I have played baseball ever since I was a young kid, but somehow, at seventeen I still had numerous struggles with it. You would think after my grandpa being drafted to the Pittsburgh Pirates, a Major League baseball team, and my dad getting a full ride to the University of Denver their skill would have rubbed off on me, but you would be wrong. I wasn't terrible, I could hit a 90 mile per hour fastball and I could, for the most part, field a ground ball. However, I was definitely not about to be scouted by the college scouts.…
July 22, 2012 was one of my favorite days of my life, it was the day we won the Gopher State Baseball Tournament. We got to take a coach bus up to target field and walk on the field with all the other age groups that also won. On the way up no one could sit still we were all exhilarated to be on a Major League Baseball field. But before we get to that, we should start at the beginning of the season and the state tournament. It was my first year of Royals baseball…
The colors of red and white dominated the gym. I looked around and saw Pennridge colors faded behind the Reading fans. It was Pennridge Men’s Basketball team’s first appearance in a PIAA State game. We played in front of a crowd of 4,200 people. About 95% of those people were rooting against us.…
It was summer and it was time for football in East Hall. That means we practiced 3 days a week, 100 push ups a night, 2 hour practices, helmets never came off and we were only 9 year olds. We were almost undefeated the previous year and we want be undefeated that year. So we had to be disciplined, work hard and do what coaches told us to do. We were determined to win the Hall County Football Championship, since Flowery Branch won it the previous year we wanted to beat them so bad.…
In my sophomore year my baseball team qualified to the state championship game. In high school sports that is the highest stage you can reach. It was the dream of a lifetime to play the championship game at Volcano Stadium. I was so nervous, but I was able to keep my cool during warm ups.…
While in middle school every young girl’s dream was to be on the varsity cheer team. While the last week in September we started trying out. I swear that whole week I felt sick and could not eat anything unless I wanted it to come right back up! After school we went straight to practice until 5:30. The older cheerleaders took this to heart and got so mad at us when we started joking around.…
My senior year of softball was ending; towards the end of the season nominations for homecoming court were due. Out of the four seniors my team nominated me with a football boy to represent softball. The pep rally assembly is a time to showcase a special handshake and to practice for homecoming court in front of the student body. We spent many hours practicing our handshake. In the handshake was a mock lightsaber battle, me standing on top of him as if he was a surfboard, leapfrogging off one another, and pretending to slap him in the face.…
For the majority of my life before coming to Texas A&M, I knew that I had to figure out a way to get here. Getting a college education would be my escape route to deviate away from becoming a low income family like my mother and her previous generations. My mother did the best she could to take of her three children by herself, but like many single parent households she struggled to do so. Due to my mom being the sole bread winner, there was often not enough money to maintain our household. I remember many days when we were only able to eat one meal a day that consisted either of half a chicken sandwich shared between my sister and I, or just a pack of saltine crackers.…
Goals are easy to set, but take determination, perseverance, and confidence to achieve. During my junior year of high school, I played on the varsity golf team. At the beginning of the season, our team set the goal of winning the sectional tournament in order to advance to the district tournament. Working hard as an individual and teammate to reach our desired result would be a necessity. At the sectional tournament I was on the 17th hole when my coach indicated I would need to score below a 90 for our team to advance to the district tournament.…
I expected to make the Varsity Cheer Leading Team my freshman year of high school as my sister, Ali, did the year before. From the time Ali and I were five and six years old, we cheered together on the same teams in small town Wendell. Even in middle school, we both made the cheer leading team together. Ali, being a year ahead of me, went into her freshman year of high school and made the Varsity Cheer Leading Team with ease.…
My freshman year, I decided to join my high school Cross Country team. When I started running, it quickly became clear that I was not a gifted athlete. I was slow and often did not enjoy the sport. When the season first started, it took me forty minutes to run a 5k. This time was appalling but oddly it was what prevented me from giving up.…
It all started after my first cheer practice. The cheer team was laying around on the freezing,uncomfortable floor in coach Cook’s classroom waiting for the longest cheer parent meeting to be over,when one of the girls say,”Instead of sitting here bored out of our minds,let’s play a game!” One girl comments,”Let’s play HIde and Seek around the school!” All of the cheerleaders agreed,and someone started counting and we all started running through the cold,creepy hallways. My friend and I ran to the girls, smelly bathroom, all I could feel was my friend breathing on my neck.…
Going to State for cross country is one of my favorite things that I have done in my athletic high school career. It took hard work to get there and when we finally did that it was eventful and fun and was one of the best trips that I have ever had. It started out way back in June when a group of girls got together and went for a run. At that time we only ran about 3-4 miles or so, but by the middle of the cross country season we were running up to 6 miles everyday. We trained all throughout the summer increasing our mileage every week so that by the beginning of the season were were ready to race.…
The golden question for sports parents to answer is, “How involved is too involved?” Although the answer to that question can be quite opinionated, I feel as though it is based on the individual child. As a parent, you have to ask yourself the question, “Is my child having fun playing sports?” If the answer is, “No”, then ask, “Is it because of me?” If parents answered honestly, there would be many that would say no to the first question and yes to the second.…
The first time I learned basketball was when I am at the 6th grade when my physical education teacher registered me in a basketball summer camp. I used to be a shy and quiet girl but since joining the summer camp I started to socialize and have friends. After two months of learning basketball, I began to like it. Then, I started playing basketball in high school as part of my school’s team and I’ve been playing ever since. It started out as just an activity, and then became a hobby that’s something fun to do but later on, I found that I really like basketball.…