The thing about sports is that it never affected my life in the past. Now, this past I’m talking about is before moving into my new home in Edgemont back in grade four. Growing up in my household with three sisters, my parents never put pressure on me to do sports. I grew up revolved around video games and just staying at home. I knew how to kick a ball around, and participated in elementary school gym but nothing more than that. Until we moved houses to Edgemont where I had met my neighbor named Jordan. He greeted me on the first day I moved in my house, and that’s where our friendship ignited. A few weeks went by with just casual hellos and small chat until his mother had invited to an exhibition soccer game near a field by our houses. I was there to make new friends in the community, and to meet a few new …show more content…
Literally every day of grade 4 to 5 we played hockey outside, rain or snow we were out there. I was determined to start the school year with something different about me, that I played sports.
Fast forward a couple of years, I was heading into my final year of elementary and a hobby of mine became going to Jordan’s hockey game’s whenever I was invited. I was so fascinated by watching hockey that it made me ask my dad to enroll myself for community hockey. See that’s when I realized that playing a sport could open so many new doors, and going into Peewee which is a division in hockey where at that time there was body checking allowed. Which was kind of scary to me! I was scared, that I might be injured and not able to play hockey. When I first got on the ice at Brentwood arena, I didn’t even know how to skate. I knew a couple of guys on the ice, and luckily one of the coaches had helped me develop my skills, just a quick 10-minute lesson. I knew work had to be done, I spend countless amount of hours on the outdoor rink in Edgemont, learning how to skate. Even YouTube came through at that time. Now it was
Around the third grade I remember asking my parents if I could play hockey, one of my friends was and I truly enjoyed the sport. They countered that the sport was very expensive and could be dangerous.
You never really know the true value of something, until you almost loose it. Growing up I was always involved with competitive sports. I would always make the highest-level hockey team that I could for my age group. Hockey has always been something that I was naturally talented at. When I was fourteen I moved one 1,932 Km away from my family, friends, and home to play for a prestigious hockey academy.
As a child, I have played a variety of sports including softball, volleyball, and basketball, although softball has always been my main sport. I used live in Bolingbrook and was about 10 years old, when I was playing for the Inhouse 10U Bolingbrook Panthers softball team. My father was the coach for our team, so which meant I’d practice a lot with him. I would practice extra after school, focusing on my main positions on the field, which were pitching and third base, I would also practice batting. My father had always motivated me to become better in sports and school, he also prepared me for college by training me.
Ever since I was four years old, I have done nothing but immerse my life in the sport of baseball. When I was born, the story told was that my Dad had the Cincinnati Reds game on in the hospital room, and one of the first things I saw was the T.V. My Mom said when I was laying in her arms, I had my eyes fixed on the game. I was always around the game. One of my first birthday gifts was a little foam bat and ball.
Starting at the young age of 11, I played soccer for most of my childhood years and as time went on I grew less and less fond of it. Once I started to discover Lacrosse and get familiar with it, there was a tryout for a small travel team called True Lacrosse. This team would later be considered family to me. I was substandard at the time and when I went to tryouts it was something I thought I guess I wanted to do. After I went to tryouts I came home really wanting to make the team at first.
One activity that has defiantly created a change in my life is ice hockey. I’ve been playing hockey since I was seven years old. I know that playing hockey has changed my life is because it’s taught me time management, responsibility, discipline, and physical conditioning. One way that hockey has changed my life is it’s made me manage my time better. Every week and weekend I usually have practice on Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
As long as I can remember I've been playing hockey. It all started when I was just a little girl I literally tried about every there is but, hockey was my one passion. Also, Hockey is a great way to stay active. I practice three days a week for an hour each practice. In addition, each weekend I have anywhere from one to five games.
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.
If they weren’t there to encourage kids to try playing hockey I may have never played it. Everyone in my neighborhood started to play hockey and there were days we would play from sun up to sun down. The first time I tried skating I told my mom I wanted to be a goalie and ever since I have been a goalie. There was just something about it that I loved. As I grew up I realized that when I play hockey I have so much fun
At points I would put what I needed to do in order to succeed in hockey ahead of school because until I was a sophomore in high school I was foolish enough to believe I had a shot of going big in hockey. All of this leads to my main point that I wasn’t born with an athlete identity however, I created one by pursuing a sport I am passionate about and would do anything I can to help myself succeed in it. A scholarly journal essay written by Shaun Boren called The Recreational Sports Journal talks about different athletes and how they had dreams of going big and the youth life certain athletes lived from 6am practices to missing school due to travel for a sport. While reading this journal I couldn’t help but think of myself as I lived a very similar lifestyle.
Dedication is the secret to success for many athletes. I started playing mini-mite travel hockey when I was five years old. At that level they focused on teaching us basics of skating and hockey skills. After playing travel hockey for a couple years, I quit hockey all together for coaching difficulties.
He knew the basics and would watch the games on the television where he would go as far as to curse the referees in the living room which is most likely where my incidental habit of swearing stems from. Unfortunately, he cannot skate nor does he have the physical capabilities to play the game. This fact is most likely why he was not reluctant to let me play which is something I admire. Overall, hockey has just been a big part of my past and identity ever since I was young. It would honestly be difficult and frightening to imagine what life could have been like if I never took that risk in signing up for hockey as it has affected so much of my life.
I became obsessed. There was always something about that crunch on the ice when I took that step into my cross-over, the speed of the game, the intensity, and the gift of being able to play alongside 20 of my brothers to achieve the common goal of doing something bigger than all of us. I opened that heavy entrance door for the ice rink and immediately felt that rush of eagerness to lace up the skates. With this in mind, I took a step onto that ice and my tryout debut was incredible. I was ecstatic feeling that all my hard work was starting
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
But after awhile the skating just came to me. Looking back, I kinda laugh at how I acted. Because now I can whip across the ice pretty well. Yeah falling still happens, but that’s okay.