Personal Narrative: The Dragon

Owen Herdler
6-4
English
MY TEAM WHEN I WAS ONLY SEVEN
The Dragons were not having a good season. Their record so far that year was 2-9. The coach could not understand why they had not won more games. The boys had the skills to score more goals, but when it came to the games, they did not have good teamwork. The boys blamed one another for their losses and often got frustrated with the goalies that they let in too many goals. At the last second, the coach decided to put the team into a small tournament. He felt it was a chance to turn things around for the team.
We met in the locker room and got ready for our first game. We were playing a team that we had never played before, but they had a 7-3 record in their area. We knew it would be

a tiring game. Our coach told us that he wanted to try something new in this tournament. He said he was going to switch the line-ups so that we were paired with new people on our team. Almost the whole team was not happy about this. We liked who we played with and we were frustrated. Luke, who is one of our best players, was worried who he would be put with. The coach announced the new lines. As Luke had feared, he was paired up with Patrick, one of the worst wingers on the team.
Our game did not start off well. The other team scored three goals in the first period. Luke was frustrated with Pat. Pat could not keep up with him on the line, and he tried to score all by himself. Luke felt like he was the only person on the team that actually cared about winning. Pat did not seem to care at all. Our second and third periods did not go any better. The other team scored another three goals and our team only scored one. We were all mad at each other and thought it was a terrible idea to change the lines. Our coach told us that he was keeping these same lines for the whole tournament, and that we better find a way to make it work.
We had our second game later that day. This time the team we were playing looked easier to beat. After our first game, we were not that confident. Luke talked to Pat, “You need to skate faster in order to keep up with me or we will not win.” Pat just sat there with an attitude, and he replied: “if you would actually pass the puck, maybe we could score more often!” Our team was able to stay with the other team, which was called the Ice Dogs. It was tied 2-2 after the second period. With 30 seconds left in the game, Luke had a breakaway opportunity and raced to the goal. He was blocked by their defensemen right by the goal, but he didn’t pass the puck to Pat because of how mad he was at Pat. We ended up tieing the game. Later in the locker room Pat said to Luke: “See I told you, you never pass. We could have won the game if you had just passed to me. I was right beside you, and I had an open shot.” Luke did not respond, but was wishing he was with his old line.
The next day we came back to the rink for our third game.

Luke was playing well and scored three goals in the first period. Pat scored one goal in the second period. Our coach was happy that we were winning but said that we missed too many other chances to score because neither one passed the puck. We were all mad at each other. We went back to the locker room happy we won, but were still mad about the lines. In the locker room, our coach said we made the finals. Then he said, “you will have to play differently if you want to win.”
Our team was excited to be in the finals. Luke and Pat talked before the game and decided they will try to work together. They are put on the same line as one of the team’s best defenseman, which is me. Luke and Pat start passing to each other more, and even though they didn’t score any goals by the end of the second period, they had a lot of chances. The Blazers had only scored one goal. In the third period, I got the puck and carried it over the red line and got it into scoring position for Luke. I made a great pass to him and he scored a goal to tie the game.
With only thirty seconds left in the game, Luke and Pat carry the puck towards the net. Luke had a clear shot, but passed the puck to Pat instead and he scored! There was only ten seconds left to play now, but we were able to hold the Blazers off. We won the game and dog pile on Luke and Pat in the middle of the

ice.