Regionals was less than two weeks away and all I could see was my teammate in tears and her horse struggling to pick itself up from the dirt. Horses are extremely unpredictable animals and the accident was an unpreventable situation that neither of us saw coming. That night, we went home with injured horses and injured spirits. We had already failed to win back our state title, would we do the same at Regionals?
Washington High School Equestrian Teams (WAHSET) is an organization that I have participated in throughout high school. I compete, specifically, on the Tumwater High School Drill Team. Drill is both a high speed and a high risk equestrian event, but it remains my all-time favorite. To give you a true understanding of the pressure our drill team experiences, you would have to know that up until 2015, we had won eight state titles in nine years. Everyone simply expects Tumwater to win, even your own teammates, even me. Because Tumwater is known for its many state titles and because we lost that title in 2015, naturally, the
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Instead, as this year’s drill captain, I will try to help the underclassmen understand the “pride, tradition, and courage,” of Tumwater High School the way that others have taught me in the past. My mind has changed considerably over the last three years that I have participated in drill. I know now that the most valuable prize is not the win, but the ride. It is the entire process leading up to the competition, and winning is simply an added bonus that you do not always receive. The prize is the pride you feel in a team despite the fact that we lost our district, state, and regional title in a single season. The prize is growing closer to each other through the losses and receiving those losses with dignity. After we went home from Regionals I wrote a poem for my team and this was the final
The Varsity team lost to the JV team because they did not work together as team. Though the Varsity team consisted of high performing individuals for speed, strength, and endurance but together they lacked the cohesiveness to perform as a single unit. Also among them there were a lot of internal conflicts cropping up like blaming each other, lack of trust and confidence in the ability of others etc., which were not identified, or resolved at appropriate time. Each one did not believe he was working as a part of the team; rather they tried to maximize their individual capabilities alone. In addition the Varsity team lacked a strong leader, mostly people were disruptors.
The first virtue that can be obtained through the world wide sport of rodeo is patience. Because of the fact that rodeo is such a big sport, there are many competitors. With this in mind and the fact that events take more than a few mere seconds, rodeos can be an all day event. In a high school rodeo in Laramie this spring, there were nearly 200 runs or rides being made throughout the course of just one day. So you can imagine the...
Nicolet FEAR, Team 4786, is a FIRST Robotics Team in Glendale, Wisconsin. Our mission statement says, “We are determined to create a path to success by polishing our strengths and overcoming our weaknesses in order to integrate ourselves, schools, communities, and families in all aspects of our work.” Nicolet FEAR strives for efficiency, innovation and excellence, and our passion for science, technology, engineering and mathematics attracts numerous students every year who desire to learn more about STEM, improve their leadership skills and work together as a team. Through our business plan we hope to become a top-20 team at competition and create dependable alliances by reaching out to other FIRST teams, therefore maintaining a
Ever experienced cheer camp a famous college? Surround by its famous color orange and blue? Well, I did! A tremendous amount of people have their different ideas an exciting experience in their life. Although out of all of the exciting experiences I’ve ever experienced , I would have to say my favorite is when I visited The University of Florida for cheer camp my sophomore year. I was overly excited about spending four days at The University of Florida; I stayed up all night the night before packing and getting ready to finally stay at a college for four days with my fellow cheer sisters. From that experience I learned a lot about sticking together as a team, and friendship! But, most importantly, I learned that bonding together as a team is what got us to finish strong at the end. Those four days really opened my eyes to a lot of different things and I’m glad I can say that I really enjoyed myself.
It was my final moments as a Chelsea High School cheerleader. My final banquet had quickly approached. It was then that I realized I was not ready for the season to be over. I stood in front of my friends, fellow cheerleaders, and their families as they watched and waited for me to recite my last words as the season came to an end. It took hours for me to write about what my teammates and my coaches meant to me. I did not want to sound too nostalgic since I’m not the emotional type, but I also did not want to come across as indifferent. It was a difficult task but I knew I could accomplish it.
If it were not for all the hard work and determination there would have been no way that we could have pulled off this feat. It has changed me forever. Winning has done so in many ways. One I am a lot more confident, whether it is from the benefits of being a state champion or knowing that I accomplished a goal I set out to do. Also it has affected me because I know that if you are determined and work hard you can achieve anything you want to. I learned this through a game, a game that has changed my life.
The theme the officer team came up with for this year was Be the Degree! “At 211° degrees, water is hot; at 212°, water boils.” One degree makes all the difference, just like one person can make all the difference. We advocated the importance of going the “extra degree” and making a difference in their life, as well as the lives of people around them. There are many types of leaders; for example, there are leaders who like to express themselves by speaking or leaders who silently guide others towards the right path. Our goal was to motivate our student body to try their best at school and get involved in extra-curricular activities and clubs. In my opinion, we
Last year in January, my school cheer team and I accomplished a huge goal. We won nationals. The Owasso team was expected to win this competition, but it was still very difficult to achieve. The competition is held in Dallas, Texas, where thousands of cheerleaders compete to accomplish a once in a lifetime goal. My team only went up against one other team, but still won. The other team was not much better than the Owasso cheerleaders, which does not mean that it was easy. Winning with my dream team gave me an indescribable feeling inside. It was absolutely unreal. We came back home with our winning title ready to begin a new season. Knowing that every other team from all around the state was gunning for us, we were hungry for another win. Another
In the closing contest of my senior year, the Salina Central Mustangs traveled to Newton to compete against us. When we played this same team the year before, they decimated us, physically and mentally, putting up forty nine unanswered points in the first half alone. My fellow seniors and I agreed that we would not lie down and surrender like the previous year. We knew that this team would likely beat us again this year, but we didn’t care. What did we have to lose? We were a one-win team, plagued by injuries, with a third-string quarterback under center.
As the Tiger rolled around, there arose a question of whether or not to keep the team together or break it up and give the two seniors a chance to compete in other individual events at regionals. I actually didn't know about this possibility until about five minutes before the race began on Saturday. We were all huddled together preparing for the start. Jeremy came up to Rodney and me and told us that if we didn't do well the team might be dropped. Kicking our motivational drive into high, the four of us focused on only one thing: running the time we all knew we could. Getting into the blocks I felt more ready than ever. At the sound of the gun, I shot out of the blocks. I sprinted around the track, concentrating on making a great hand-off.
"C'mon, Chris, you get in the shower first," Taylor ordered from the other bed. "You're already up." Chris conceded and worked his way to the shower. Everyone in the room knew it too, due to his grunting and whining under his breath. Soon enough he was out of the shower and so were Taylor, Anders, and I. We ate breakfast with the rest of the team downstairs in the hotel in silence. It was too early to talk or chat. Everyone knew that one thing was going to be on their minds: winning. It was not worth discussing, either. Everyone knew that our varsity eight was possibly the strongest that McCallie had ever had, and that we had a good chance of winning some gold medals that day, if not a great chance. We loaded on the bus like ants, noiselessly flowing into one little opening. The bus ride was silent all of the way over as well. Everyone's heads, looking intently forward, were slightly jostling along with the bumps in the road. Some tried to sleep, but the tension and excitement was too much for most of them to be successful.
The team was ready, we had been working extremely hard for the past seven months for this. We were all in great shape and very rested. A few of the returning players were meeting me at my house to carpool to the final game of the state championship tournament. Everyone knew that the hard work had paid off when we won the semi-final game the preceding day.
The moment a runner step onto the oval, beat up track field their freshmen year, their ultimate goal is to compete at the State Championship. If a runner is a senior, ending the career with fellow teammates and hearing the cheers of thousands of people will make their memories last a lifetime. For those who are fortunate enough to run in multiple events, hearing the team and the crowd urge you in every step can give you a great boost of confidence and energy like no other. At West, there is at least one event that goes to State every year. Some of the runners strive themselves to break the school record by training, sweating, and running painstaking obstacles during and after practices. They may or may not win at State, but the feeling of participating
As the season progressed, competition started getting fiercer. I was up against girls running at a 5A level, yet, I was able to hold my own. Finally there came a tiny light at the end of the tunnel; it seemed as though I was getting closer and closer to accomplishing my goal. Along with my undefeated title came a huge target painted on my back. I religiously checked "Rocky Preps" every day to see if the competition was gaining on me. It seemed that every time I had improved, there was someone right behind me, running their personal best too. I trained during the weeks before regionals like I had never trained before. Each day my stomach became more twisted with knots that looped around every part of my stomach. I don't think I had ever been that nervous in my whole life.
The following year the next drill team leader was to be picked. I knew I was ready for it. The Senior Army Instructor, Colonel Tommy Palmertree, held an awards ceremony. He kept the team leader as a surprise until the end. Of course, this kept me on the edge of my seat biting my nails in anticipation. Finally, Colonel Palmertree announced me as the following year's leader. He said I would hold the position as Cadet First Lieutenant. I knew that I had finally achieved my goal. I had become a great leader like Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Armington and Cadet First Lieutentant Dwight Lewis. I would lead others and influence them in the same way as they influenced me.