I lived in rural Northeast Mississippi in a town called Pontotoc. This area was better known for sports and sweet potato farming. I viewed reading as something that I would have to just bear through to get a decent grade, so that I could play on the varsity team. The school I attended did not have a staff of extraordinary English teachers they were people who just enjoyed reading and writing. Reading had never been received by me as something I would be interested in personally. That all changed in my tenth grade year when I had Mrs. Victoria Walkers as my English teacher! She was a normal height brunette haired lady, just a regular old teacher like the rest. She was a newer teacher at the high school and had become friends with my mother who also taught at the high school, which led to Mrs. Walker and me to becoming somewhat of friends. We had somewhat of a fun loving relationship, I would say, we would pick and joke with one another like I would with almost all of my teachers. She was just another small town teacher like all of my previous English teachers, I thought. Mrs. Walker had a hidden agenda to get all the good old boys like me to get interested into reading, and she looked forward to the challenge. It all started at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. I had Mrs. Walker’s English class for my first period of the day. The semester started off like every semester the first week we went over the syllabus, which was full of short stories and four books that
Some people think cheer is not a sport, to me it is my life. There is school cheer and competitive cheer, some prefer one over the other or they do both. School cheer is the yippie, go, go, go sideline chants. Competitive cheer is when a team of five or more create a two and half minute routine and compete against other teams on the same level. Both sports take huge dedication to the coaches and teammates.
I could be considered a hidden figure because I am a multi-faceted individual. I have a passion for learning and recalling information. For example, I have been the team captain for my Black History Quiz Bowl team which competes for 6-8 hours, Jeopardy style against other schools. I initiate contact with my school advisers and study groups outside of school hours. Other academic talents include continuous A-Honor Roll, scoring 5/5 in every subject for the state End of Grade testing. I was selected as the highest academic achiever in the 4th grade, thereby receiving honors and recognition at the UNC and Duke Football game as “All Star Achiever.” My next hidden talent surfaced as I attended an amazing summer camp at Clemson University. I built
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.
With a score of 44 to 37, the Varsity Football Team won against the Midway Panthers last Friday night at Waco.
As my Varsity baseball team suits up for practice we whip out our “Easton Mako Bats” and our “Evo-Shield arm sleeves.” Everyone prepares for the season as we break in our new 200-dollar gloves. As I Un-zip my “Demarani Bat Bag” I search for the stick of eye black that seems to add spice to my game as I smother it under my eye, to “reflect the sun” of course. Our accessories become a part of our game, and we begin to value them more than the game itself.
The varsity baseball team had just finished a long day of practicing base running, hitting and fielding. It was very hot out and the sun was making us even more tired. Sweat soaked my shirt and dripped off the brim of my hat. I had been up since 6:30, spent all day at school, and practiced baseball for 2 hours. I was so exhausted that I just wanted to go home, take a shower and go to bed. Then my coach called me over and said “Hey Kevin can you help me with the field?”, The last thing I wanted to do was stay after practice to hose down the field and fix the hole in the pitcher's mound.
Our 8th grade basketball team were putting on a show! Opponents would enter bobcat territory where our team would play a hard fight to take another win. Every game spectators are left in astonishment after witnessing determination, willingness, and our spirit until the clock expires down to its last second.
I am at the Hillsborough Raiders Varsity Football Championship game, and the date December 6, 2015. My parents are in the stands, but I am not, I am in the football players locker room because I am the starting wide receiver on the Raiders. Everyone on my football team calls me the star of the team, but I don’t know why. I am just Vedant Chintawar, a 14-year-old Indian with brown skin, with a staggering height of 6’2. somewhat strong, glasses and with black hair, who loves football. I am the average C student, barely passing my classes. I love the New York Jets, work at Modell’s to get free items for football, and I am the best Freshman in the United States. Other people would also describe me as nice, and friendly to everyone.
First and foremost, soccer is a team sport. Teams and communities require a group of people to work together while also contributing individually. Personally, I contribute to the Varsity Girls Soccer Team by working to be in the best shape I can be in, both physically and mentally. I spend a lot of time, both during the high school and club seasons, developing my technical and tactical abilities. Additionally, as the sweeper, I must direct the defense to make sure we are organized. When an individual is better, it makes the team better. Everyone on the team, starters and substitutes alike, has a role to fulfill in order to make the team as good as it can possibly be.
The age old question has been brought up significantly in the past couple of years and can be considered a national controversy. The answer is you can’t downright pay college athletes due the NCAA “amateurism” ruling. There are many plausible ways to compensate these athletes that are bringing in more money than the school knows what to do with. The NCAA has billions of dollars that they mindlessly shell out to programs for “updated equipment”, locker rooms,gear, etc. Also the NCAA says they pay for schooling for the athletes and that is enough, however not every athlete at a given school gets a “full ride”, or even half. This leads us to the main problem.
While high school student-athletes invest a lot of time and energy into their sport, the collegiate lifestyle brings a new level of difficulty that many incoming freshmen can find intimidating and overwhelming at first. In addition to being under more pressure to perform on a larger, more competitive stage in front of a more expansive audience, they must also deal with the every day challenges that normal college freshmen face: homesickness, transitioning into a more demanding academic workload, and creating a new social network. College athletes have to have their routines extremely time focused, and make time management essential to their daily lives.
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.
Being in an American school begins a student’s search to find who they are considered in the system. From a nerd to a punk, many academic ties are also involved with this identity. The one group of students who get the most academic ties with his or her extra-curricular activity is the “jock”. As having the title as a jock, a child learns that many people look at someone who plays football or basketball doesn’t have the ability to learn as fast or as well as someone who just studies and doesn’t have extra-curricular activities. Studying this topic is not as stressed as it should be, even when many programs claim to get more physical activity in students. The articles that have been reviewed were testing whether the athlete gets good grades
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.
My kindergarten teachers were Ms.Tempest and Ms.Hawkins, I was in their morning class. I vaguely recall writing in this class, but I remember reading a lot. My family moved quite frequently due to my father being in the Navy so we ended up in Virginia Beach and I attended Green Run Elementary school. This was not a nice area to grow up in. My sisters, and I were not allowed outside without my parents ever. I think the area we were in impacted the literacy in my school. We didn’t have as many opportunities as other schools did.