Personal Narrative Essay: The Loss Of The Soccer Team

It all started in 7th grade, our football team was at the time undefeated and we were in our second to last game. We were up by quite a bit and our team was feeling sanguine, our coach didn’t put too much thought into it, and called a run up the middle with our star running back Michael Lundy. He Got the ball and ran for Three short yards then suddenly tripped over a pile of angry, impassioned, irritable teenage boys. Michael had landed wrong and you could see by his expressions he was hurt, his dad came on the field and helped carry him off. We were forced to continue the game without Michael, which wasn’t all that bad because there were only three minutes left in the game. We the Philomath 7th grade braves had won our second to last game

Soccer is a game where nothing is predictable. Soccer is a game that’s been around since the eighteenth century and has a different effect on many athletes’ lives, including mine. My sophomore year of high school is over and I was finally over with a long season of high school soccer. Returning to my team of five years I was excited to go back and am comfortable with. Right as I approached my team I saw an unfamiliar face and instantly got intimidated. Trying my hardest to avoid him it seemed as if every time I looked over he was examining my every move. Of course that day of practice was a series of conditioning test to see if we were really doing our fitness assignments over the break. The drills consisted of a pattern of sprint got dragged out all along to eighty yard

Soccer is not only a sport for me, but also my childhood. I remember that when I was a little boy, I followed my older brothers and their friends to play soccer every day. We did not have the soccer fields. We played soccer on the quite streets or on the fields, not soccer fields, wherever we had spaces to run and control the ball. Because of I came a person like soccer. I like to play and watch others play it. Soccer is running is my blood. I am really interested in the soccer.

On February 28, 2005, I experienced one of the most exciting events that anyone could ever experience – winning a State Championship. The day my soccer team made history is a day I’ll never forget. However it is not just that day we won the title, but the whole experience of the preceding season that got us there. From start to finish, my team’s 2004-2005 season taught me that the platitude is true. You can do anything you set your mind to.

Everything starts as a young kid that's when you make friends and most of the time those friends are the ones you experience and try new things with in my case that thing was soccer. I grew up with a lot of my older family members playing soccer i would go to my uncles and older cousin soccer games and in my head i would think to myself i want to be as good as them and maybe even one day have a chance to play with them. When i started elementary school that's when it all started for me i made friends with kids that had the same interest as me and that was soccer it would be all i would talk and think about everyday during recess me and my group of friends would rush out to the field to play some soccer and show off our skills.

September 20, 2011 was the day that everything changed. Practice that day was long and excruciatingly hot. My coach did not let me take a rest as I was the only full back we had at the time. Hit after hit, it started to add up and my world was spinning but coach told me to keep going, so I did. The very next snap my world got wrecked. My form became lazy because I was beyond exhausted and dehydrated, my head lead my attempt to break the tackle and the kid making the tackle lead with his head as well. Just like that my body went numb, everything was dark, my eyes were open but I could not see. I had no sense of where I was and where I was going. My name left me. At this point I did not know if I was dead or alive. This was the last time I was ever able to strap up and play the game of football. This is what happens to the millions of kids who play football on a daily basis. Somebody was there telling them to go back in even when they were showing early signs of a concussion. The athlete takes one more hit straight to the head out of poor form or exhaustion and then everything goes from bad to worse. These events take place at such a young age that the long term side effects can be fatal.

Football is a game of passion, a time when nothing else matters and the only thing that matters is going out there having fun and fighting for the guy next to you. Football has always been something that I loved and had a wild passion for. I’ve made friendships and memories to last a life time and I can always be grateful that football did that for me. Now of course I’ve had some bad memories during football as well, I remember walking out of the film room on the last day of spring ball and having Coach Antle grab me and say “Gage, I think I want to try you at a new position, I want to put you at defensive end. We need you more there and we think you can really excel there.” I remember being so furious, I had played linebacker ever since I could remember and now the last day of spring ball my senior year everything was about to change.

The game of soccer is like a roller coaster. From laughter, during Thursday night pasta nights to tears, as we fought a hard loss, we will never know what to expect. That is the beauty of the sport and life because we have to be ready for anything that comes our way. We see how soccer is not black or white or win or lose. A loss where the team played their hearts out is more acceptable then a win won luckily without sportsmanship. As soccer is a team sport, we have to play until the buzzer rings. Life is full of surprises, like the buzzer winning goal I scored in a golden goal overtime to win the championship. I never will forget the feeling when the entire team rushed the field and the crowd went wild as tears swarmed our eyes and our screams of joy filled the air. The challenges I faced on Fox Run will help me endure through obstacles I face in our lifetime and to be determined until the end of my

Exactly 11 years ago from today...Score! Another goal from Emily! (Everyone clapping) GO EMILY! YAY! GOOD JOB! “She might just be the best on our pre-k team” said her teammate Brooke. “She definitely will have a very good future” said Maddison, another teammate. They got ANOTHER win that day. Their coach told them to bring it in, and they did their team on three cheer. After the girls were walking to their parents cars, Mikayla, the next best soccer player on that team, comes up to Emily and says, “I will ruin your life if you don’t quit the soccer team.” She then walked away from Emily and she was terrified. After that Emily went to a new school, Harrisburg. While Mikayla went to O’Gorman. They’re both now fourteen years old. Before they

I used to believe that soccer was, well, just soccer. I'd play for my rec team, in which would consist of one practice and one game a week. Nothing special, and not too stressful. After I got tired of rec soccer, I joined a travel team. To be specific it was the Mahwah Raiders. It was a step up from rec, I now had two practices and one game a week. This wasn't too crazy for me- I was fine with the timing and schedule of everything.

Growing up I had focused on competitive soccer. Soccer challenged me both physically and mentally and I learned to love these demands on the field. These challenges helped me foster a self-confidence in myself when it came to athletics. When I fractured my tibia playing against my rival high school, sending my knee cap into my thigh, I was faced with a new test. The sport that I loved was taken away from me for an extended period of time and it took away part of my identity. Who was I without soccer?

My freshman year I made the Varsity soccer team. Every practice I had to strive and work harder to be able to keep up with the upperclassmen skill level and talent. I was finally getting to where I wanted with consistent practice. I became a starter and the upperclassmen would pass me the ball more and help me on the field when there were opponents on me. It wasn’t until the middle of the season when everything changed. We were playing against a school who was very skilled and talented. It was in the first half of the game when one of the girls on the opposing team had the ball and was dribbling it down the field. It got past our midfield players and two defenders. I was the last one before it reached our goalie. I ran towards her and with everything I had I kicked the ball.

Many people thought my team was not good. The sun is up, and it is game day.

Ever since I could remember, I have always had love for the game of soccer ever since I first laid eyes on the sport. As a kid, I would spend countless hours in the backyard by myself; I would juggle, kick around the ball and doing drills. When I wasn't in the yard pretending to be Lionel Messi I would watch Ronaldinho videos on Youtube dreaming I will one day play against him. Call me crazy, but I was addicted, even as a young boy, to the beautiful sport itself, soccer.

There stood the final score 27-21, Vikings have done it, they are going to the Championship, again.Steelers stood quiet on the sideline while their opposing team were jumping up and down all across the field yelling and screaming and hugging each other in joy.Then you had my team, the now beaten Steelers who had just blew their Championship chance all because of me. I was only a sixth grader then and I was only playing in a little league,but felt terrible not in the mad way like an angry bull charging a fire red cape but disappointed like as if you had a chance to save the world and you decided to stay watch TV. As I was presented with a third place medal I wondered if I even deserved it had I not of fumbled the ball I would have a cheering team and a golden trophy in my hand but no, I had a bronze medal hanging from my neck.So from that day forth I decided I wasnt ever going to stop playing football and practicing football until my body couldn’t take it anymore.