Road Warrior

In order to field a successful sports team, every group of athletes needs to have a leader in place. Captains are designated to guide and motivate a team to perform at their highest level in the face of any adversity. Without a leader, role players may feel lost, a coach may not have a voice to convey his messages to his team, and the team as a whole may have no one to lean on when hardship strikes. During the span of the summer lacrosse season, I have the honor of being a leader for my team. I serve as a captain for a national ranked, travel-select team stationed in Charlotte, North Carolina comprised of some of the best players in our area along with Onondaga Nation Native-Americans from the New York region. We call ourselves the Road Warriors,

It took countless hours of anguish and hard work to build my skill level to one that was respectable among the lacrosse community. Entering into my second year of high school, I was given the opportunity to play lacrosse for the Road Warriors during the summer. Although not nearly as good as many players on that team, the coach took a chance on me because he saw intangibles within my work ethic that could not be taught or learned. From then on, I made it a goal for myself to become an athlete on the team in which others would look up to, just as how I once looked up to my predecessors. I worked and toiled for multiple seasons; we traveled as a team to foreign lands such as New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, Virginia, and Delaware, all in an effort to grow as individual athletes and as a team. Fast forward, a couple of years and it is the summer of 2014. I entered my final year of eligibility for the Road Warriors team. The course of our annual spring practices were underway and I began to notice a change. Athletes younger than me but faster, stronger, and taller were beginning to look to me for guidance as we worked through practices and scrimmages. The coach who once took a chance on me many years ago also began to treat as not just one of his athletes, but as an individual who has held esteem within his team and as a person who contributed significantly to the success of the organization. Needless to say, I was named captain by my coaches and peers for the span of that summer. Lacrosse was a sport in which I put so much time and effort into in order to become great. I loved every aspect of the game and I cherished the opportunity to share my passion with other athletes who felt the same way. I wanted to become a leader within this team because I wanted to be a guide for others as the sport of lacrosse was once a guide for me. Lacrosse was