Personal Narrative: Growing Up In A Team At Troy Middle School

While preparing for tryouts, I was expected to condition for two hours every day, playing and exercising vigorously. Once tryouts came along, I was in my best shape physically, but mentally, I still feared I wasn't good enough. Luckily, I was wrong to doubt myself because I made the team. All three teams spent hours practicing together, which made me nervous because most of the girls were more experienced. Even though I made more mistakes than the varsity players, they always encouraged me. Because of this, I became a better player and person. As the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu stated, “If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” By allowing me to make mistakes without making me feel like a complete failure, the varsity players set a good example of leadership. Since they were understanding and did not assume an attitude of superiority, I was inspired to be humble and compassionate toward others. Honestly, I am glad I persevered through the tough times because it has taught me the necessary lessons to be a great role model. I hope I can motivate girls to not only play volleyball but to also express the importance of transferring the life lessons learned from the game to their everyday

Football isn’t just about going on the field and playing 4 quarters against another team every week. It’s not just those Friday nights going to watch your high school team play. Football is a brotherhood, it’s your second family. It’s making memories that you will have with you for the rest of your life. It’s the hours of preparation, sweat, tears, blood, bumps and bruises and going back out everyday just to give it your all. Football isn’t just a game that i’ve played it’s something that has shaped me into the person I am today.

I was constantly looked down on, as through the practices, varsity players continuously knock me down and run me over. One varsity player named Jordan Zorbas hit me so hard I felt like a crash test dummy. Later in practices, the varsity roster was taped to the locker-room’s wall. I couldn’t place my name on the list, meaning that I was on the freshman team. I remember thinking,“ Why couldn’t I make it, “ but deep down I knew why. I began practicing with the freshman team at linebacker. September 7th we had our first game against Ida Baker high school. I remember making the first tackle of the game, with me wrapping the running back and stripping the ball from his meaty hands. Although I started the whole game, I was not satisfied with my performance and felt that I should’ve done

Competing for the spot. This kid named mike plays center field for the rangers, his high school baseball team. He is the captain of his team and his teammates and coach expect a lot from him. Their first day of training there was a foreign exchange student that plays the same position as mike and his name is Oscar Ramirez. When he first got their no one thought that he was good and no one knew who he was so they all looked down on him. Once he started batting and got out in center field then they all realized that he wasn't a joke. Everyone thought that if you played any sports than you are a jock and this kid named Zack always made Mike mad. Zack was walking down the hall way and stopped in front of Mike and was annoying him and called him

Tonight was a game that determined the outcome of the season. Tonight they had to win. Tonight was the night where they had to improve their record. York High is a tough team full of many talented athletes, but lacking the knowledge of the game. Or so we thought. Walking into the locker room, you could feel the intensity of the guys. They knew that their season depended on tonight. It was their last night as freshman football players, it was their last night to make a name for themselves. They tried to play it off as if they weren't nervous, but I could tell otherwise. Dani, the injured guys, and myself had the water filled and ready to be loaded onto the bus in no time. Now it was just a matter of getting all the guys onto the bus. At 3:30 the bus arrived, and that meant game time would soon be approaching.

We won we are going to state! In May 2015 my high school baseball team finally beat St. Thomas Moore in the regional championship to go play in the state tournament in Sioux Falls, that was something that the Winner/Colome baseball team has not done since 2009. So on May 30th 2015 we headed to the State tournament in Sioux Falls, and in the first game we played Dell Rapids. We ended up having to play 13 innings in about 95 degree weather we ended up winning to go to the championship where we would play West Central the team that was favored to win the championship. I am going to tell you a little about the plans, the expectations and what really happened to our baseball team last spring.

With a score of 44 to 37, the Varsity Football Team won against the Midway Panthers last Friday night at Waco.

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 didn’t think it was fair for a fifth grader to make varsity when she didn’t put in the effort, simply because her older sister was also on the team . I didn’t find it fair that we were placed on the lowest team and we tried as hard as them if not harder, we were as good as them, if not better, and we came to every single conditioning, practice, and meeting. Yes, I know I was given the option to leave if I felt this way, but I was determined to show them that I deserved to be right along with everyone else. Through tears, practices, games, extra workout sessions, additional batting cage time , and many arguments with my mom over the stress softball was causing me I was moved to freshman. I felt so accomplished, yet still unamused by the fact there were fifth graders dressing varsity. I don’t care to admit if someone is better than me but, they weren’t. Simply because they had siblings on the team or knew a coach personally they were placed on varsity. Fifth graders who came to about one week of conditioning moved up because of unfair circumstances, and in the end it created an unpleasant environment and negative energy over the

Sixty minutes. A field hockey team has sixty minutes to prove that it worked longer, faster, and harder than the opposing team. The countless amounts of effort, time, sweat, and pain all pays off during those sixty minutes. Practice is close to indescribable; after the warm up run, we sprint. After we sprint, we do drills. If we don’t sprint in the drills, we do more sprints. Summing it up simply, the running is intense and extensive. The practices are long and hot, and the expectations for performance are extremely high. I absolutely love it.

“Friday night games with huge crowds. That atmosphere is hard to beat.” Senior Hunter Martin is playing through his fourth and final year on the Varsity basketball team. For two years in a row, he has been the starting foward. “Basketball hasn’t always been easy but I’m really glad I stuck through it all four years,” Martin said. Looking back on his accomplishments, Martin said that his favorite memory was was win the team won districts his sophomore year. “Nothing can compare to that moment of celebrating with my team.”

Sophomore year came, and I was nervous because now there was jv dark and varsity to worry about. I came to tryouts, and gave all my effort on volleyball as well as my friends. They had made the teams, and I never expected to be in jv dark. My best friends didn 't made it to jv dark but I couldn 't miss this opportunity. In addition, I was depressed that I could not be with them, but I needed to be in a team that I knew it was going to help me become better. It surely did because now there was more tasks that I could do. My serves were something no one could receive. Consequently, the only horrible part of jv dark is that I never had the chance to play. I came to practice everyday and I followed instructions, I never complained if we ran, but the coach never showed me that I could be in the court. I did showed her, I tried to show off my abilities in volleyball for her to notice. As a result to that she always put me aside. In effect of this, it brought me down I

I first started playing volleyball at a very young age. I was in the seventh grade when my volleyball career started. My sister started playing in the seventh grade and I just wanted to follow her footsteps. My seventh grade year was ok because I had just started out and really didn’t know the game. There was A team and a B team, where A team was better than the B team. I tried my best to be on the A-team, but guess where I ended up, on the B team.

I tried out ninth grade year and made the B team. The start of high school volleyball was extremely hard because I was out of shape, and again behind technically. This meant that for the next three years of my life I would have to push myself past subconsciously set limits, and attempt to not only catch up with my fellow teammates but surpass them. This entailed summer workouts Monday through Thursday from eight to ten, starting club volleyball, and staying positive through it all. Despite all of my efforts, during the off season of my junior year my coach told me I was not likely to make the varsity team. Everything I had planned since seventh grade was slipping through my fingers, and I felt completely helpless. Furthermore, that off season consisted of my coach’s indecision on whether I would make the team, and my growing dislike for the sport. Needless to say my last months in volleyball were emotionally draining and because of that I decided not to try out my senior year.

One rainy night in November, I arrived to the church gym for my first basketball practice of the season. As I walked in the doors creaked and you could smell the gym floor. As I already heard the basketballs hitting the ground, bouncing up and down. My friends Brittany and Destiny walked in right behind me through the door. That was when we realized we were the only girls surrounded by all guys. As practice came to a start we began to run, it felt like we were never going to stop. Up and down the court as we ran suicides, you could hear the squeaking of shoes as we went from the next line back and then on to the next. Before we started scrimmaging, the two captains were boys. Brittany, Destiny, and I stood in amazement as we were the last three standing there. You could see by their expressions they didn’t want any of us on either team.