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.…
Over time of always bugging me about wrestling, I ended up taking his advice and decided to wrestle. When i tried out for wrestling at the end of the week of tryouts i was in love with the sport. I was an 8th Grader wrestling varsity. One of the way i became good at wrestling was off season wrestling which is called Freestyle. Freestyle is every Tuesday's and Thursday’s and open tournaments on saturday’s.…
Imagine a rocket, specifically molded, perfectly symmetrical, prepared to do it’s job exactly how it needs to with no room for error. Seems almost perfect, on the other hand we have the Rockets, my AAA hockey team the summer before sixth grade. It was made up of players from the La Crosse area who played and practiced together every summer for the last few years. We weren’t exactly the most organized team in the sense of having professional attitudes. The ceiling at our practice arena had leaks and water would pour out if it was hit with anything.…
I started wrestling for the Smithville Youth Wrestling Club. At the time I was in the fifth grade and I was 12 years old. At first I hated the idea of wrestling because of the tight singlet you had to wear, and also the idea of people making fun of you because of “rolling around with other guys”. Plus to make thing worse a lot of the other kids there have already wrestled since they were 5 which gave them more experience. I remember coming home from practice and just hating wrestling because it was hard work…
Failure is the product of the inability to achieve a certain goal, outcome, or satisfactory result. The feeling you get from failing is a gut wrenching pain that isn't easy to get rid of. It can disrupt a person’s life and make them second guess themselves and all they have went through. I have also had a profound taste of failure in my sports, work, and school life. But while failures can make life miserable for a moment they can change your outlook on life, help you recover from, and make you realize that if you apply yourself you have a greater chance at accomplishing your goals.…
During track season, my seventh grade basketball coach thought that it would be a great idea if I joined the track team and competed in the 400 meter event. I attended every practice and I was motivated and convinced that I could win first place. However, on the first track meet that I attended, I was in last place. I was so far behind that the girl in first place passed me up.…
One situation where I found myself in a fixed mindset was when I was a freshman at Mountain Pointe high school trying to make the baseball team. At the time, I had a half-hearted passion for baseball that made me want to be on the school baseball team, but I felt that everything would come natural to me because I was Dominican. I was quite proud of how Dominicans were typically great at baseball quite naturally it seemed. However, with this knowledge I became highly critical about everything I did when playing baseball at the high school camps before the baseball tryouts. I did not focus on overall improvement as I tried to ensure that every throw, batting, and pitch was perfect.…
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.…
We had won districts and now we were off to states! It was the summer of 2014 and my softball team had the opportunity to play in the state championship tournament. We had already competed in the district championship, and we beat our rivals, Kennebunk, to win the title. In the past Kennebunk had beaten us in the championship game multiple times, and now we had our chance.…
This last school year I moved to Nebraska to live there for awhile. While I was there I went to school and played my favorite sport baseball. I was very excited for our first practice, and our first game. My excitement skyrocketed when coach told me at the end of practice that I would start at shortstop and close the game pitching.…
Have you ever been left behind by your wrestling team just after practice or any other sport, or by your family? Just before you head off to a game, event, or trip? Well I have and I can tell you it’s not pleasant. Especially when it’s the middle of December and there's snow on the ground and you lack a sweater or jacket.…
To get better at the sport of wrestling you need to take a couple losses, think about why you lost, and train to get better at what you flaw in. Learning from your losses is one of the most important things in this sport. Losing is a very important aspect of the sport, you need to be able to accept…
At some point in every person's life, they will have a special experience that will stick with them forever. One of my most memorable moments happened recently at a home volleyball game against Traverse City West. Approaching freshman volleyball season, the upperclassman spoke highly of the importance of overpowering TC West. As a ninth grader, I had the mindset that I would be playing for the freshmen team. I didn't think it really mattered what the outcome of the game would be, since we were only ninth graders.…
I was adamant not to waste another year of three to seven o'clock practices and grueling work on wrestling. I was done. I tried, I did poorly, I didn't quit until the end. My goal had been accomplished. Fortunately, my coach would have none of it.…
The strenuous and demanding nature of wrestling practice and the sport in general has caused me to be in the best condition of my life both physically and mentally. Deciding to join the wrestling team gave me my first taste of real responsibility. I realized I had to take action and…