Every since I was a young girl, I had always had a desire to play soccer. I have always been a competitive and ambitious person which led me to play on a soccer team. As soon as I started the sport at age 4, I knew it was my passion. As I got older, my soccer skills continued to improve and I was quickly one of the best players on my team. Being thought of as the "go to person" on the field really increased my overall confidence as a person and a player. At the age of 12 , I set a goal to make my high school soccer team. The thought of playing a sport I excelled at and contributing to my team's overall success made me very proud and a more confident young adult. I did have a setback as I fractured my sacrum during my 7th grade travel game …show more content…
while jumping for the ball and landing directly on my back. While the injury was very painful, it was merely a minor setback for me. For the next few years, everything seemed to be progressing as I had planned. On both my school and youth soccer team, I was considered one of the most skilled players. During my freshman year, I made the Freshman team and quickly started receiving more playing time and got pulled up to about every Junior Varsity game. I had learned over time the importance of playing as a team and focused my skills on defense and passing versus goal scoring. During the 5th game of my freshman year, I sustained a concussion while diving for a ball. Like my earlier injury, I thought everything would be okay after the required rest. According to plan, I was back on the field about 3 weeks later playing as well as before. Two weeks later, I had another incident resulting in a concussion. I started to get really concerned as this time my headaches did not subside like the first time and I was having trouble concentrating and completing my homework. After a few weeks and multiple discussions with my parents and doctor, we collectively agreed that playing soccer was too risky for my overall health. While I agreed with the decision, I could not stop feeling like I had failed not only myself, but my teammates, parents, and friends.
I was always known as "Madi, the great soccer player" so it was part of my identity. I was genuinely depressed for about two months as the thing that brought me the most confidence and happiness was suddenly gone. I had felt like I had failed at the one thing I loved to do. With this significant loss, came the greatest gain. I began to realize that there was more to who I am than just a soccer player. I began to be more involved with my school and I joined multiple clubs and received a job at a local gift shop downtown. I found a passion for helping others and contributing to my community. Joining these clubs and organizations made me more organized, accomplished and focused. Normally, I would not have volunteered to do something like this but I was starting to understand that I could start using my time in different ways to create positive results for me and others. I became a peer leader as a Junior and shortly after I was one of the select few of many applicants chosen to be a Senior mentor. Being given this opportunity as Senior Mentor I was able to assist the Freshman with their problems and increase their overall confidence and most importantly make them feel comfortable being in high school. Having this opportunity of leadership I knew I was making a positive impact on these students lives, which gave me that feeling of
importance back. This was without a doubt my most rewarding experience so far as I was able to share my experiences and try to guide freshman on the best path to success. As much as I miss soccer, I’m grateful that not being able to play opened my eyes to new opportunities and hobbies. Today, I put all my focus into my academics and extracurricular activities. I believe that getting involved with my school and community helped me grow into a more mature and motivated person. Ever since I was a little girl my dad had always told me, “Madi, most of my success in life has come from making a mistake and learning from it. You must experience failure to achieve a goal”. In summary, this entire experience has taught me a few things. First, that life does not always go like you planned so don’t be afraid to try new things. Second, don't be as afraid of failure as I have been up to this point.
Soccer has guided me in many ways to become the person I am. Especially in high school, the sport has showed me how to be much more cooperative and open with others. Before high school, I isolated myself from others and had only a few close friends. Rather than being a sociable, I acted as though I was the only person in the world and had the outlook that as long as I do what is right individually, there is no need for me to work with others. This outlook changed when I joined the soccer team at Holy Spirit, my high school. With the way soccer is at the high school level, I had no choice but to cooperate and associate my selves with others. Once on the field, instead of introducing myself as "me" I had to introduce myself as a part of the team. You win as a team and you lose as a team. Sometimes I wanted to drive to games myself, and I was not allowed to because we are supposed to travel together and it would be wrong to the team for me to separate myself from the group.
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.
I started playing soccer when I was four years old. At the time I had a lot of problems. To name a few, I was bad at working with others, I was a sore loser, and I did not handle pain or disappointment well. When I started to play soccer I had a low self esteem and was terribly shy. Going up and talking to people was not on my list of things to do. This made it pretty hard for me to fit in with all the other kids and make friends. It was hard to enjoy playing soccer when I felt as though I had no friends on the team. My parents noticed my dislike in the sport, but urged me to keep playing anyway.
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.
Growing up playing soccer has indeed shaped me into the person I am today. At first it was just a sport that I played for enjoyment in the community. Next thing I know I got asked to be on a travel team and compete against teams across the west coast. My parents and I became committed to my soccer profession. I started moving up the ranks pretty rapidly for my age. I was traveling to Vegas, San Francisco, Arizona and other states for
One incident that happened to me that change how I thought about sports was when I first started playing soccer. It all started when my mom said that I should join a sport to get me more active. It took me awhile to choose soccer at first because there were so many sports to choose from. I told my mom I wanted to play soccer. She signed me up to play for a non competitive league (GYSA) so I can learn the basics of the sport. She also told me to play I would have to maintain good grades. After hearing that i always tried my best in soccer and school.
As I was growing up, it was my dream to become a famous soccer player. Driven by this motivation, I started playing soccer when I was five years old. Since then I had played for my elementary, middle, and high school team until I joined college and focused on my study.
When I had my baby, being involved in sports at all seemed impossible. Then one day, my friend Cory from work was telling me that her daughter wanted to play soccer. She then said that she was going to coach because no one else had volunteered in her area. The only problem was that she didn't know the first thing about soccer. That gave me an idea. I played soccer in high school, so I thought I could help her, so I did.
While I was in high school, I joined the soccer team. There were 15 girls in a team. There were three girls, whose last name was Lepcha. Who think that they play better soccer then everybody in a team and they do play well but not good as they thought they were. They had started playing soccer for one or two years ago. There were two other girls, whose name was Sabina and Dilu. They were my best friends. My one friend Sabina had played soccer for quite long and she played well but she did not have an attitude as Lepcha did. My second friend was Dilu; she was not that good at soccer. It was her first time playing soccer just like me. I do not know other people who were on a soccer team but the one thing I know about them was that it was their
Growing up in El Salvador, soccer was a sport that significantly impacted my childhood. My cousins and uncles taught me how to play soccer, as well as various techniques that would later benefit me on the soccer field. At the age of seven I started to play for one of most well-known soccer clubs in El Salvador. Practicing twenty three hours a week was really paying off, as I could see in my medal and trophy gain. Not only did they represent my accomplishments, but they also gave joy to my teammates, community, and family because they were the people who encouraged me to give my best. Playing soccer was also a way to release stress because when my family was going through hardships, it was easier for me to let all of my negative energy on the
I decided that I wanted to play a sport, I chose volleyball. Most of my friends played the sport so it wasn't hard for me to adjust and make new friends. Becoming a student athlete was a big adjustment for me, I could no longer float through my classes but I need to excel. And that's exactly what I did. For the first time in my high school career I made not only honor roll, but principal’s honor roll. For the first time my mom was proud of my report card, that made me even more proud. From then on I knew I wanted nothing less than what I earned, good grades and a proud family. From my decision to chose to become a student athlete not only make me work harder but, be great at everything I put my mind to. I had motivation to stay successful, to stay eligible. Three years ago if you were to ask me where I thought I would be my senior year, I probably would have told you low level classes barely making it by. Now here I am today excelling in my education preparing to take the next step in my future, college. Even if we don’t understand why we go through them, we have to be willing to let our obstacles become out
Hope Solo, a very amazing, and competitive goalkeeper, has made young girls and women want to become soccer players. I’ve done many sports since Iwas little , at first I was madly in love with gymnastics I wanted to be exactly like a professional gymnast , but then I started to shift around in sports and that’s when I found soccer. I stopped doing gymnastics and started playing soccer, at first it was very hard and i wasn’t sure what I was doing. But then I started to practice a lot more and I started to get better. After i established that soccer was the sport for me. Competition can make an impact on your life by making new friends, being more active, and becoming more confident in yourself.
Yesterday was a big day for me. It’s the soccer tryout. Alone with me, were some of my close friends. I was standing tentatively at the end of the line, don’t know what to do. As i got to turn my head around, and looked at my friends, they looked so energetic and stolid, almost seems like nothing is going to defeat them. Before the actual tryout started, the soccer coach verbatimly read the paper he prepared earlier, and I was almost certain that my coach wasn’t paying attention to what he is saying, he reiterate the same sentence 3 times. It’s hard to try to get a guise to hide our boredness.
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. My struggles with soccer began early in my life. I was an average player, who had a drive to succeed and go far.
I remember how my coach pulled me to the side in the hall one day to speak to me. He told me “Star if you keep things up at the rate that you are, you can really accomplish a lot your senior year. You will be no doubt in my mind the top goal scorer in the state if you make a minimum of goals you did your freshmen year.” The excitement was tremendous and my accomplishment in both school and soccer motivated me. My confidence was over the roof and I can still remember the drive I had that year. I wanted nothing more than to graduate high school and head straight to college to play soccer and get my