Personal Narrative: My Career As A Soccer Player

We lost in the Regional Championship game on a comeback. We played a great game, but that wasn’t enough. If I would have passed a second earlier, if I would have taken the shot, if I would have taken the defender one-on-one could that have changed the game? I saw tears coming from the whole team and realized the my team was feeling the same frustration and disappointment that I was. This would be the last time I was on the field with my senior teammates. I linked arms with my teammates as we sung our alma mater. The hard work, the connections with my teammates, the excitement, and the leadership that I went through to get to this point during the season was gone. Everything that I took for granted suddenly flashed before me. These teammates weren’t just some kids I played soccer with. They were brothers that I would be remember for the rest of my life.

Arms flailing excitedly, I felt my heart pound faster and faster as I closed in on the small goal I had seen so many times before in practice.

When I first thought about how soccer impacted my life, nothing really came to mind. I was that kid who mostly looked forward to the end of the game snacks and bringing around the goal jar. But when I actually began thinking about more about playing soccer I realized that soccer was the first place where I was fully submerged into something completely new. I learned how to make friends, how be a leader, and how to have good sportsmanship. These are all things that have made me into the person I am today and it all began on the soccer field.

I will never forget that encounter the intense sun, the endless horizon, the infinite shades of blue that dissolved any boundary between sky and trees.The views were like swimming into a kaleidoscope, deceptively plain "Lake Winaukee" sign on the outside, but a show of colors on the inside, waiting to shock and, mesmerize me. Those colors! Sails on the horizon covered the lake; streaks of sunlight illuminated them, the swaying wildlife creating a dance of rhythm. Beautiful, preserved life synchronizing every movement with the camp sight creating one living entity. As I finish my 15 minutes of observations at camp, I realized I was ready for my first padded practice of the year.

Being a captain in soccer whether it's professional soccer or high school soccer is an honor to be. Professional players such as Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Sergio Ramos, and the player that inspired me to play soccer Paolo Maldini have all shown why being a captain is such an honor to be. Now I have been given the honor to be varsity captain for My high school soccer team but I wasn't just given to me because I was a senior no, it was given to me because of my hard work and dedication to become a better soccer player and to become a leader.

“Matt,y you will be starting forward now,” Mr. K. said right before I nervously stepped onto the field, sweating like a man in a sauna. The whole summer I practiced soccer with my dad for two hours a day to make the team my sixth grade year. I wasn’t looking to start, I was just looking to make the team. While my friends were at the beach or at friend’s house, I would be playing soccer.

“Congratulations, this is the 2013-2014 Mission Vista Men’s Varsity Soccer team.” I still remember the words coming out of my high school coach’s mouth as he spoke to the new varsity team after tryouts. I was the shortest and one of the youngest players on the team, but my passion for the game was not any less than anyone on the team. I was one of the only three sophomores on the team with a team dominated by juniors and seniors.

Being shoved to the ground and coming up with a mouthful of turf and a bloody nose isn’t the ideal way to spend a friday night, but for me, it's something I put blood, sweat, and tears into. Soccer has been a passion of mine since my father dropped me off at the local YMCA when I was at the tender age of four. Spending all of my free days for thirteen years running after a soccer ball is arguably what made me into the person I am today. Unity, tenacity, passion and pride have all been morals that are valued within the sport and in my own philosophy. I have explored places I’d never give a second thought to because my sport took me there. Friends I had made came from the sport I played. I never ended up asking for friends to come over because to me, practice was hanging out with my friends, doing an activity with a purpose.

I have been playing soccer since before I could even walk. In fact, I joined my first soccer team at the age of five. Soccer is something I have always loved and been passionate about. When I was on the co-ed recreation league teams I was one of the only girls on my team, so I had to compete with boys who doubted me and thought I was weak. I worked hard during practice and out of practice to become better and, eventually, I became more aggressive than them. My eighth-grade year, I tried out for the school’s co-ed soccer team and was confident that I would make the team. During the three hard days of try-outs, I pushed myself to improve each day and received several compliments from the coaches. On the last day, the head coach pulled me aside to tell me

Life is like a soccer game you want a certain result but you never know the end result it can be what you wanted or it could be totally different. MY freshman year in the soccer team was like a soccer game for me i expected to get a bad result but i got a pretty good results with a couple here and there. All the activities and the running in trouts are nearly impossible to live through but even in the soccer games at northbranch and brandon we had to live through it but you have to tough it out.

Growing up in a family that enjoys watching soccer and playing the sport is hard not to volunteer for a team. By the age of fourteen I was helping out an organization with coaching youth children and office paper work too. Also, I was in the soccer team that the organization had for kids my age. I would have to say that at first I had not choose, but to help out because the person who was in charge of organizing the teams was looking for more volunteers at that time. My sister who was helping out, decided to ask me to join them and my parents thought it was a great ideas for me to help out. When I started to volunteer for the organization I was not enjoying it because I am the only person, besides my mom to not love soccer. But I’m glad that

Thump. Thump. Thump. My heart hammered my ribcage as beads of sweat dripped, slowly, down my face. The grass beneath my feet burned to ashes I was moving so fast. My shadow spread far across the field. The only thing that was pushing forward was my allergic reaction to losing. Just me and the goalie. One chance. Now.

I wish I could include a picture of me playing soccer with this essay because that was all I did from age five to fifteen. Soccer was life for ten years so most people are surprised to hear that the fall of my senior year in high school I will Captain of my high school Cross Country team. How I became Captain of a running sport is an accomplishment I never saw coming. If you had asked me in elementary school, middle school, or even my first two years of high school if I would do anything but play soccer I would have said never.

“Fhweeoooo! Halftime” , yelled the referee.Coming back from the field I knew that we were about to get a mouthful of yelling from Coach Vernon. Starting the game 0-2 in a championship game was not pleasant. “

For many years I was interested in becoming the greatest soccer player in the world but I practiced only like once every two weeks. I started noticing that all of my friends were surpassing me in soccer and becoming a lot better than me. I asked myself, “how am I going to become the greatest soccer player in the world if I rarely practice and all my friends are becoming better than me?”. I told myself that I would become better than all of my friends again and that I would practice everyday for three hours. I asked myself, “am I actually going to meet my goal of becoming better than all of my friends and am I actually going to practice for three hours every day?”. I decided that I would meet my goals because I was going to try to become a really good soccer player.