When I was 7 years old I went to my first high school game with my mom, the teams that played were Roosevelt and Flower. I will never forget that day Sept 8th at 8PM friday night lights. My older cousin Brett Pierce was the starting Cornerback for flowers, I admired him because he the starting Corner and he was ranked #23 in the Nation for his position. My cousin ended the game with 18 tackles, 4 interceptions, and 3 forced fumbles that was one of the greatest days of my life. After the game was over I asked my mom could she sign me up to play football, she told me I wasn’t big enough.
On a cold, frosty, snow cover night in November at Welcome Home Stadium, was when my life changed. That night, two teams played for the chance to call themselves champions of 6th-grade football. All game, my team and I battled against the mighty Wilmington Hurricanes. We fought all game to win and finally we got the ball back with less than under a minute left and down by 4 points. The crowd was quieter than a church mouse as my coaches huddled us up during a timeout, and in that timeout, my coaches looked to me for answers.
While soccer is singled out as one of my very strong passions, I find myself playing harder and smarter during school soccer. With the help of Craig Rocastle, former professional soccer player and the current coach of Seaman High School, we are undergoing one of the best seasons Seaman High has ever had. Presently after seven games we have yet to face defeat; furthermore, Rocastle pushes our team to the limits and states, “We will fly, I am proud of our season so far but there is still another level in us.” As our team enter each game with new mentalities and expectations we are; in fact, becoming a better team while also handling the task at hand and winning the game.
James just moved into an apartment in the south end of town with his mom because his dad had left them. It had been a week since he moved in, and tomorrow would be the first day of school. He had mixed emotions; he was nervous because he would be the new kid at school, but he was excited because the school that he would be going to had a great football team. It had been three weeks since James started going to his new school. They just posted that football try-outs would be next Monday.
Showing grit is a common thing for all people in sports, but one that has really stuck to me was middle school football to now. When seventh grade football started, Coach was looking at kids for certain positions and he said my name first. I instantly perked up ready to get any position on the team, but when he said I was playing second team center I was crushed. I never played on the line before. I was tall and skinny, not big and bulky.
During my junior year, my soccer coach passed away a few months before the start of the season. This was very hard on the entire soccer and school community. The assistant coach, Ray, took over the team for the following season. As it turned out, Ray was neither a nice person nor a good coach. By the state tournament, over half of the team had come to me with complaints about the coaching staff.
“She is not fit enough for football, she wouldn’t survive.” That is all I heard in the summer of 2013. All summer I had been getting ready for football in the fall. I had told my mom that I wanted to try football. She had a worried expression on her face, but she said yes.
Last year I became captain on the Soccer Varsity team of my high school. Being captain isn’t just being the head of all the girls, but is doing the best for the team. My goal was to work as a team in and outside the field, and working together to win and have fun. But my conflicts with certain girls were getting in the way, because how can I expect them to do a certain thing if I’m not setting an example. I chose to talk to those girls, set things straight and set an example to my teammates.
For the last year or so, I have felt trapped. Doing something that you do not want to do day in and day out is everyone’s worst nightmare. I use to think that pursuing soccer, as a profession was my calling on this earth. To think that something I dreamed of doing for years is now something that makes me unhappy, has made me realize what is truly important to me in life. I want to be able to identify as something other than my athletic successes.
When I partially tore my ACL I had to show grit not to give up playing football. It was during warmups for a football game in 7th grade. The offense was all lined up with me as an outside receivor with Derrick on the inside. When Nick hiked the ball I raced to the cornerback ,who happened to be Ethan Goodwin, and started blocking him. Then the whistle blew so I looked over at Nick to see what happened and realized that that he had just thrown the ball.
My senior year started right after I landed here. My host father picked me up at the airport with two students from Hamilton who are my friends now. I had just arrived at my new house that we went to the Appreciation Day. I could have met a lot of people from Hamilton and especially the football team with whom I was going to play.
My first time playing tackle football It was my first time playing tackle football I was 10. it was the greatest sport I have ever played in my life. it got me ready for my life ahead of me. I really loved playing football because I just love hitting someone for no reason. Football just gets me excited to go and hit someone and knock them down.
My Football coach is one of the toughest Football coaches but he is also one of the most Generous people I know. He always wants the best for me and our team, He makes us push harder when we are sprinting at the end of practice, when our legs are starting to give out he keeps pushing us to go harder. Whenever in games when we aren 't doing as well he always cheers us up and tell us just to keep playing. From what my past coaches have taught me it 's nothing like what Coach Matt has done for me, He always wants the best for me and I remembered this one practice last season he said to me “If you try at anything you do you will make it far kid” and I always remembered it and looked up to it, I always lived by that because it meant alot to me
As a young child, endless summer days, evenings under stadium lights with my friends and family at the park brings back fond memories. Davidsonville Park has been a big part of my childhood and impacted me as I grew up spending countless hours on the baseball field, playing soccer and fishing in the pond around the park trail which was fun as a kid and even now as a young adult. I always had a good time at the park so all of these positive childhood memories make the Davidsonville Park very special to me. Playing sports at the park was a way to escape from the classroom giving me down time to see my friends and to play games. The one place I enjoy the most at the park is being on the baseball field.
The first time on a football field and i was very hyped about it cause i got to play and the coach put me as starter because i was the biggest one on the field. The very first play we got sacked but are left lineman didn't stop the ball they got pushed over and we got sacked. The ball was on the 25 yard line and we were trying to get to the fifteen yard line to get the first down and we were short 10 yards but we could still get cause if we work hard you play hard.
