“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” is a phrase that stays true to everyone especially during your freshman year of highschool. When I was fourteen, my baseball team went to a spring showdown baseball tournament. Spring showdowns have always been my favorite type of tournament since I played 10u travel ball. Although now I have a different perspective on these tournaments. On the way home from this particular tournament my face look like a baboons buttocks, with a big red swollen eye that was surrounded by brown and purple bruise. This was from a fouled off baseball, and I will never forget the event or the decisions I had to make. As a freshman I had to learn how to make educated, courageous, and tough life decisions.…
Avoiding all the curve balls that were thrown at them, the ChMS Baseball team took the necessary steps to get to an advanced level. With 28 wins and 8 losses, they practiced everyday to become more and more talented. “My favorite part about this season was that everyone got along and worked hard together,” commented Lucas Jennings. The head coach of the team is Coach Ayers, and the assistant coach is Coach Green. These two coaches pushed their players to their limits to make them the best of the best. Most of the 8th grade players will be moving up next year to high school baseball. “Next season I am mainly looking forward to playing with older high school students,” said Carter Frederick. Most of the players have been playing for a long time…
Imagine looking forward to just one thing all year, and that one thing got ruined. That is how I felt about this game. It completely crushed me. The Harleton softball game has shaped me because of the build up, the people around me, and how I felt during the game.…
New York, the state where dreams are turned into reality. The best of the best come here to hopefully win the one thing every fastpitch softball player wishes for and all of their hopes and dreams revolve around this one week. Nationals.…
“You did not make the softball team” is a sentence I heard almost invariably. I had just moved to Texas, where I was thrust into a whole new world of sports. Athletes played year round, unlike the north where sport seasons were only six months long because of the cold, likewise, the competition was unlike anything I had ever seen. I tried out for over a dozen teams, from the very best to the very worst and did not make one. Inevitably, there was always a girl who was faster, stronger, and overall better than I was. I was eventually given a choice, to quit softball and pursue another hobby or continue to play softball and refuse to let others beat me. I choose the ladder.…
Adversity comes in all shapes and sizes, varying from person to person. We are all faced with different challenges to overcome and different obstacles to face. In the spring of 2016, the UNA Softball team faced many challenges before becoming National Champions. From beginning to end, the Lady Lions did not have it so easy, as many thought it seemed. With a 60-7 record we faced losses, not only on the field but off the field as well.…
Many people have had one person who has inspired them. They have changed their life very much the first day that they met. The person who has changed my life in the past couple years was my softball coach. She had us all work as hard as we could everyday. If we didn’t put in our best effort for a drill, she would have us start over and do it again. Coach Tash was motivated, committed, and helpful to everyone on the team.…
As I hear those words that I most deeply despise come out her mouth, it quickly led me to think that this woman did not know what she was talking about. Before she had said these words we were talking about our favorite sports and she said hers was basketball and I told her mine was baseball. “Baseball is boring to watch,” she said. Hearing someone say this about my favorite sport that I have been playing throughout my life irritates me and it brings my attention to wonder why people find this sport boring. People similar to this woman, believe that baseball is a boring sport yet they do not realize that it is actually one of America’s most exciting sports!…
My partner of eleven years is my greatest cheerleader. When I feel overwhelmed and depressed she gives me encouragement to conquer every challenge I’m faced with. In addition to my partner, another influential person in my life is a co-worker and friend. She fills the maternal role that is absent in my life, by giving me advice, different perspectives, and confidence. My career plays a vital role in my resilience, it gives me cause to wake up and achieve greatness each day. The children I work with inspire me to be a better educator, nurturer, and caregiver. When I am feeling depressed nothing lifts my spirits speedier, than my students. I believe it is a gift to have the availability to focus on constructing children’s strengths, rather than…
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 kept me from giving up. There were times when I wanted to quit and go back to never running but the thought of that forty-minute 5k stopped me from doing so. I stayed on the team and pushed myself harder and harder every day. When I felt like stopping, I made myself go even further. I came to practice every single day and sometimes I stayed late. On the days that we did not have practice as a team, I ran on my own. I was dedicated…
Well he saw me play once and my brother he never came to my games and it was kinda sad. My first game we won. My first game i was batting and I hit the ball, my mom,yelled RUN RUN RUN. And that was a point. And of course that was coming from my mom. When my mom screamed i got embarrassed. My mom told me the first one was a success it was coach's daughter that hit the ball the last and he still yelled at her because she did not swing the ball right. My mom could hear coach yelling at her and it was all because she swung the bat wrong and and coach did not even say good job and she got us 3 points and all three girls got us 3 points so ya. I asked my mom who and why was coach getting mad at.…
I could not understand how this could happen. My life was going as planned and this occurred. The only thing I ever really cared about doing in life was taken from me. I received a letter in the mail from my first choice school, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Congratulations! We would like to extend an offer for you to join our softball team during the next season with a full scholarship to the program of your choice.” I was so excited. I could not believe they chose me out of all other athletes vying for the spot. Not being able to play was something I was never going to get over. I thought to myself, could I still attend this school even though I cannot play softball anymore? Would they still accept me even though I was broken? I was so torn up inside. I was not sure what to do next.…
An experience that has helped to shape my life was an incident I had with a pro-baseball player during the 2012 and 2013 baseball seasons. According to my viewpoint, the conflict started after we were assigned to our respective leagues for that season. I started observing that “the player” (name that I would use to identity and protect the person’s identity) did not want to follow the strength and conditioning program as the rest of his teammates. ‘The player’s” behavior had several implications: one, “the player” could get injured since he was doing what he considered was best. Two, other players thought I had favoritism with "the player" and tried to do the same. And three, I could had lost my job if any team player got injured by not abiding to the program stipulated.…
I was sitting in my freshman geometry class, talking to some friends about injuries. We were talking about how none of us have ever gotten injured in our entire life. I had been playing sports since I was in the sixth grade, and nothing ever happened. In my life I had never broken a bone. I had never even sprained an ankle. I had never worn any kind of brace, taped an ankle, or talked to a trainer about any muscle issue or pain issue. When kids would lay on the court, I always thought they were fine or looking for a little attention. My thought was that they needed to rush off the court because they were dripping sweat all over the hardwood floor, and they were taking too much time up. I used to assume they were killing our momentum when they would fall down and cry because some schools…
I had recently asked God to show me the plan He has for my life. Every time I seek Him He shows me glimpses into His plan. I have always loved helping others in need, so when I was a child I wanted to be a teacher/softball coach. As a sophomore I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart and life as my Lord and Savior. Once I let Him in my desires for my future began to change. He put in my heart to do some sort of missionary work. As I pondered about the idea of traveling and sharing the Good News, a voice from above began to speak to my heart. He put in my heart to pursue a career in the medical field! I felt that not only will I be…