My First Cross Country Season I remember a cold friday night. A new movie arrived in theaters; Mcfarland USA. A movie based on a true story, that would talk about a school that contained fast and talented students, however they didn’t own a Cross Country team. A physical education teacher from that same school would begin to convince the principal to include a team. It took some time until he succeeded and the story goes from there. My family agreed in spending time in the movies. We all liked the idea and so we proceeded to get ready for a family night. As I watched the movie, I entered to a realm of joy, the movie fascinated me. Watching a team being built up; having to fix their problems; and being encouraged by each other made me think …show more content…
Think about, you could get much faster in soccer and you could be better at it too. Giving up will not make you any good.” Him explaining why I shouldn’t quit now made me think that this wasn’t going to be easy, but that I will my best to not give up. I do remember that no matter how much I hated going to soccer practice after cross country practice, with all the cramping pain crawling in my legs, At the end, I could tell the difference from before I started until the end. My first cross country didn’t looked the prettiest for me during the season. I remember stepping on that bus looking for a friend to sit next to or by myself. On the way to our meet in a pretty small town in Iowa. About one hour away from spencer. I keeped my ears busy with music that would take my attention from the meet to other thing that would not make me nervous. Looking out the window of the bus, thinking that I shouldn’t give up, that I should finish for my parents, for my brothers and sisters, for the people that believed in me and that I should do it for myself. “Alright everybody” coach Prenzlow yelled, “get ready, today is a good day to work hard and finish strong. Don’t forget your waters and to stretch before the
I have always loved sports and the competitiveness that comes along with them. In so doing, I have decided to eventually become either a high school or college coach at some point in my life. Subsequently, I decided to interview the Vilonia High School Cross Country Coach, Coach Sisson. As I walked into her office, I instantly noticed all of the trophies and team photos from all of the past years of coaching. She is also the school nurse so her office has first aid equipment intermingled into the trophies and team pictures. While I set up my notes and questions for the interview on one of the desks in her office, she was finishing up a diagnosis of one of the high school students who felt sick. After her patient left, I quickly started the interview in order to waste no time. She began with how she got involved in coaching. The Vilonia School District expressed their interest to her as being the next cross country coach several years ago. She was widely known for her passion for running and she gratefully accepted the position and has been a coach for numerous years now.
I am now officially in my Senior year of Cross Country , and am close to the end of my season. My first race of this year though was a big accomplishment for me, because I hadn`t been able to run. When I ran that race though it made me just so happy I was able to finish it, I was`nt happy with the time, but there is always time for improvement. I was glad to be racing again and being apart of the team again. I believe that my injuries were a barrier in my way, but they did not stop my sports career.
At 6pm on a Saturday evening, Sally and her parents were on their way to go skiing for their 20th time. The whole family was extremely excited and looking forward to this, especially since the place was somewhere they’d never been to before. As they were in the car, Sally was daydreaming about what the place would look like, and wondered if her worst fear would be there: ski lifts. Everything about this scared her. The car is out in the open, has no roof, and the ride could malfunction at any time. Since this unanswered question was on her mind now, she decided to ask her parents to see if they knew. “I’m just wondering, do either of you know if there are going to be ski lifts at the place?” Both of her parents paused in confusion but didn’t
From an early age I always knew I would be playing soccer my whole life. My dad showed me the ropes of how to play and got me interested right away. By the age of three I had started playing, and to this day I have not stopped. Soccer has been a huge part of my life and I don’t know where I would be today if I never played. I met some amazing people playing soccer including my coaches who encouraged me and told me never to give up as well as my teammates who became my friends and were always there for me.
Sports are not for everyone. I tried a variety of sports throughout my childhood but I was never really athlete material. I am as slow as a turtle and I have little to no hand-eye coordination, but I gave each sport a try. It was truly a shock when I decided to run cross-country since I had no speed whatsoever.
...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.
It then started to get harder and each day was a different workout to help me and my teammates improve. I was at a point where all I could do was attend school, go to practice and go home. Each day I was beyond tired. At a point of time I felt like giving up and going back to my regular life, and regular schedule. As the coach started to notice how I felt, he pulled me to the side and started to question what was going on. I explained, but everything I said was not a good enough reason. My coach told me, “If this is what you really want you won’t give up, no matter how hard it may get you will overcome it.” That day I learned a valuable lesson, to never give up.
I played soccer since I was seven, as of the last few years I played at a very high level. I have represented Ohio South two times at a regional showcase, I have been invited to participate in a camp in Manchester, England and attended the camp twice. Also last Season for the Newark High School soccer team I was named first team all league and third team all central district. Soccer was the first sport I truly loved to do, I wanted to be the best. I work hours upon hours to master whatever part of the game I wanted to improve on. Soccer has taught me to have a great work ethic, and that mentality came when I was cut from the state team the first time I tried out. It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me, I was destroyed, and I thought I was not good but I knew I could do better. The next year I worked, I got bigger, stronger, faster, my soccer I.Q. was higher;therefore, overall I was a much better player. The result of that work, was that I made the team, but not only, I made the starting line up. After that I knew I could accomplish anything I put my mind to.
The film, McFarland USA, is based on the true story of a cross country team from a mainly latino high school in McFarland, California. It shows a the new school’s coach, Jim White, lead the team, that was underrated because where they came from, to win a state championship. The characters were important to the movie but some were more exceptional than others. Most of the movie’s characters had major struggles, but they grew pass their struggles to exceed to their goals. This movie shows very important and inspirational lessons to everyone that watches it.
In front of my bed, a small cork board is pinned to the wall. Every night since the fall of 2012, I have read the soccer motivation quotes before I went to sleep. As my high school years flew past me, the signs piled up It seemed as though before I had time to blink, it was the summer before my senior year. The night before my first day of conditioning, I rearranged all the things I collected to motivate myself over the past three years. One of those motivators that did not exist on my cork board, however, were my past captains. I had always looked up to my captains. One of which was Abby. I had always admired Abby’s determination, especially watching it increase after receiving the captain spot. I used her determination to drive my own. Every year, I strived for their approval and compliments. From the moment I started soccer, I knew I wanted to be a team captain my senior year.
It was November 5th, 2013 – it was my cross country league meet. I was running the hardest, the fastest, and with more intensity than I have ran with the first three years of my cross country career combined. It was the hardest course in Michigan, but it seemed easy to me as I practiced on it every other day. The competition was at least thirty seconds behind me as the three-story hill was too big of a challenge for them. The screams and cheering of the crowd fueled my adrenaline and I hit my runner’s high. I had tackled the hill for the final time and the crowd was screaming louder than I have ever heard, which caused me to power up the hill, then I stopped in my tracks. I realized what they were screaming about. There was someone, or something, hunched over my coach’s body. It looked human, but there was something off about the figure. The “thing” turned around and looked at me. It was pale, fit, had red eyes, and was covered in my coach’s blood and intestines. My heart stopped. What the hell? Then, I ran. It chased me. I didn’t have time to think about where I was going or what I had just seen, I just ran as fast as I could and as far as I could get. I heard screaming from the other runners and other onlookers, and when I glanced back to see if the thing was behind me, it wasn’t. I ended up in the parking lot, hotwired an older car (by popping
Even by just watching this movie, I felt the strong understand of challenging yourself for the better instead of going with the status quo of failure. Instead of accepting what seems to come for you, change your future, because every moment counts. And just because you may not win every time, doesn’t mean you didn’t learn anything. You could’ve learned education, self worth, and individuality within a team. Now you’ve won something that could change a person for a lifetime. And that’s why I really enjoyed this movie. I enjoyed the opportunities to interpret the obvious messages differently. That’s why someone else might get a different vibe out of the Coach Carter. And that’s more than I could hope for in a movie.
This movie was based on a true story that depicts daily cultural struggles that Hispanic children had to face in order to pursue their passion for cross country. Jim White was a football coach who got fired for threatening one of his players for being ignorant and uncooperative. White then moves to a new environment than what he was accustomed to. After being hired at McFarland high school, he was given a position as a football coach but after budding heads with the previous football coach, he created a cross country team. White spent his time recruiting and encouraging Hispanic students who ran fast in order to join his team. He made his athletes run for several hours a day but he was not aware of the true reality that his athletes faced every
Throughout a persons life, they are faced with different obstacles, and different challenges of all different types. My life in particular has been full of up and downs related especially towards my soccer career. In the novel The Pact, three boys, George, Rameck, and Sam are faced with many obstacles throughout their lives, where they must learn to overcome and achieve great success on their own will power. Essentially, I have done the same thing. My soccer career has been one of my most difficult life challenges creating the person I am today. I was always taught that soccer was to be about the love of the game and that it should be fun. Unfortunately, I faced many obstacles that I needed to overcome before I could truly love the game for what it was worth. I grew and continued to love the game, knowing little at the time of the obstacles I would be faced with, and would need to overcome.
“Tricia, remember that it doesn’t matter how you run, but make sure to beat the girl in front of you.” Coach Sam commands with a competitive gleam in her eye. I look down and my legs are shaking like it’s my first cross-country race, and I haven’t run dozens of them before. The competitive aspect of running is what I hate most; it’s been a long time since I’ve run just for fun. Every race makes me feel emptier inside as the competition increases, and lately I’ve even been thinking about quitting the team.