if not the best d fender we have so naturally coach wants me out there to assure the victory which was not need since CHCA is very good, but that's because they're new to lacrosse this year. I get out on the field instead of a player that was new and did not know the speed of the A-team games so he was not doing very well. Soon as I got in there I got a ground ball which made boosted my confidence but soon after I got another gb (ground ball) and I took it down the field and the goalie stepped out of the goal to hit me and i spun out of the way put the head of the stick up high and ripped bottom corner and I felt so good but it was so hot so I had to take a breather so stepped out and I did not get a chance to get back in but that's ok can see the nervousness in my face and as the words finally creep out he
The season was going good I was playing my usual position and the coaches were being tough as usual. Then about halfway through the season, a parent coach started helping out. I knew from the start I didn’t like him. One practice I wasn't on my game I was already mad. I had to miss my cousin's birthday party that he was begging me to go to. At the beginning of practice the head coach approached me if I wanted to move to running back I kindly accepted the role. This lightened my mood a little and I
I have always been an active person, never being able to just sit inside and watch television for hours. Every since I was a child, my father always had me involved in a sport such as soccer, lacrosse, or field hockey. I never pursued soccer and lacrosse in high school, but I thoroughly enjoyed field hockey. I played from eighth grade to sophomore year. When junior year of high school came, I realized how out of shape I was and underqualified for the team. I loved playing, but I knew I wasn’t going to make the team. Ultimately I never tried out, and still to this day regret my decision.
In the years leading up to high school, I attended basketball camps, played on AAU travel teams, and practiced relentlessly to sharpen my skills. My ultimate goal was to earn a spot on my high school varsity basketball team. I was thrilled when I found out in my sophomore year that I was the only player to go straight from the freshman team to varsity. However, after the first week of practice, my coach extinguished my hopes of being
My first year playing football didn’t start until my junior year of high school, with that being said this was not my first year being on the football team., The first year of highschool , Freshmen year,I joined the team for two reasons, the first was to have an outlet for my anger, and the second was because of coach Baca asked me to join (well didn’t really ask me but told me)..) Every day freshmen year Ii was at practice doing my best just to play in a couple of games., Ii knew Ii wasn’t very good, but Ii just wanted to be able to play in a few games. That year Ii didn’t play in a single game. Ssophomore year Ii didn't plan on joining the team again because Ii was still frustrated about not playing in a single game the year before, but
This year in sports I was told by other people that I wasn’t good enough to be on varsity, and even the old coach said so herself in front of other people. Once the old coach left the volleyball program we then had three different varsity coaches, and both of them believed that I have the ability to play on varsity. Although each practice I would put more effort in than before, there was a small group of girls who were supporting everything the old coach had to say even that I wasn’t good enough. The level of difficulty there is when playing the highest level of HIgh School volleyball is nothing compared to playing with a team that doesn’t even believe in each other but rater in
It was my sophomore year and my friend Lizabeth would tell me how great lacrosse is, and what an experience it can be. That’s when I tried out for the first time and I felt great so strong and confident. I imagine my skills from marching band would actually come in handy, boy was I wrong. So I didn’t make the team the first time and it kind of destroyed me. Then junior year rolled in and I was not planning to do anything that year. Suddenly, Lizabeth vociferate to me “can you try out again, for me
Every time I stepped on the court I gave everything I had and I did the best of my ability. First day of school senior year, I was excited to be on the last stretch of my high school career and I was more excited to have a volleyball scrimmage after school. We were scrimmaging the junior varsity and it was like a normal game with referees. We were going to play best three out of five, and we won the first set. During the game, I started in the front row and then rotated to the back row and got to serve. I am a middle hitter and I didn’t play back row unless I was serving. That is when everything went wrong. JV hit the ball back over and we shank it off, but I could still get it back into play if I went after it. I turn and start sprinting to the back wall trying to get to the shanked ball before it hits the ground.