Personal Narrative: How Soccer Changed My Life

In life, you encounter many situations and people that aid in molding you into the person you are meant to be. When these instances in time occur, we may not realize it, but looking back they made a huge impact on our lives. For the past four years, I have been a member of the Navarro Runnin’ Lady Panthers Basketball Team, and while the sport itself taught me many lessons and skills I can use to be successful, there was one coach that managed to do the same.

The famous Scottish soccer player Bill Shankly once said, "Soccer is a matter of life and death, except more important."

There has been many important events that have occurred since I have been born but there is one in particular that has sparked a light in me that has changed the way i have looked at things. It happened when I was playing with the Sacramento FC and everything was going well until the middle of the season. When we got to the middle of the season things started to look shady. I wasn't getting playing time and that really opened my eyes to reality. Soccer was not the only thing that I needed to do in order to have a good life. I needed to start focusing on my dreams and different routes to success other then just soccer. It really showed what I need to do in order to survive in the real world. If it was not for my family's support through this

As we walked in the door we were greeted by the second year head coach Chris Murdock. He was very friendly and shook all of our hands. He explained how the next 12 weeks would go. He told us that the goal of being here was to become stronger, faster, and skill full in football. Next we walked into the weight room and met a guy who would be helping Coach Murdock out with the lifting program this year his name was Yuri. Yuri was only about five foot tall, but he was the most muscular man I had ever seen, and I was immediately intimidated by him. The first few weeks went by smoothly as we learned all the new lifts. Until around week four, that’s when it became hard. Yuri also picked up his intensity. He would yell in your face one minute and coach you up on how to do the lift the next, but i guess that’s what he was paid to do. Near the end of July we had our first camp and being a freshman you go out thinking you are going to stomp all the other teams out there, but in all reality lots of the kids had no idea how to

Soccer is my passion because it has given me so many opportunities in life and I have most of my best memories from playing soccer. Ever since I was young years old soccer has been my number one sport, I have played other sports like basketball, softball, volleyball and tennis but soccer has been the main one that has stuck with me. Soccer has benefited my life in so many ways it has helped me stay in shape, meet new people, go to places I have never been before, taught me how to be a great leader, improved my reaction skills and fastened my decision making skills in tough situations. This sport has relieved my stress lowered my anxiety levels and overall has made me a happier person. Soccer has helped me so much with my anxiety and I am thankful

I learned about life with a ball at my feet, is a quote by arguably one of the greatest soccer players of all time, Ronaldinho Gaucho. I relate strongly to this quotes because if it wasn't for the impact of sports(soccer) in my life, I would not be where I am today. My parents always told me that since I could crawl I have always had a thing for a soccer ball, and I cultivated my interest from there into other sports. I strongly believe without the impact of sports in my life, my life would have to take a different turn. Sports (Soccer) has completely changed my life and has given me a better shot at life with the chance to earn a degree and make a living in the sports world.

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?

There comes a time when you have to grow up or are forced to. You learn from past experiences and base your recent scenarios from it. Since the age of five, soccer has been part of my life. From having practice twice a week, to having practice every day of the week not including games. I felt like soccer was my pathway to success. I felt like I could do big things from it and I had all the confidence in the world but never would show it when others asked me if I was good. I’m the shy quiet girl that shows you what I’m capable of without saying a single word.

I was an incoming freshman, two weeks prior to my first day of high school, and I was terrified. I knew that I loved the sport of football, however I had heard stories from my brother about how tough Stepinac’s freshman football coach was. Everything that I was told was true. One of the coaches great lessons that he taught me was that a hardworking disciplined team is typically more successful than a team that has all of the talent in the world, but is not disciplined and does not work hard. That summer was the hardest that I had ever worked up to that point to start in a football game. The hard work never paid off, and I left at the end of that season defeated. I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t fast enough, and I wasn’t strong enough. I had only played in two of the games, one, for a snap when

“How am I supposed to count on a guy who can’t finish sprints? Who can’t give the effort to be great?” our new seventh grade football coach screamed into my facemask, spitting in anger. This was my wake up call. To this very day I have the same coach, and I still have flashbacks to that moment when he challenged me like I had never before been challenged. This 30 seconds would change who I am forever.

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

Growing up in a house with all boys in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, I was taught to be tough and injuries were very common but easily shaken off. When it came to sports, I would put all my time and effort into one thing: soccer. Soccer was always a true passion of mine; as a matter of fact, it was more of a lifestyle than just a sport. I would spend weekends traveling around my local area playing the game I loved with people I enjoyed being with. My teammates became like my second family after countless seasons and we did almost everything together off the soccer field. The idea of putting on my jersey and lacing up my cleats was a moment I would not trade for the world and something I would never take for granted.

Along with working hard to make the team I wanted to be on most, once I was on the team, I learned that I can’t always control everything. Being knocked down through the seasons, I have less desire to continue playing. “Tough love” would be an understatement on how some of the coaches have treated fellow athletes and I. Never earning a “nice work” or “good job” begins to get frustrating and you get harder on yourself as an athlete. These challenges have grown me as a person and taught me that I shouldn’t give up, no matter how hard it

The first thing I did as I arrived at the field was to scan my surroundings. I wanted to evaluate the ability of the other players playing. To my disappointment, they all seemed very skilled with the soccer ball. Furthermore, as I was intensely watching their game, many negative thoughts rushed through my

We came into the game 10-0 and were playing in the semi-final game in order to advance to the CIF championship . At half time we were down by twenty-one points and our morale was visibly down. As we were sitting in the locker room, Coach Hare came in and began to walk around looking at each one of us. He then started telling us about his surf session from earlier that day. He told us how epic the break was at Swamis (local surf spot) and the women that were out there. He went on for 10 minutes describing his time surfing that day. I glanced around the room with a very confused look as well as everyone else. By the time he finished up everyone was laughing because that speech made no sense and had absolutely no relevance to our situation. Looking back at his speech, it could not have been a better time. He took out minds off the bad situation we were in, raised our morale and allowed us to drive on since giving us momentum. We ended up winning the game and the championship the next week. In that speech alone, Coach Hare demonstrated duty by motivating us and raising morale witch was his job as a coach. Throughout my whole high school football career, Coach Hare demonstrated all of the Army values with his coaching style. He put his plyers before himself in all situations whether we were struggling in school, football or our personal lives, he was ALWAYS there for