Personal Narrative

As I was growing up, my parents always wanted to find something to help me be active with other children. I was extremely shy and would not talk to anyone. At the age of six, I chose to try out for softball, but I was not sure if it was something I would continue to play. Softball has helped me break out of my comfort zone and talk to people, make lifelong friends, and be stronger as an individual. The older I got, the more open I was, but my first year of JV is what broke my shell.

Yet my apprehension prevailed as I continued to fear getting put in the game in case another player was injured. I was still afraid of making mistakes and getting blamed by screaming coaches and angry teammates. Sometimes these fears came true. During my sophomore season, my position led me to play in the varsity games on many occasions. On such occasions, I often made mistakes. Most of the time the mistakes were not significant; they rarely changed the outcome of a play. Yet I received a thorough verbal lashing at practice for the mistakes I had made. These occurrences only compounded my fears of playing. However, I did not always make mistakes. Sometimes I made great plays, for which I was congratulated. Now, as I dawn on my senior year of soccer, I feel like a changed person.

I went home full of excitement and quickly recounted to my mom the success I had that day at baseball. I went to bed that night with more confidence than I thought possible and looking forward to another day of baseball. Made my way through school that day visualizing my performance that afternoon for tryouts. With more excitement than nerve I began the second day of tryouts. Thursday we worked on throwing and catching skills, friday was batting. An area in which I struggled a little more than others but with confidence pouring out of me I stepped into the box. Even with the confidence boost working on my skill I struggled heavily and was not happy with my performance. So trying to keep my confidence up I tried to finish that day of tryouts but I could tell that the coaches were less pleased with my performance that day. There’s not a much faster way to be served a large slice of humble pie than to realize you may not be all that you once thought you were. So keeping that in mind I finished the day doing my best. When we gathered together to make final cuts I could feel my heart beating in

I worked out everyday and practiced every chance I got. When the first day of tryouts came around again, I woke up that morning like every other day, but I knew today was different. I knew that today was the day I was going to redeem myself. When I got to the field most of the guys looked familiar, a few of them even joked around with me and asked "you're back for more?" Unlike the previuos year, I was ready for this tryout. I proved to everyone that doubted me and said I couldn't and I earned my spot on that team. The moment I saw my name on the team's roster was one of my proudest

Every year the game got more and more serious and now the team wanted to win just as much as they wanted to have fun. When I entered High School soccer I was very nervous because I was in the youngest age group. There was a lot of older and more experienced players on the team. The summer before the season started the team went to a soccer camp to play against opposing teams, and as a new player I was very nervous to play. It was my first year playing High School Soccer, with no experience. The team played a couple games, and I was put on varsity to play. I was so nervous. I did not think I could keep up with the pace and the intensity of the game. The team ended up winning the tournament in that camp. When the real season started, I was starting on varsity my freshman year. I felt like I had no room for mistakes or I would get yelled at and taken out of the game. During the first two years of High School soccer, I also played basketball and club soccer. I decided that I really wanted to take my soccer career further. I decided not to play basketball anymore and just focus on soccer. I attended a recruiting session, which sets up your profile so colleges

I ended up going day two and I felt like I really gave it my all that time, and I think the jv coach noticed me cause she called me out to talk to me and said “hey you did great today, what’s your name?” I responded “my name is Ana and thank you!”. I felt super confident from what she told me, because she noticed i was doing good but before that she told all of the girls that were also at tryouts that it was hard to make any of the teams because their was a lot of girls with talent and there was so much competition and how hard it was for the coaches to choose the teams. I was worried because of what she had said, the next day at school they were giving out the results of who and who didn’t make it in the

Fast forward to the next year, I showed up at tryouts. I was confident, but still nervous considering what happened the year before. As I jumped in the pool I was ready for whatever the coach threw at me. Not once did I get lapped. The coach posted the list, I anxiously looked over it and saw my name. Relieved and overjoyed, I had finally made it. Later that year I even won the coaches award at the banquet. Forget about making the team, I was now an

I made sure to act very confident at tryouts so it would not be a repeat of the year before. The high school tryouts felt completely different. I was more confident, louder, and overall a better cheerleader. All the hard work I put in really paid off. The day after tryouts, I remember I was in the parking lot of the eye doctor’s office when the teams had been posted. I was so nervous I would be let down again, so I made my mom check first. Typically freshman year girls cheer for the freshman team, but my mom did not see my name there. Panicking, I took her phone and double checked scrolling to see the other teams. Sure enough, my name was not on the freshman team. My name was under junior varsity! I surpassed my goal I made a team that only a few girls my age

I was competing for a spot with girls I had never even seen before, and even worse: I had no idea what they were capable of. Tryouts gave me the same rush of adrenaline I felt during my first performance. As much as I loved the feeling, I was terrified of it all at once. Once I made my first impression on the judges, it was time for the waiting game. It took a solid three weeks until I got my letter in the mail that held my future cheer sealed inside. To my delight once more, the contents of the letter were more than exciting. “Congratulations! You are invited to cheer on Saint Francis Junior Varsity Cheerleading!” stated the letter in big bold block letters. The season flew by faster than the speed of light, and before I knew it I was feeling the adrenaline rush again inside the sticky, hot gym. I put my spot on the squad in jeopardy by going for the varsity squad as a junior, which was something very risky because the seniors always got selected above a junior. Taking this risk was something I would have never done, as I used to always play it safe. An upperclassman I had confided in when I met her during my basketball season watched my tryout from outside the window looking into the gym, and she said I had killed it, and the letter I received that April reflected that. I was one of two juniors cheering on the football squad of all seniors.

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

It was a very warm and tense place in the gymnasium of the Alpena High School. A group of freshman and sophomore baseball players were waiting for the words you wanted to hear which was “Congratulations” or the not so good news of “Sorry” from the coach deciding if you made the team. Personally, at the start of baseball tryouts I thought to myself it’s going to be a toss up to see if I would make the team having a 50/50 chance. I was nervous for the most part because there were an abundace of upperclassman also trying out for the team that were on it last year. There were twenty-seven people trying out for fifteen spots to play JV baseball.

Most people only see me an average kid, playing a game on a field, with a soccer ball. Nothing more, nothing less. I think about times when I played well, when I played poorly, when not everything has gone my way. I have had coaches tell me I'm one of the best on the team and I have had the director of coaches for my club tell me that I lack the skill needed to play for the A team.

It was finally time for soccer tryouts. There were a lot of people trying out for the team, myself included. They lasted all week long and we did different conditioning and fundamental drills. Obviously,

My freshman year of high school Coach Specht was the assistant soccer coach, at tryouts he told me that I would have a bright future as a player and could possible play varsity as as a freshman. Throughout the year I keep putting in the time and finally half way through the season I got my chance to play my first varsity game. This

My freshman year of high school Coach Specht was the assistant soccer coach, at tryouts he told me that I would have a bright future as a player and could possible play varsity as as a freshman. Throughout the year I keep putting in the time and finally half way through the season I got my chance to play my first varsity game. This showed me that he really believed in my skill, to put a freshman in against mostly juniors and seniors. Not many coaches will risk putting someone that young on the field. From there on out I played in most of the varsity games. I may not of started or played the whole game but it was a great learning experience and really helped me improve as a player. What made playing varsity even better is that we went on to win the school's first league title that year. Without coach Specht’s trust in me I wouldn’t of been able to experience winning the league.