Personal Narrative: Seaman High School Soccer

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.

It was six o 'clock at the Friendswood junior high mustang field I was playing strong safety and I had to cover the extra receiver they brought out by the snap I was already beating my man and the next thing I know the ball was sailing my way straight to me. I am 13 years old and I am on the Friendswood junior high C-football team I am a second string slot receiver and starting strong safety

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.

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 the Friday we moved in to Vail, at our hall meeting, our RA asked who wanted to do a flag football team. Most of us were interested and so our whole hall made a team. The games started in September and continued to October. They were almost every week. We did really well and won a lot more games than most of us thought we would.

When I first thought about how soccer impacted my life, nothing really came to mind. I was that kid who mostly looked forward to the end of the game snacks and bringing around the goal jar. But when I actually began thinking about more about playing soccer I realized that soccer was the first place where I was fully submerged into something completely new. I learned how to make friends, how be a leader, and how to have good sportsmanship. These are all things that have made me into the person I am today and it all began on the soccer field.

One sunny afternoon on June 6, 2012 we gathered at the neighborhood baseball field in Wizzy, TX. The neighborhood kids came and family members it was quite a lot of kids that gathered to play today. We started off picking leaders and teams dividing us up in even amounts and flipping a coin to see who hits first. We started the ball game and both teams were doing amazing with fielding and hitting. Then boom the drama started and nobody had a clue why Enrique and Birdie were fighting.

As an in-coming freshman who hadn’t played on a school team in middle school, I was at a disadvantage because I was behind in skills and didn’t know many of the tricks. Fortunately, the coach saw my potential and I made the varsity team. My coaches and teammates continually pushed me and helped me become an even better player than I was before. Over the course of my four years on the team, I faced several obstacles that made me feel weak and inadequate, but to overcome them I reminded myself that I loved soccer. The biggest obstacle I faced was getting a concussion my junior year.

Math-Puzzled When I was younger , my parents always told me “ Never give up, no matter how hard things get.” That’s something that I still haven 't forgotten. About 10 or 11 years old in the 5th grade returning from winter break. I was really athletic as a child always had practice for some sport every night.

“Congratulations, this is the 2013-2014 Mission Vista Men’s Varsity Soccer team.” I still remember the words coming out of my high school coach’s mouth as he spoke to the new varsity team after tryouts. I was the shortest and one of the youngest players on the team, but my passion for the game was not any less than anyone on the team. I was one of the only three sophomores on the team with a team dominated by juniors and seniors.

Erik and I first met back in kindergarten playing baseball for the highly recognized Eagles organization. Erik was third base, I played shortstop, and from that point on a friendship was bonded. We both attended Cherry Hills Village Elementary School through 5th grade. Seeing how we shared all the same activities, it was hard not to become friends at such an early age. During the week we would have class, baseball or football practice, and detention.

I finally arrived on the field, I sat on the chilled ground of the soccer field prepping my shin guards and shoes. As I was getting ready I notice a really small and hairy Chaldean walking with a clipboard, thinking that it was probably a student manager, but as he started to walk closer into my distance and towards the varsity team I had realized that it was the head coach of the team. I became a little relieved thinking to myself, well if he had played soccer throughout his whole life he should be able to understand the struggle and difficulty of playing soccer as a short person.

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.

One of my best days was when my soccer team won the championship. I won several other championships ,but with other teams. This was my first season playing with this team. The major characters in this event were me, my teammates, my coaches and the parents. This event took place in a park at sanger during the summer.

One of the most significant activities in my life would have to be soccer ever since I got a hold of the ball in 10th grade, it sparked my interest and a fire was ignited. It simply stared with a few friends asking me to join them then slowly progressed into everyday after school I would go outside to kick around the ball, I never really knew it was for me until I started getting more into it, soccer became my outlet more like an escape for me, it was somewhere I could go when I needed to be alone just the ball and I. Honestly, I never knew that it would affect me in the way it has, it started out as a just for fun kind of thing, then it escalated into actually playing games, turning more into a passion and I could actually see myself in the