Personal Narrative: Joining The Color Guard Team

Shifting in my heavy metal cleats, I can feel countless sets of eyes trained on me, observing my every move from their hard stadium seats. Normally when I’m on the mound, I have ice in my veins; the stares of the crowd bounce right off. However, this wasn’t a normal day. Instead of standing on the rubber to fire fastballs at opposing batters, I was there to honor two very special ladies and to raise funds and awareness for a cause that hits very close to home, Multiple Sclerosis. During this part of the ceremony, a fellow teammate and I were supposed to present our mothers, who are fighting the disease, with a gift from the team. Unfortunately, this did not occur as smoothly as one would hope. With slick palms, I calmly approached her with

I had spent most of my childhood happy, without much pain or adversity; as a result, the moment I learned I did not make the Junior Varsity volleyball team my freshman year, I was especially devastated. When I showed up on our first day of tryouts I was excited. I looked forward to playing volleyball all summer with my friends. I worked hard, and I felt really confident at the end of the two weeks; certain that I had made the Junior Varsity team. The coaches took me to a secluded room and sat me down to explain which team I had made. I was almost already thanking them, not realizing that they were telling me, "We think that your skills at the moment would shine best on JV2; work on your technique and practice being a leader.”

I was only in first grade when I picked up a basketball for the first time. I had observed my father, my brother, and my cousins all play it before me. Little did I know that the sport would lead me to new opportunities, incredible friends, and numerous championships.

It was my sophomore year, and the day had come to find out who made the varsity lacrosse team. We piled into the locker room to discover rows of brand new helmets. The list of the varsity players was written on the whiteboard. The team was excited, the locker room buzzing with noise. My heart dropped as I realized that my name wasn’t written there. My friends were admiring their new helmets and I had to hold back tears and disappointment. I know now that I still had to be developed at the junior varsity level, but it wasn’t easy to understand back then. At practice that day, I played out of pure spite, every move filled with rage. You aren’t good enough, I thought. I left practice that day without saying goodbye to my friends.

Growing up and throughout my life, I have loved watching and playing football. As a little kid, sports meant everything to my family and me. My dad played all kinds of sports while growing up and encouraged us—my three brothers and me—to do the same. Growing up in New Jersey, you are either born a Jets fan or a Giants fan. Lucky for me, I was born into the Big Blue—a New York Football Giants family. Throughout my sports career, I experimented with baseball, soccer, swimming, golf and even ultimate Frisbee but there has always been a special place in my heart for football!

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

One situation in which I overcame adversity is making b-team basketball for White Knoll High School. Basketball has always been a love of mine. I first fell in love with basketball when I went to an Atlanta Hawks game with my dad when I was 5. Afterwards, my dad purchased a basketball goal to go over the garage and we spent most our weekends playing in the driveway. The next year my dad signed me up for a recreational league in the area, and I played in the same league for 5 years. My dad was my very first coach. The pride he'd have on the sidelines when I made shots or played good defense forever cemented my love for the game of basketball.

It was the middle of October of 2013. In the south, this is a great time of the year, its called football season. It was a pretty big year for the Mobile Christian Leopards football team, as this was the year that we were supposed to go the 2A championship. It also was a big year for me as well, as I was senior and sat out my junior year. I was in great spirits that year. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad year for me.

I was the only one who was fearful for what was about to happen because the humiliation of being unprepared to perform in front of the whole school left me with a sense of angst. Color guard was just called up to perform and as the music started, cheers were ringing through the gym. Everyone seemed excited for the performance, yet I remember everything going in slow motion: students yelling, teachers clapping, and yet my girls looked clueless. This was the moment I was dreading since before the school year started.

Right then I thought to myself, “does this mean I'm that good?!” But I didn't believe myself so I just went back to my spot and continued doing what the rest of the girls were doing. The next day was the tryouts, I was super nervous about them because they were going to be in front of the high school coaches, a bunch of other coaches and it was high school cheer tryouts.

2016 was the year that the craziest free agency signing happened in NBA history. Kevin Durant decided to join the Golden State Warriors. This is the team that had just broke the record for most wins in a season and after that season they add the second-best player in the NBA. His decision to sign with them put a huge target on his back, because a lot of NBA fans including myself considered the move weak. Some fans even said that it was the same thing LeBron did in 2010; leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to sign with the Miami Heat. There are a few things that are similar between the two, but I completely disagree with the people who think that it’s the same. Kevin Durant signing with the Warriors is worse than LeBron signing with the Heat.

I do believe that it is very important to be involved with not only your school but also

“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.”

It is 12 am and my team and I are playing against the Golden State Warriors.

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.