Personal Essay: My Ice Hockey Career

After the end of a JV football season, the varsity coach always selects a few players to move them up with the varsity. Getting moved up with varsity is a huge deal. It means that the varsity coach thinks you’ll make a good impact on the team next year and sees potential in you. I always knew I wasn 't a good football player, but that didn 't matter to me because I loved the sport. I didn 't start at any positions my freshman or sophomore year. In fact I barely even got in with practice squad at practice, I was small and my body just wasn 't fit enough for me to play any position. At the end of my second JV season in tenth grade, the varsity coach came and talked to us and called out the names of who he wanted to move up. I knew my name wasn’t going to be called but I was still

On the next game, my coach put his trust in me one more time by starting me in the line up. I gave my all and tried my hardest on the field. I ran everywhere like a gazelle, put in so much effort, and tried to help my teammates as much as I could. Even though i still made some mistakes on the game, my coach yelled at me, not because he hates me but he just wanted to motivated me to do better. I did great on that game, sadly I couldn’t get a goal for myself, but my teammates and coach kind words made me happy. I have gained my confidence back.

The game has a way of taking away the pains of the outside world. For the entirety of my time on the ice, I’m not thinking about that big test I have coming up 3rd period the next day, I’m not thinking about the huge cliffhanger that season 4 of The 100 left me on. All I’m thinking about is the game, and what I need to do to help my band of brothers succeed.

Ice Hockey is one of the most entertaining sports you could see or play. I would only assume most people love at least one sport but there has been quite an issue on which sport is the best. Ice Hockey is debatably the best sport ever created because of its intensity of the sport, the amazing experience of playing at a competitive level, and Hockey is always changing.

Throughout my life I have come from and created a few identities for myself. Perhaps, the most dominant identities that have been apart of my life are being an athlete and being a family orientated man. In this paper I will write about how my identities have shaped my life.

During my short life, I have not had many life altering experiences; however, one thing that has changed me for the better is playing hockey. Since I started playing hockey in eighth grade it has been something I have become passionate about for various reasons. One reason is my love for the game in general, and more specifically for playing goalie, the one position that holds the balance of the scoreboard. The second reason is being a part of a team. This is important to me because it gives a strong sense of purpose to the player. Playing hockey has allowed me to meet new people, learn to work with others towards a common goal, and also be a leader to those who need it.

When I came to Toll Gate High School as a freshman, I wasn 't sure if I wanted to wrestle or not. Some of the upperclassmen kept telling to come out for the wrestling team. I was at a football game for my nephew and some random person came up to me and asked if I was Jorden DaPonte. This random gentleman was Jerry Sabatelli, the Toll Gate Titan wrestling coach. He said I would start varsity as a freshman and I would become better at football. So when the first day of the season came, I went to the first practice. After the first I wanted to quit. My whole entire body was sore and I was exhausted. I stuck it out and realized that the sport isn 't bad at all. So next season I really tried hard and became Toll Gate High School 's first Division

As a student athlete, I have learned to use failure as an opportunity to learn. The moments in which I have "failed" have only helped me grow and reflect on the mistakes that not only I have made, but also those made by others. I was forced to do this multiple times throughout my final season of high school field hockey. Even though the team had players who were devoted and had a true desire to win, the season ended as a losing record in the books. As the primary goalie and captain, this was extremely difficult to accept. However, I began to see the game as more than just a win or a loss. Losing gave the team the opportunity to closely look at what we did well, and what we needed to improve on. We were then able to focus more precisely on what we needed to do in order to succeed. I was able to learn that being successful and winning were not necessarily the same thing. We had success in a smaller sense; we worked as a team, played clean games and were noted for our sportsmanship. Although our record did not improve much, the overall attitude and skill of the team began to rise. We began to play for each other, instead of just playing for ourselves. This change was astronomical for the overall well being of the team.

How life goes on we experience a lot of things that can either teach us an important lesson or nothing at all. I have learned more than one lesson in my life, but there’s one that I will always keep in mind to help others like it helped me. Thanks to John Tyler High School Drill Team I have self-confidence and courage to do risky things that I never thought I would be doing. Now I believe in myself and I don’t let fear dull my success, I fight for what I want until I get it even if it take a long time, I don’t give up that easy anymore.

Today is the big day. This is the story where I truly learned to believe in my abilities and skill. I laced up my shoes and belted up my pants. Today is the day where my game changes or it doesn't. Today I was trying out for the travel team. The pinnacle of sports teams in my school area. When we arrived at the field my stomach was in knots. I looked around at the blank grassy field and I knew I was ready. I saw the other kids throwing lasers to each other and I knew I was accurate, but couldn’t throw nearly as fast. My hand was shaking as I threw to someone I had never met. My throws were rainbows as slow as molasses. Surely the coaches would see, I was doomed. Next we moved on to fielding, the coach hit us four balls each. On

Jay was shooting lacrosse balls at a target, Lacrosse was his second favorite sport after hockey. Usually he would shoot to get better but this time he was shooting at his anger. What did he do to deserve this, school had just ended and spring lacrosse had just started. But this season jason couldn’t play because of his knee. He had been skiing at his family 's cabin in the cabin and torn his meniscus. Now he was in a partly mobile leg brace for 8 months and sadly that eight months went just a bit too far into his lacrosse season. Able and Mess (Jay best friends) walked up to him.

Growing up, I spent most of my time playing sports and trying to stay active as much as possible. As I got older, I became more serious with field hockey, and I was determined to make the varsity team my junior year of high school. All summer I spent working on my stick skills on the field, and my endurance in the gym in order to do everything I could to make the varsity squad. When tryouts started in the end of August, I hadn’t performed the way I wanted to, and girls I thought had no chance of making the team, played so well over the three days. However, I was hopeful I still had a shot on the varsity roster. On the last day of tryouts, all fifty of us were to find out what team we had made, or for the few girls, that they were getting cut

Professional athletes earn millions of dollars a year for playing the sport they love. Many individuals try to make it in the NHL but never come close to what it takes. In order to be successful in anything, I would have to put in countless hours towards my goal. To be a Professional Hockey player, one would need to work harder than anyone else. I would have to go the extra mile everyday. Dedication is the secret to success for many athletes.

Through hard work and dedication, I quickly began to excel in hockey, but to me, hockey wasn't about winning, in my mind it about making it to the NHL and coming together as a team. Yet one of those things was worse than I thought. I joined a league where I could play and make friends, while we all worked towards the same goal. From that point on I moved higher in the divisions, trying to create what I thought was a capable future of sports. I was constantly on the ice, my nose was always runny, my toes were frozen and my face was always cold. It was at that time in my life where I realized I was improving, and my dream of becoming a pro hockey player could really become a

Tryouts came along that fall. I stood in the gym and heard “Abraham?” and I raised my hand the assistant coach pinned a number on me. The tryout then started. There was two parts to it, a big one, and then another that is narrowed down to the people who made it past the first. I went through that try out thinking I had my spot secured. I did all the drills and kept up with everyone. When it was time to be called individually, I walked through a cut in the gym into a small room where Coach Joe, an older man who was the head coach for the freshman team, was with the assistant coach. I walked in with a smile on my face that only lasted about five seconds when all of a sudden I heard “we didn’t like you. Sorry.” And turned my number in and walked