Personal Narrative: My Trip To Arkansas Tournament

This year I went to Cooperstown, New York. It was a really great experience. The whole week with me and my team was spent in a barrack. There were 104 teams. I met a lot of new people from California, Missouri, Texas, Hawaii and more.

Well the week of our trip to Memphis Tennessee had finally arrived ! My colleagues Beverly,

My freshman year we entered playoffs with a hopeful optimism that in our first year in 3A, the largest division, we could make a statement that we were here to stay. In the end, the game didn’t go our way. There were some questionable calls made but in the end, it is what it is: we weren’t good enough to win. A tough reality but often times you learn more from a loss than from a win. Sophomore

As our two senior captains closed the practice with their last words I will never forget Claire Basetti saying "Girls, this is my last year here at Wood, all I want right now is this team, my favorite team of sisters I've had at Wood, to win this State Championship". From that practice on, we played our hearts out for the person playing next to us. As we made it to the Giant Center once again in March of 2016, we ended up beating Villa with a lead of seventeen points. The feeling we all felt rushing onto the court as we won when the clock ran out to 00:00 was one of the best feelings I will never forget. That season really taught me that when things don't feel right the way they are going, that talking the problems or feelings out with others definitely helps. If our coach didn't have that one practice dedicated for us I highly doubt we wouldn't have won that game. Winning the State Championship is definitely one of the best moments I'll remember for the rest of my life, and especially the sisterhood I made with my best

The third game, that was previously postponed, was a tie at 8-8 with a team from Bucks County. Then it was a waiting game to see who and when we would play. We ended up playing a team called Big Sky and won that game. Then right after that we played York A team for the gold medal; which no keystone west team had ever won. The game was a long one if you were playing even though the game was only 40 minutes it felt like 2 hours. The game was 6-2 at the half and the keystone West team were winning. With under 1 minute left in the game the score was West 12 a York A had 8. York ran the ball down the field and then throw it out of bounds with under 30 seconds. West got the send it call and that is what they did and ended that throw with a goal. That ended the game and all but one of the West team ran to their goalie but I did not. I was in so much shock from how I went from one position to another in under a year and was one of the best in Western PA and how much we practice we had to let this moment happen. I am now and was and will always be proud of what happened with this

I was a new kid that was on the team this year. I knew a lot of the players on that team, so my family and I talked about me playing there. I was so happy that they said I would be able to! Even know that I was the new kid to this team everyone treated me great, and it was like I already played with them for previous years.

Before coming to UGA, I was a huge LSU fan. My mother went to LSU, so I was exposed to LSU football at an early age. I loved watching LSU football on Saturdays, and still do. I would spend most of my Saturdays during the fall on the couch with my dad and brother watching LSU play. I remember how nervous I was for the 2008 BCS National Championship between LSU and Ohio State. That night was one of my most memorable nights. With my love of LSU football, I felt as if I could never learn to like another team.

There's one memory in particular that I remember most. I was 11 years old living in Richmond, Virginia and my baseball travel team the Richmond Rapids were traveling to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a Labor Day weekend Tournament. The Outer Banks Classic was the the biggest tournament for 12u players in the Atlantic Region. We were the first team from our region to be invited to the tournament. None of us knew what to expect when we got there. But after an 8 hour car drive and tons of car time my expectations were exceeded when I saw where we would be playing.

The best thing that ever happened to me is when my baseball team beat Brandon Valley for the first place position in regionals. Brandon Valley was our rivals and we hated each other for not really any reason. We knew at the start of the game that winning this would put us in first place. We had lost to Brandon Valley twice before but they were beatable. It was a home game near the end of July and sunny. The conditions were great for baseball. Our nerves were high and waiting for the game to start seemed like an eternity.

It was dead silent as the ball sat in the air and as if time had stopped. It was December of 2015, I was 13, my team and I was playing for 3rd place in the Colt Classic Tournament. It was a night game at Barrington Station High School. We were playing the Barrington Colts, which was weird considering they are playing for 3rd in their own tournament that they were hosting, before the game, I was talking to some of my teammates Aaron Pattis, Stephen Harris, Bradley Jenkins, Ayden Anderson and I were talking before the game, going into that game we speculated that we had this game in the bag easily as a result of how well our team was playing. Little did we know, we had another problem coming.

I have never won a Kansas State Kids Wrestling state Championship out of my nine years of wrestling. But, this year I was determined that it would change.

It was any other Ole Miss basketball game. I had gotten my box of popcorn and a huge, cold, fizzy coca-cola. I was in the same seat I always was, between my sister and my dad, and I had the same humongous guy sitting right in front of me. Even though I was only 7 and wasn’t actually sure what was going on, I still wanted to see what was happening! Of course, I wasn’t going to ask this person to move, I had no idea who he was but, that didn’t last much longer.

In summer 2015 my brother had a baseball tournament in Branson, Missouri. So our family drove to Branson and went to Sam’s first game. After the first game we went to check into the hotel, and our parents said they had a surprise for us.

I would like to share a short anecdote about an amusing incident that happened to me. Two years ago, I was selected to officiate at my first Georgia State Cup, a large soccer tournament held over Memorial Day weekend with teams competing from all across the state. The four-day tournament was held at a university in Columbus, GA. For the referee crews, it means long days officiating many games with few breaks. Typically, evenings are relaxing, however, as all the referees stay in the same dorm together, sharing humorous stories and building camaraderie.

My seventh grade volleyball team had a fantastic season. We had won every game except one leading up to the postseason. We were so successful since we worked well together. We exceeded in multiple areas on and off the court. After we won all of the Regional and Sectional games, we were headed to Tri-Valley on a