Reflective Essay On Football

By the time tryouts arrived, I felt ready to perform my best. I do not remember the number of students who participated, but the concentration of pure talent was spectacular. While some players were out on the field performing flip throw-ins, the bench was lined with players in neon cleats and half-shaved hairstyles. Soccer was a lifestyle to this crowd. By the time my socks were up, players formed circles with me on the outside. I was just a competitor to these players, something far away from a friend. After two weeks of facing brutal heat and even more brutal players, I was eventually cut from the list. The farewell was mutual, since I did not want to participate with players who brushed me off as a stranger. By the time I was cut from the team, school was two weeks away. I made no friends and had no more

The first day of tryouts came around and I woke up that morning shaking with excitment and shear nervousness. I ate my bagel and chocolate milk, (a pregame ritual of mine) laced up my cleats, and was on my way. The second I got to the field I knew I was in for a long day. Most of the guys were double my size and looked like they were professionals. After a few days of the long, hard, and grueling tryout process the coaches posted the team on their website. When I saw my name wasn't on the list I felt spiteful, angry, even a little ashamed with myself. I knew I deserved a spot on that team and I was determined to claim it.

“When your legs can’t run anymore, run with your heart.” Spring is the best time of the year, because it is soccer season. Spring of 2016 was a special time to me, because I was a freshman at Wahlert Catholic High School trying out for the women’s soccer team. I went into the first open gym scared, nervous and excited all at the same. The open gyms were for use to get in shape for the actual season and for the coaches to get a better look at our soccer skills. Previously in the year of 2014 I played for a club soccer team called DSC or Dubuque Soccer Club. After that 2014 season was over I decided to quite DSC and try something different. So going into open gyms I knew that I was going to be a just a bit rusty because I haven’t played soccer in a while. As open gyms went on some upperclassman were telling me that the coach was very impressed by the skills I had. Being only a freshman it was very flattering to know that the coach thought that about me. Knowing this it drove me to keep pushing myself hard and hard, because my goal was to make it on varsity.

I have learned a great many things from playing soccer. It has changed my entire outlook on and attitude toward life. Before my freshman year at Cool high school, I was shy, had low self-esteem and turned away from seemingly impossible challenges. Soccer has altered all of these qualities. On the first day of freshman practice, the team warmed up with a game of soccer. The players were split up and the game began. However, during the game, I noticed that I didn't' t run as hard as I could, nor did I try to evade my defender and get open. The fact of the matter is that I really did not want to receive the ball. I didn't' t want to be the one at fault if the play didn't' t succeed. I did not want the responsibility of helping the team

U-15 team camp will continue to play a major role in my life. I expected team camp to be a magical time,therefore, I would build new friendships and learn valuable skills to help my soccer career excel. However, it was a challenge to change my teammate's minds with a gorgeous goal. The soccer field was covered in dew, due to the mid-August humidity. As I sat down to stretch, I realized everyone was staring at me. I thought the glares were because I was new to the team. However, I neglected to realize what they truly meant. No one believed was deserving to play for such an elite team, as I was only an eighth grader and they were all about to start their journey to high school. This made my stomach turn and I began to go haywire. I knew they

When I didn’t make Pennington’s Varsity Girls’ Soccer team my freshman year, unlike five of my classmates and my sister when she was a freshman, I was devastated. Although that last day of preseason was heartbreaking for me, I remember Dr. Hawkey saying to me that not only should I take this year to work on getting stronger, but to also turn what I saw as a setback into an opportunity to be the star on JV. I’ll be honest— I didn’t want to be the star on the JV team. I didn’t want that letter “J,” I only wanted the “V.” After having some time to reflect on not making the cut for Varsity, however, I realized that I wasn’t being a team player by thinking that way and that even though I may not have wanted to be a JV star, there really was an opportunity

Though I felt professional, I played like a rookie. I probably tripped over the ball an upwards of twenty times. I perfected bouncing right back up, but it wasn’t enough to get me off the bench. It was then that I resolved to work. I concentrated in practice, and watched all the other kids who seemed to know what they were doing. Not everyone was worth watching though, as they didn’t possess my determined mindset. They were lazy and walked often, chatting instead of listening to our coach. Now, I realize that we were mostly all distracted, uncoordinated pre-teens with limited ability with an overly nice coach, whose lack of discipline translated onto our impressionable brains. But I have gone the roundabout way, simply put, we had no experience and neither did our coach. The inexperience of youth is a valid excuse, however, because when you reach a certain age, you should accumulate a certain kind of wisdom. If you don’t retain such wisdom, you shouldn’t try to teach as you cannot teach what you do not know. 0The middle school coach, at the time, didn’t understand this concept and fumbled about with the ball just as we did, except with lumbering, heavy steps like the resident giant of the soccer pitch. Our season went terribly: we lost almost every game by slaughter rule. Nobody really wanted to play us, as we didn’t provide any

In the tenth grade, I hesitated at the opportunity to try out for a metro team. There were many reasons why I did not participated, one being my confidence. My confidence was shattered by my previous coach as he would always criticize me and had nothing positive to say to me, therefore I did not try out for the metro team. During my grade ten season I went to numerous of soccer academics to regain my confidence. As a result, mid-way thru October I received a call from the head of the metro club and was asked to joined the metro team for the rest of the season. Without a doubt I accepted the offer because I proved to not only myself but to my previous coach that I could do anything when I don’t give up. I put a lot of time and effort into soccer

The first way I improved myself in aftermath of the failure was by developing a strong mental discipline. To become more fit, I joined my school’s cross country team. I trained for soccer everyday after practice, regardless of how much I ran that day, the weather or if the field closest to my home was closed; I made no excuses. The next year, I made my school’s JV soccer team and a first division club team. I continued to practice on my own everyday with unconditional

team for my middle school. The team had players that were much older and experienced in soccer than I was. The players on the team were highly supportive of one another and would constantly try to help each other when they were having issues. The fact that I was not at the same skill level they were on caused myself to discourage my personal potential and ability to grow as a soccer player. Eventually, I believed that I was not contributing to the team’s growth but I was blocking from reaching its full potential. I wanted to quit so badly. But, I forced myself to change my mindset and began to change certain aspects of myself as a player that I did not like. I began to dedicate a couple of hours a week to practice which helped my skills

I would never again play with the dynasty that I had spent years training alongside. I was completely destroyed. I laid in my bed crying and thinking to myself that I was now nothing because I had lost this “social status” of being on a sports team. I gained so much confidence from being part of a team that without it, I felt like I was valueless. I did not want to tell my brothers for fear that I had let them down. I yelled at my mother that I could never go back to school for fear that all my soccer friends would either ignore me or pity me. I thought of a thousand possible explanations for reasons why I would have been (unjustly) cut from the

Although I was not seen as athletic, I still had a love for sports. I would spend some of my free time watching English soccer games or highlights, wishing that I could play like them. I could not wait to try out for soccer, and hopefully make it. On the first day, I sat down on the bench, put on my cleats, and got ready for tryouts. After a week of running and demonstrating our soccer skills, all of us potential soccer players were sitting outside of the coach’s office waiting

It was the scariest and most stressful tryout of my soccer career. I worked my butt off trying to impress the coaches, hoping that I would make the team. But once the teams came out and I found out that I didn’t make the team; rivers started flowing out of my eyes and a wave of sadness and despair rolled over me as it crush my dreams of playing on that team. I was the saddest person on earth. My hope started to fade away slowly very day until I wanted to quit soccer. There is nothing I can do I told myself everyday and night. Until I discovered that I could make the team next season. My hope raised disintegrating my sadness and despair. So I trained everyday and night, trying to get better, making myself stronger.

When I first started varsity soccer for the team I wasn't the best at it. My coach kept me because she said she saw effort and commitment. But in the time I got a little better, but also in that time came the judgements of my classmates. I didn't get as much playing time in the season last year. They made fun of me because I wasn't a starter. It would be said I played right/left bench. At times the negative comments would bring me down, but then again I used those judgments as music to my ears, to just be the best I could.

Going back almost three years ago, I was just another freshman girl hoping that I could make the team. I saw the other girls who were clearly more athletic: strong and muscular arms, toned legs, and not to mention their perfectly tan bodies makes it obvious they played sports. Then, looking at myself, I got a queasy feeling because I was not in excellent shape like them. I was pale, had jiggling arms and legs, and was far from muscular. However, I pushed myself during tryout week and every day I came home drenched