I remember that cloudy Monday as I walked to school in excitement as I knew baseball try outs started that day. I got up extra early out of excitement to watch baseball videos and I made sure all my gear was packed multiple times. The school day was a rough one just because I was very eager to out perform all the competition. After the last bell rung I made my way toward the field along with all the other players with the same goal as me, to be part of the team. I gave everything I had and was sure the coaches knew what I was made of. I walked home with a sense of hope in my heart that I would surely make it. The next day at school I made sure the first thing I did was check the board to see if the list was posted yet. Surely enough, the roster was posted right in the center being held up by four gleaming silver tacks. My eyes scanned across the paper looking for my name over and again. I could not believe it, I did not make the team. I sat in class all day just thinking of what I could do different. All year I wanted to be a part of the team and now I am facing the conflict of ...
The first team I ever played for was Tobers Party Store. For some kids growing up, baseball was just another way to pass time during the summer, away from the grind of public school. For me it was everything. From the moment my eyes snapped open in the morning, until the time I slipped away to sleep, I had baseball on my mind. I loved to play baseball, watch baseball, and talk baseball. Nothing else mattered. Eating and sleeping were just "necessary evils" that took precious time away from my hobby. I anxiously awaited the day when I would be drafted into the professional ranks after a successful college career. Bubbling with excitement, I would explain my inevitable career path to anyone who would listen. Of course, the responses were less than empowering. "Do you know how good you have to be?", and the tried and true " Go to college and get a real job", were two of the more popular sentiments that the "opposition" hurled at me. Naturally, in my 10 year old mind, I knew they were delusional and I would prove them wrong.
Some kids that have been playing for a long time got cut. I couldn’t believe it. The next day at practice coach said now that you made the team we are going to have a tryout for who is going to start and make lines according on skill and your ability to work. Every drill I was first, we ran a thing called the stair way to haven, I was first.
As a kid, I was born and raised to love the great game of baseball. Many young kids have had dreams to become professional athletes, and achieve prestigious awards/ titles. Like many kids I’ve always dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. As a younger kid with my head in the clouds, I never really knew what it was like to put my actual blood, sweat, and tears into something I loved, until my worst season I had ever played. This whole story starts in the beginning of my ninth grade baseball season. It started out different from every other year because, of course I was a freshman. This was the first year I had ever practiced with the varsity squad, it was much more difficult, but I still figured I was going to do great. After weeks
In 2014 I was determined to make the high school soccer team. Every day at 8 am at the beginning of a dreadfully hot August morning, I would get to the turf fields for 4 hours and participate in “hell week”. After a long week, I made the JV team. I was never put into the game and felt like my hard work was put to no use. My sophomore year rolled around and I tried extra hard to impress the coaches. Anything and everything was a competition to make it to the top. By the end of the week, we all gathered around the paper that had names of the players who made it. I didn’t make the team. After tears and telling myself to move on, I went to the field hockey tryouts. I knew nothing about the sport and was terrified that soccer wasn’t my go-to
First I would be only be accepted as a member of the baseball team if could prove my worth on the practice field and demonstrate my skills as a fielder and hitter. The first opportunity to prove that came at tryouts. Tryouts are the time to showcase everything you’ve got, from making the simple plays to laying out and making a diving catch in the outfield. When it was my turn to make that play I felt all eyes on me, silently judging me. Everyone was doing it, the coaches to determine rank among the hopeful newcomers and among the veterans, the veterans watching me, trying to see if I was a threat to their starting role, and even the other players trying out, hoping I would fail so I wouldn’t
Our All-Star team made it to State which was held in the warm July sun down in Terre Haute, Indiana. Pete, a short red haired kid was my best friend at the time, he would play second base and I would be the shortstop, we were the best two players on the team and we always had each other’s back. Before our first game at State, Pete and I always did our handshake but this time it felt more special because we were both so hype and caught up in the moment that all I remember him saying was “It’s your world. Get on base and let me hit you in, let’s go!” I was always the number one hitter and Pete was number two, the best two baseball players, so we were the ones carrying the team. To start off the game, I hit a double off the wall, pointed at the dugout and my teammates went crazy. The families in the stands started chanting, and it felt like I was on top of the world. Next batter is Pete, he gets a fastball over the plate and belts it into right field, I score and start clapping and our team is going ballistic as we started the game off to a quick 1-0 start. We all thought we had this game in the bag. After the top of the first we were on defense. Our best pitcher was on the mound and everyone in
With seconds to spare I arrived at batting practice and began to prepare for my game. I hear coach call out my name and as I he acknowledged that I was there he told me I was pitching. My brain shifted and went into a whole new mode, I was more focused and more determined than I have ever been. This was the biggest baseball game of my career and I 'm starting on the mound. Honestly it couldn 't have turned out any better, the fate of the pin and my team lied in my hands and I loved the pressure. The pressure made me thrive and before I knew it our team was marching onto the field for the national anthem. During the singing of the national anthem I peeked into the crowd and first row down the first base side was the little boy I met on the cart and his dad sitting right next to him. This game was for that little boy, I needed to impress him. I pitched six strong innings and my team ended up winning the game. It was the most exciting game of my career and the best part was being greeted with the best pin in the tournament after such a spectacular win. The little boy ran out into the middle of the field where we shook our opponents hands and in front of everyone in the stadium handed me the only thing I cared about besides winning. I was in the best mood for the rest of the day and I rewarded myself with a nice long sleep. I could only image what the next day had to
Malcolm X once said, “There is no better than adversity. Every defeat; every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” I stared closely at the scoreboard, watching the seconds count down. I grasped that I would not be playing in this game or the next, or the one following that. This season would be a learning experience, an experience that would strengthen my mind and spirit. My first year on varsity soccer was truly a challenge. I struggled for the first time in my soccer career and faced many difficult obstacles, along the way. The season began, and I was immediately labeled as a “reserve” player. I was a bench warmer and a useless substitute, who had minimal playing time.
I have played baseball since I was 3 years old. Since I have played the sport for so long I have had many ups and downs. Every young baseball players dream is to play varsity baseball when they get to high school. One of the best things that has ever happened to me was starting varsity my freshmen year of high school. Coming from a school that has 200 kids per-grade playing time in sports is very competitive. Working my way to get that starting position was a
But 1 week before the tryout I heard that this year its only going to be a 1 day tryout. That made me very nervous because I thought if there was only 1 day the coach would basically have his team pictured out. When tryout came I felt like I did way better then last year and that night I couldn’t go to sleep because I was just thinking about if I was going to make the team. I still remember they posted the result in 2nd hour when I was in history class. All my friends told me that they posted the result and when I went and checked I didn’t see my name on there. At that momentum I was really
It was the summer of 93, I just got on my high school baseball team I was probably the worst baseball player to ever play the game. Nobody didn’t believe that I was going to get off the bench and play even my parents. But there was one person who believed in me 100% which was my coach Mr.chavez. He had coach MLB players and won at least 5 state championships doing so. But I wasn’t sure why he accepted me on his team, even though there were more talented baseball players than me.
My sophomore year eager to begin baseball season, I've have so much detonation and disappointment from the prior year. The team and i had been preparing our butts off this off season. We were determined to break the curse of the baseball team. Out of the past teams no one never made it passed the fourth round and we were willing to do anything to change that. This was the year that we told our self's that were we going to make it the distance and nothing was going stand before us. We needed to be the team to recall as the ones who broke the condemnation and made it to state.
During the past summer I went to a camp on Oahu called, G.P.A. 2016 Football Showcase. It was a first time at the position I chose, cornerback. The showcase was three days long, as the weekend went on I began shining in a certain coach's eye. He then put me inside the Top 12 of the camp in that position. I already had my goals for football and those goals were starters; to get my name in the newspaper, make my senior year memorable, and
Ever since I was young my parents said “Drew you should try new things, even if it means you fail at something.” I never really listen to them until one time in the study grade when I decided that it was ok to fail. I asked my parents “ Can we look for a club basketball team that I could try out for?” Thrilled in hearing that I wanted to try something new, they found I tryout for a team called the Cincinnati Royals. A couple of other friends agreed to try out with me, but I was still very nervous because it was my first tryout. All three of us made it through the first round of cuts and were called back for another tryout. I remember being more nervous for the second tryout than I was for the first. My palms sweated the whole night, every shot I took clanked of the rim, it wasn’t my night. My two other friends were told that they made the team, but I unfortunately got cut which I expected given how I performed. At first I saw this experience as an overwhelming failure, but I soon realized that I challenged myself, and I could learn from the criticism the coaches gave me. Taking the new stuff I learned from the tryout, I found a different club basketball team that I was fortunate enough to make, which I got to meet new people and play a sport that I loved. Although I may not have gotten the
A year later, I was again chosen for the team. This time, I worked my way from being a back-up catcher to the starting 3rd baseman in two weeks. But after going 0-2 in my first two at-bats, my coach took me out of the starting line-up. Again, I pinch-hit, and was very successful at it. I even hit what turned out to be a game-winning homerun. We later reached the championship game again, but we lost it for the second time. This time I was more frustrated than I could ever remember being. I was slamming my hand into walls and almost crying. I was really acting very childish.