I was all about basketball my whole life. I started rec. center ball when I was about five years old and never slowed down, playing school and travel basketball year round, I thought basketball would never end for me. When I reached high school I realized my hometown was football, basketball, and baseball central. This obviously was no big deal to me seeing as how basketball was the game I loved most. But as my sophomore year was rolling by I decided I wanted to pick back up with soccer which I had quit after my seventh grade season. This came as a surprise to a lot of people at school and my friends. At my high school soccer has always been a sport that everyone likes to bash on and it never really got much attention from the school or community, …show more content…
When it came time to start practicing basketball over the summer I dreaded it every single day. All I could think about when I was there was how much time I had left till I got to leave. After just a few days of practice I couldn't take it anymore and I finally got the guts to tell my mom I wanted to quit. This didn't go over well for me at all. All I had known my whole life was basketball. My parents were so disappointed in me. They had spent countless amounts of money for me to go to numerous camps and learn about the game. My mom tried everything in her power to try to stop me from making this decision. I texted my coaches and told them I needed to talk to them before the next days practice. When I met with them they told me they felt like I might be making the biggest mistake I had I ever made and that I wasn't at the level in soccer that I was at in basketball. Some of my teammates that had been some of my closest friends at one point wouldn't even look my way for months after. I think my coaches and parents reactions helped me to grow as a soccer player and have a lot to do with my will and drive to continue soccer at the collegiate
This reminds me of something. R. Ambedkar once said. ”Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his...”. A person will always have something that is apart of their identity and for me basketball has always been that. Even though baskeball will some day disapear and will one day leave me, i can still know that I am a son of God.
Playing soccer has also brought my family closer together. Both my parents and my sisters would come to all my games and support me. No matter the outcome of the game my family was always there for me. My family has been at my important games and the games that I am not so proud of. Even though they have seen the worst of the sport I still love having them watching me play. They have been the reason I have never given up. And I love making them proud. In the past year, my travel team folded and I thought that I would never have another team to play on. It was very upsetting knowing that I would not be playing with the same girls that I have played with my entire life. Yet, I joined an intramural team and started playing again. I played on a co-ed team for two more years before I graduated high school. On the intramural tea...
...kills, I can always count on my second family to support me through it all. Multiple times when I was feeling my soccer skills weren’t up to par and I wasn’t good enough, my coaches consistently encouraged to keep practicing and training myself to become a better player. They didn’t let me quit because they knew I could become better if I gave it my all. The encouragement that I receive from my soccer family is so greatly valued because I know they are choosing, out of love, to support me.
My junior year in high school, I went out for basketball. I liked it for a while, but when games started I was on JV. It was okay, but I was only getting to play two minutes per game. This didn't make me very happy. With all the time that I was putting in to play, it just wasn't worth it. My dad told me to just stick it out. Some of my friends told me that I should just switch to wrestling. I didn't know if this was possible, so I talked to the coach. The coach said he would be glad to have me on the team, but I would have to talk to the counselor. I talked to him and explained why I wanted to switch sports and he gave me the go ahead. There was only one thing standing in my way: how was I going to persuade my parents to let me wrestle. I talked to my dad about it and he said that if that was really what I wanted to do then that would be fine. I decided that I would play one more game of basketball and if things didn't get better, I would switch. Things didn't get better. I went in once for two minutes.
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
I dearly loved the sports of my birthplace (soccer, cricket & rugby), but one of the major influences that helped me with my transition was falling in love with basketball.
I loved basketball I grew watching all the NBA greats like Michael Jordan, Lebron James etc. I decided to try out for my junior high basketball team. At the tryouts, I was terrible I was new to the sport and learning, but my luck the coach chose me to play on the as a there were few seconds left. After the season, I looked back at it and I wasn’t happy
Participating in a high school sport was a fantastic way for me to stay involved and an even better way to make close friends. With only losing one senior my sophomore year and one senior my junior year, three soccer seasons have and will be pretty much the same team. Spending four months, everyday, each season with teammates gives a person lifelong friendships. After graduating high school most people forget about games won, games lost, and high school sports in general. None of those are the important things anyways. It's the friends made throughout the
Ever since I was a little boy, about eight years old or so, I had an extreme passion for the sport of basketball. On weekends, I would wake up in the morning, eat a bowl of frosted flakes or cheerios, put on basketball shorts and then go in my driveway to shoot around. I would be out there for hours just shooting around or playing with some random kids that I would occasionally see walking around my neighborhood. This was satisfaction to me, but even better was playing on multiple public teams and not just playing in my driveway every day. In elementary school, I played in a recreational league, just like almost every other kid who tries out basketball when they were younger. This was fun and all but it was nothing too serious. There were never any practices, it was just one or two unorganized games per week. I never took
I started basketball at the tender age of four years old. At that time, it was mostly running around a basketball court having fun, and making the parents in the crowd smile. I would not have thought at that age that basketball would mean so much. As I got older I wanted to be like my dad, and my sister, on top of being in Knoxville, Tennessee where women’s basketball, and football is almost all people care about. On rival game days when we would play the Florida Gators, UT fans would have actual alligators they killed on top of their cars. The first time I witnessed this was riding in the car on the highway, I remember distinctly getting scared and asking my dad “what is that huge this on their car”, I could not believe my eyes. I remember meeting Pat Summit at UT and it seemed like basketball was the normal process of things in my family and my
Basketball is my passion. It is always there for me when I need to get my mind off things. Without basketball I wouldn't even be writing this essay. Basketball is extremely important to my life and I wouldn't be the person I am without it. People may think that I play too much but they don't how much it means to me and how much it helps me in and out of school.
For eight years I played competitive volleyball and I loved every bit of it. After my freshman year of high school, I quit playing. It became more work than play. I disappointed my coaches and teammates but most of all, my parents. My parents had invested so much time and money for me to play volleyball and they were upset with me giving it up.
By that time I was active in almost all sports. I was playing soccer, basketball, softball, and even cheering. It was fairly normal because no child knew exactly what they wanted to do at six years old. I really didn’t have an option to whether I was going to do anything or not, it would be one or the other. Through all the options I had before me I chose to stick with basketball as my favorite sport.
When I was four, I received my first Fisher Price basketball court. The court was in my house and the basket was only five feet tall. My parents placed it in the living room since it was the only room in the house without carpet. I practiced shooting every day. I would wear my father’s sneakers and imitate basketball moves that I had seen on T.V. At that age, I did not yet have any self-awareness about my potential for the sport, but my father knew it was very likely to become a passion. By the age of five, my father was taking me out to the park with a basketball and I can actually remember the day I made my first basket. After that, I went on to play in basketball leagues, as well as work out with my father in gyms every night. Those were the best of times.
When I got to high school soccer, everything changed. Soccer is so much different. I remember my first game, first play, i had the ball I got hit and i looked at my dad and he kinda shrugged. It took a lot to learn how to play at this new level. I worked hard through freshman, sophomore, and junior years.