Personal Narrative: Joining Tennis

I began to play tennis roughly three years ago solely, because my dad thought I was not doing anything constructive during the summer. At that point I believed in the same single story most people today do, tennis players are not real athletes, their sport is very wimpy, and mostly

My freshman year I hated it because it didn't come as easy as all the other sports I play. I pushed through and got to be number eight on the varsity team. Sophomore year came and I was excited to play at the same spot with my partner, Kimberly. We went undefeated that year as the number three doubles. When sophomore year was coming to a close I noticed everyone ahead of me were seniors, meaning they were all leaving and I would jump all the way up to the number one spot. My coach, Alisha, assured me that I was going to do great. Junior year came and I was nervous, it was my first year playing at the number one spot. The first couple matches that I played were terrible because I was so nervous and not as loose as I should have been. As the season was going by I realized I had nothing to loose so I started playing my own game, and that’s when I started to win. I went five and five that season. This transferred over to my senior year, I only lost two matches and went undefeated in league. I was number one in the division and the team got co-champs with Liberty High School. I learned not to underestimate myself because that's what I did that whole first half of the

Writing a similar topic, Gabrielle Longo, a graduate of Johnson &Wales University, writes about her success, "Without tennis, I would never have succeeded as much as I have at Johnson & Wales, and would not have been able to graduate early...playing a sport has helped with my time management and organizational skills. I have learned about teamwork and have developed my leadership skills through my time as

If I never joined the basketball team I don't know if I would have ever been able to find friends to express myself with. You can learn a lot from friends at a young age, I found out we had more in common than just basketball. Joining the organized sport just opened doors to numerous possibilities for me. I decided to get more involved with other organized activites such as

There are many teams that I’ve loved being a part of over the last three years of high school. The first is the golf team. I was blessed to be on the Junior Varsity team during my freshman and sophomore years, and this year I’m now on Varsity. The first two years were incredible. I was with Coach Al VanderHart, and we had such incredible seasons, especially sophomore year. I was blessed to be a team captain with Natalie Mason, and I grew so close to the girls on my team. We had so many traditions, including dressing up on match days, bringing food to the Town Square at Break, devotions before every practice and match, and much more. Another reason my team and I became so close was through the tragic loss of Coach Al’s son. We all surprised Coach by going to the funeral as a team. It was one of the moments in my life where I could feel God the most. Our team gave a big group hug, and we all started crying together, including the coach. It felt so good to lean on each other as a team for support, and it showed me just how powerful God is through the people

I receive a call from a Freshmen girl the day after an annual event for the Jenks tennis players. According to her, two boys--a Junior and a Freshman--were under the influence of alcohol. 'At a school event, seriously?' I wander.

Always willing to adapt to any given situation, I aspire to make things as convenient as possible for everyone. I have been an avid team member the varsity tennis team all throughout my high school years. Consistently playing mixed doubles with my partners all being upperclassmen, I had reached the point where I became the partner-less upperclassman. In need of a new partner, my coach and I discussed potentials, but reached no solid conclusion. Aware of a new tennis team member, an incoming sophomore, my coach turned to me as a guide and mentor to help him feel comfortable.

As a member of the Varsity tennis team, I am no stranger to facing what seem to be impossible odds. Being a singles player, during a match it is all on me to figure out what is going wrong and make the adjustments to fix it. Halfway through a match, I found myself down one set to none against the seventh ranked team in the state. The break in between sets is time to reflect on the same thus far, and to think about what you are doing right and what you aren’t doing so well. At this point in the game, I was down on myself and I couldn’t get anything in my arsenal of shots going. Instead of continuing to try to hit shots that I hadn’t hit all game, I decided to go back to the basics and try to gain some confidence in my shots. My main goal was

I learned to enjoy the sport through the loses and the wins. There were times when I was unsure that I would make the cut for a more elite practice, but I did my best and made it through. Things are always scary in the beginning but with courage and persistence I was able to make the cut.

At age 16 I was told that I was incapable of being an athlete, I was told tennis was not a sport, I was told I could never play “a real man’s sport”. That same year, I stepped onto a soccer pitch for the first time in my life, I lined up against young men who had been playing the sport for more than a decade.Yet, I went out there with confidence and challenged them along with the notion that I could not play a real sport. Although, I was scared to embarrass myself, I knew that this decision would be one of the greatest I would ever make because of the life experiences I would gain from leaving my comfort zone for the first time,

I played tennis through junior high school. I hated running. Because I tired running easily. But I like plaing tennis. Because I am not tired playing tennis. But I limited body power when I became high school. As soon as, I began body power training. It seems that I am fine begin body power training. Because I was stong tennis. Also, I am useful on the life because I began body power training. Now, I continuing body power

It was a warm summer morning on August 28, 1998 when my mother went into Sioux Valley hospital to give birth to a baby boy. After an agonizing 15 hours in labor, I was born. They named me Bryce meaning “Nobel One.” My full name was Bryce Jay Edberg, I got this middle name after my father, which his middle name was also Jay. Being born at exactly 4:03 a.m., with a staggering 23 inch body and weighing 10 lb 4oz the delivery was nothing less then painful.

When people ask me what I do for fun, I immediately think of tennis, band, and math. Yes, math. I have been into competition style math since Mathcounts in middle school, so I naturally gravitated towards the AMC, the first round of the selection process for the American Mathematical Olympiad team, when I entered high school. I was devastated when I failed to qualify as a freshman; however, my failure only filled me with more determination to qualify the next year.

In 2010 I started taking tennis more serious. I played 5 days a week at my neighborhood tennis courts. It was really hard at first, I'm not gonna lie, I hated running a four-court suicide and playing a tennis match where the sun was blocking my view. But as I had more understanding of the game. My coaches encouraged me to improve and as I progressed, my coaches spoke of my potential. I advanced to the top class.

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.