Personal Narrative Essay: Meeting Professional Athletes

What is the only thing harder than disciplining a dozen ten year olds? Disciplining them on ice! All throughout my life I’ve played sports, and no matter what sport it was, there was always one person who seemed to have it out for me…the referee. The referee is one of the most hated people in the world of sports, but is also one of the most crucial. I grew up with the mindset that the referee was the enemy. Whenever they made a call against me or my team, they were always wrong, no matter how obvious the penalty was. But one day, my whole perspective on referees changed---the day I became a referee.

It was a chilly Monday night as I finished putting on my baseball uniform. I was nervous because it was the championship game. We were playing our rival team, the Yankees. My close friend Tom was their pitcher, and he struck out a lot of people. Tonight, I was going to get a hit off of him. At least I hoped so. I heard a beep in the driveway and realized it was my mom who was ready to go. ¨ Coming Mom!¨ I shouted through the garage door. As I jogged to the car, I could not stop thinking about getting a hit off of Tom.

It was just another school night in the seventh grade. Our recreational tackle football team had a practice at 730pm until 9. It was a very swampy night and from that I felt myself very sluggish. At the time, I was a backup running back. I was always left on the sidelines facing the chills of the cold wind during games. I typically didn’t get to see much playing time on the field, but that night I got my opportunity. I was receiving kicks during a punting audition and all I was doing was catching the ball and throwing it back, nothing unique. One throw after another, my coach began to praise my arm strength. Seeing me pass the ball was a true eye-opener. That night, I went from a backup running back, to the starting quarterback of my rec

How did Roger Banister break the 4 min mile? How did Dennis Kimetto run a marathon in 2:02:57?

CHARGE!!!, the crowd went wild as the song was playing in the stadium. As I got closer to the seats it got louder and louder I felt like I was at a monster truck show. Then I got to the seats I turned my head to look at the field and it look a lot more greener than on TV. The home team was practicing on the field ready to beat the Washington Nationals.

After waiting three weeks, I was finally cleared to play basketball again only to suffer another one. I was out after receiving an elbow to the head in a previous game giving me my first concussion. Walking onto the court at Eden Valley High School, I could feel the nerves rush through my veins. The whistle blew and the game started. I was going up to grab a pass when an opponent ran into me. Black. In those moments I was unconscious, I could only remember colliding with my opponent. I woke up in a car, my head aching as I sat up and saw bright beams of light off the street lights. The light stung my eyes and made me feel like the world was spinning a million miles per hour. “Stay awake sweetie we are almost home,” whispered my mom. Every heartbeat thumped in my head like a bass with the music to loud. I was so discombobulated and hurt I just laid there in the back seat

Instead of feeling pressure to conform as a student at the University of Georgia, I have found that being in college has made me value the importance of a higher education more so than I ever had before. During high school, my primary goal was to play well enough to receive a football scholarship. At that time, my focus was not on academics. However, since I've arrived at the University of Georgia, my entire concept of the value of a college degree has slowly changed. Rather than seeing just football in my future, I can now picture myself as a football player with a college degree. Consequently, instead of having a negative impact on my personal growth, college has helped me broaden as a person.

My plans when I get older where like every other child's. I want to be in the NFL. To get where I am you have to start at a young age. I showed up at practice everyday and on time. I also studied the play sheets and went through all my routes. I studied day and night to be where I am. It wasn't easy. There was no time to play games get in trouble do drugs or hang out with friend on an everyday bases. You have to tighten up be a man. It's not like I woke up one day and I was starting running back I had to do what's right stay in school not miss a day because that one day could have been the most important day ever and I wouldn't have even known. You know why?? Because I was and didn't show up to school. Don't be that person I used to be.

I was not actually planning to do this event, but I have to be honest, after 65 OCR’s in 2015 I am burned-out both physically and mentally and I just wanted to have an amazing weekend with both amazing people and amazing obstacles and both Canada and Dead End fit that need very well. I cannot say enough good things about my time in Canada this year and was very happy to be able to go and cover this event on short notice/request.

I just got it last night and I have already gone through it. What am I going to do? I go through all of it like it is candy. I need to start pacing myself or this is going to get out of hand. I get more tomorrow but if anyone found out, it would be bad. I need to make sure no one is around this time. Last time, I almost got caught. Maybe I could get him to give it to me before the football game.

I was ecstatic as I screamed and ran toward my team who was gathered outside of the dugout, awaiting my arrival. I hit the mass of bodies and was immediately swallowed by the mosh pit. I didn't want the moment to ever end, I wanted to be right there, right then for the rest of my life. But of course time seemed to speed up for the exact amount of time that I was celebrating with my teammates and I found myself sitting alone in my car driving home from the game seconds

My adrenaline coursed through my body and my nerves were at an all time high as I was finally getting to play in my first game as a Varsity Wildcat. All my hard work had led up to this moment and there was no way I was going to mess it up. The all too familiar smell of the fresh cut grass made me feel comfortable at that moment and I lined up as the strong side linebacker and got ready for the play to start. Steam filled my helmet and my breathing got gradually quicker and quicker. The quarterback hiked the ball and I knew exactly what play they were running. I threw myself into the gap I needed to and made the tackle, but as I headed to the ground there was a violent crackling in my right knee. The whistle blew again and I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t. A flurry of emotions flooded my brain: fear, anxiety, pain, sadness, regret. When the trainer got me to the bench to see what had gone, wrong he determined that I had torn my Meniscus and I would be out for the season. All my effort on the difficult, hot, summer practice all nulled from this one moment. All my aspirations of

Finally the tradition song came on you hear everybody saying evening the right next to me saying take me out to the ball game by me some peanut and some cracker jacks then out of know where the announcer came on yelling saying as you getting ready you can see the players doing their pregame stretches with a big orange ring around their bats heading out their dugouts which by the way is pretty legit amazing because it remind me of a major league dugout in way with two gatorade one water and the other gatorade of course, with the big bulky telephone with the cool looking assistant coach and the don of the baseball the head coach with his own custom made chair with his custom made owls oakley sunshades on with a fresh polo jacket on the made with a unemotional

Looking out in the crowd, I took a quick glance at the stands to notice a bunch of college and professional baseball scouts on a muggy summer night. In my mind all I could think to myself is that these coaches determine my future due to my performance. This was the moment that I have been putting in endless hours of brutal training for, to help me fulfill my dream of playing upper level baseball. As one of the coaches called me by my last name, I walked up to the spotlight where hundreds of coaches were looking at me as if I was a piece of meat at a meat auction. It was my turn to bat and throw, I can remember my heart racing as fast as a jet and I could feel the tension building up from my toes to my neck. I have never had this feeling before,

Growing up a student-athlete since the age of five, I quickly learned the importance and impact of goal setting, perseverance, accountability, and integrity. My sport, swimming, is a prime example of a sport where goal setting can make or break the athlete. I remember growing up with a clip board that was made of dry-erase material and it had my name and team written in bulky letters on the back. My mom and I printed out a page containing a table of my events, times, goal times, and records. I scanned this clipboard in the car on the way to the meet, before I swam, and after I swam to examine my performance. This form of goal setting helped me keep my head aligned with what I came to do that weekend and told me what I need to work on in the