College Admissions Essay: Tryout In High School

There is no doubt in my mind that one cannot succeed without failing, people view failure as a halt in progress but i disagree completely. Failure just brings you closer to the goal you are trying to achieve. People often think about how they could have prevented their mistakes and often ask themselves, “What could I have done differently?” Sometimes it’s not worth finding out.
Middle school was a very exciting time in my life, meeting new friends and taking in new experiences. I was in the seventh grade when I decided I wanted to try out for the school basketball team. Going into tryouts the only basketball experience I had was playing intramural basketball in the sixth grade and shooting around in my driveway while growing up. Tryouts lasted

three days and after that I was feeling pretty good about my performance during those three days. At the end of the third day of tryouts the coach gathered everyone around and got ready to hear if you got picked or not. I started getting nervous and unfortunately, I did not get picked. Even though I did get picked the coach gave me the opportunity to be a manager because he wanted to pick me but there was too many kids who tried out. I was beyond thrilled to be able to get a chance to be apart of the basketball team with all of my friends.
The season was fun, we had eleven games and won six of them. My favorite part of the season was the last five games because the coach gave me the opportunity to suit up and go play, since I know all the plays and practiced with the team. Being able to get a chance to play after working so hard to try and make the team was a feeling that I won't ever forget.
Once the season ended I worked hard to try and do better next season when I was in eighth grade. I was shooting around more, going to the gym and also going out and playing pickup games with my friends. Tryouts come around and I am feeling great and ready to go. Tryouts went the same way as last year, three days and picks at the end of the last day of tryouts. The first day I ended up rolling my ankle but was still feeling well enough to play, the second day went great as well as the third, so I thought. As we all gather around and wait for our names to be called, mine never was called, and I was very upset. After tryouts I asked the coach why I was not chosen and he said I was not good enough for him and better luck next year. My entire life I was told I was not good enough and that was the last straw.
Summer comes around, and high school is just a few months away.

I wanted to make sure I was not going to get cut in high school and made it a goal to make the high school team. During that summer I participated in a lot of basketball camps, including practicing and playing with the high school summer ball team and going to tournaments and getting a better experience and becoming more familiar with high school basketball. Tryouts were two days after my birthday, in November, and all I wanted was to do good and make the basketball team. Tryouts come around and i'm extremely nervous and the support of my friends was not helping me as much as it should have. High school tryouts were a little different than middle school, we would show off our handling skills, and then we would do shooting drills. Towards the end of tryouts we were split up into four teams and would scrimmage. I did everything that we had to do well and I was feeling very impressed with my performance. Choosing day comes around and I am feeling very confident but still nervous. He starts to call off names and thankfully he called off mine, and when he did the feeling I had was unforgettable, all the stress and disappointment from previous years of trying out had finally come to an end, and all the hard work that I put in finally paid off and I couldn't be anymore proud of

myself.
High school sports was life changing for me, being around all my friends and meeting new people while doing something I love meant the world to me. I am thankful for all the times I have had playing sports throughout all of high school and it is definitely going to be one of the moments I will miss the most out of high school.