Personal Narrative: The Game Of Softball

My assistant varsity baseball coach stared me dead in the eyes and said two words to me during my senior year of high school that I would never forget; “Be undeniable.” For me, this was a shockingly new concept. Throughout my childhood, baseball has always a part of my life. From my childhood little league games into my adolescent years, I have always played the game and excelled at it. When I matriculated into high school I could not wait to join varsity and lay the foundation to accomplish my goal of becoming a Division I baseball player in college.

I step up to the plate. The hot lights of the Mets stadium hit my face. Clayton Kershaw was pitching. He is the best pitcher in the MLB. The pitch comes. It was a slow hanging curveball right over the middle. I swing will all my might. I hear the crack of the bat and I see the ball fly over the fence. I trot around the bases and I am approaching home plate. I step on home then I wake up.

I enjoy helping others pursue their passions and achieve their goals. Softball is a sport that has taught me many important life lessons including teamwork, leadership, and dedication. As softball is a sport that has taught me so much, I spent several weeks of my high school summers volunteering at softball camps. It was always rewarding to see the young girls discover their passion for the game just as I did when I was their age.

This feeling in my nose tickles throughout. I let out a loud sneeze. I would be lying to you if I did not tell you it was a clean dry sneeze. The dirt from the ground tingled in my nose again and I let out another sneeze. The air was warm but dry the kind of weather that did not know if it wanted to be a warm winter day or a cold spring afternoon. When the wind blew, even just a little bit, it was like an orange dirt tornado out of the movie, The Wizard of Oz going everywhere. I closed my eyelids so tight I start to see textures in neon colours in the inside of my lids. Tighter and tighter, I shut them to assure I would not get dirt in them.

I am writing to the three of you because I am interested in the Assistant Softball Coach position at your school. As an alum of Mountain View High School I know the competitive traditions that the Spartans have on the field and in the class room. I believe that with my knowledge of the game, passion, dedication, and skills makes me the perfect candidate for this position. The four years that I spent on the varsity softball team here at Mountain View High School ultimately allowed me to find out who I was as a player and a person. There was so much more to being a Spartan than attending a High School that performed well on the field, but was also like a second family.

At the beginning of the Softball season, I had a horrible pitch, now after a ton of practice, I can finally get a perfect pitch. I always wanted to be a pitcher because there were only two pitchers on my team. But it was me against my coach and my team. Would the coach approve my pitch? Would the team accept me as a pitcher? Read my story to find out.

As I was growing up, my parents always wanted to find something to help me be active with other children. I was extremely shy and would not talk to anyone. At the age of six, I chose to try out for softball, but I was not sure if it was something I would continue to play. Softball has helped me break out of my comfort zone and talk to people, make lifelong friends, and be stronger as an individual. The older I got, the more open I was, but my first year of JV is what broke my shell.

did things people asked me to, but nothing more than what was expected. I faced very few setbacks. School was great and I put little effort into it, and still earned decent grades. Within softball I was working at an acceptable pace. Every now and then I wondered what I could achieve with a little effort. I had a pretty good attitude towards life and was proud of who I was. I lived up until 7th grade with thinking I was doing fine. It became an issue when I would want to be better at things, but I did not want to try hard.

A place can be any position or point with space around. A corner, a site on the internet, McDonalds, or even if you’re lost in the woods you're still in a place because of the space that’s around. A place such as The Mexican Restaurant, where my parents go on special occasions or when I talked to a friend at The Baseball field about certain point of every aspect of the game we play, or even when My family was so traumatized when our dad went out onto the ocean when the waves we crashing in. He tells us he’ll be fine so he heads out on the sand and starts walking the opposite direction of us, the waves came in and crashed into the feet of the cliff. We thought he was gone but he came back and said the waves almost got him but he found a crack

The female Softball coach that I interviewed was Coach Schroeder. I met her while volunteering for the sports medicine at Consumes. I think she is a great coach, she was runner up at the national champion game where they came one game short she even had stints with coaching and playing on the division 1 level. Moving on we talked about ethic issues with within the sports realm. The first thing I asked Coach Schroeder was what she thought on title IX and the impact. Here is that her thoughts were on Title IX and how it would be beneficial. She says if you make more room for women in the sports industry they will come because you’re giving them a great shot to be a successful leader and contributor which is really great. But she felt that

“Heyboer, you’re at first. Head on out there.” As my coach said that, my nerves started rushing up my back. I was at Bicentennial park with my dad and my softball team for our last softball game of the summer. I was so nervous. Tension grew and my heart was about to burst out of my chest.

“I’m sorry Larry, but she’s wasn’t good enough to make the team.” This is the phone call my dad received when I was a 7th grader. He comes in and tells me and he sees how I break when he tells me it. I am not playing junior varsity softball. This may seem insignificant, but to me this was huge. A sixth grader made it to junior varsity over me. I was told that I wasn’t good enough. I was told that I’d never be a championship pitcher. I remember when I was seven or so when we were losing a game on my first softball team. There was three of us pitchers. The first was hurt, and the second was too tired to keep pitching accurately. The coach looks around the dugout and asks, “She is getting tired. Who can we put in?” His eyes hover over me and anticipate that I might be going in the game. The coach looks over me and decides that the pitcher that is physically drained should stay in the game over me, who is still full of energy and ready to go in. I started thinking, was I not good enough for him? Was I a failure to the team? Was I even useful?

We had just started the last summer break before our first year of high school starts before Michael started interfering with our relationship. Bradley is a lover of baseball and has baseball games every weekend, but I, Kelsey had either basketball or volleyball practice or a game every day of the week day. Considering we were both busy at different times it made it hard for us to see each other. We tried to go to each other's games as much as possible, but one baseball game changed it all.

I still remember the day it all happened. It was my freshman year of high school and baseball was right around the corner. Playing varsity baseball as a freshman was almost impossible to do. As coach called me into his office, the anxiety set in. I knew the varsity team lacked a starting pitcher but i never would have thought i would have the opportunity to get pulled up to play that year.

57,308,738 square miles of land on earth and there is only one place, a small percentage of all that land, where I can be completely content. The grass reminds me of summer. The dirt reminds me of injuries and sweat. The softball field is one place I can go to at any point and time and find myself thinking much clearer. Ever since I was really young I have spent most of my time on a softball field, whether it was practice, games, or for personal gain. It seems as though it runs in my family, the diamond being a home away from home. The diamond gives me this sense of relaxation and security. Stepping on the field and realizing how much one person can learn in a matter of time makes me think how much I can learn about other things like engineering and medical