Soccer, Achieving what no one was thought possible of us that year.

In the beginning of my sophomore season at our junior college, no one expected us to be good. This was because the previous three years we had the most terrible winning records a team could have. My freshman year we went 3-12. That's right, we were the bad news bears. The start of our sophomore season we went 1-1. Everyone at our college expected us to have a crappy record, and did not expect us to go as far as we did. We were a lot better than anyone thought we would be. We ended up 10-8 -1. We qualified for the sub-regional where we had to play at Alfred, who we lost to in the beginning of the season 3-2. We were all thinking we were going to be done right then and there. That's what everyone thinks when they come to play a team that has already beaten you. However, we were out for revenge. When we played them in the beginning in the season, they were dirty players. They were always looking to take people out, so we wanted to come in and prove we were better than them. When we showed up the field was under about an inch of water. Every time you ran you would slip on the mud, or if you were the goalie, like I am, you'd get stuck in the mud in front of the goal. We ended up shutting them out by a score of 3-0. We were so excited and overwhelmed, that we had beaten them. This put us in quarter finals where we were to play Delhi, a team we beat in overtime 3-2 earlier in the season. The disadvantage to this was we had to go and play on their field. when we got back to school everyone was shocked that we had gone as far as we did. We were getting all sorts of attention from people who doubted us. During regular season when we played Delhi on our field, they thought that it was going to be an easy win but we came in and fought with them. We won with 5 minutes left in the 2nd overtime. So when we showed up to play them on their field, they were ready. There were at least 200 people there watching. Even though there was no snow on the ground it was lightly snowing on and off. We held them from scoring in the first half, as they did the same to us. Our girls were making great shots but they would either hit the tip of the cross bar and go over, or they would bounce back into the field. The downfall to the game happened in the second half when a girl scored. the goal should have not counted because she was way offsides. Well we ended up losing 0-2, ending our season. We were all upset because if we would have won this game we would have been in the final four. However, we got farther than everyone had ever expected that we would have. We realized that no matter how many people think you will fail at something, does not mean you will. That when people say that about you or your team, you can use it as motivation to prove them wrong.

Injury

When I was a junior in high school, I went through one of the hardest years of my life. I was playing varsity softball, when something unexpected changed my life. During our first game of our season, I slid into home plate and scraped up my whole right leg. I had my sliding guard on the wrong leg. After I did that, my coach told me that I needed to change the guard to my other leg before the next game. Well naturally I didn't because I was stubborn, and it was the smartest thing I had done so far that day. We won our first game and we started the second one fifteen minutes later. In the bottom of the third a girl was stealing second base, so as I started to see her running I covered second base. As the catcher threw the ball to me, I noticed I was going to have to move away from the bag four or five steps to get it. While I was attempting to catch the ball, I had one leg planted into the ground and the other in the air. That is when it happened. The girl slid into my planted leg, breaking my tibia and fibula. The pain was excruciating, I had no idea what was happening. I was rolling around, on the field, holding my leg. As I was doing this I recall the umpire telling me to be still, and wait there until my coach got to me. What seemed like hours for her to get to me was actually a matter of seconds. When she came to me and asked what it felt like, I told her that, "it feels like bones knocking together." So they carried me off of the field, where I had to wait for an ambulance for twenty minutes. When they got over to me, they had to cut off my cleat, sock, and sliding guard. Looking down the only thing I could see at that point was what looked like a softball protruding from my leg. When I got to the hospital the doctor told me that the only thing that saved my bones from breaking through the skin, was the protective black sliding guard wrapped around my leg. This sliding guard would have not been there, if I would have listened to my coach. With the luck I was having that day, I had to be taken by ambulance to my hometown to have the surgery done. This was because there was not an orthopedic doctor on call at that hospital. I ended up having a titanium rod and screws put into my bone. It was the most painful experience that I've had up to that point in my life. I was out of school for a month and a half, so they sent a tutor to my house so I could keep up with the work. Once I got the ok from my doctors to go back to school, I had to be in a wheel chair. This injury played a huge role in my life, it taught me to not take advantage of the things I have. When I say this, I mean everyday most of us are able to walk, to run, to jump, etc. We never stop to appreciate how lucky we are to be able to do these things. There are people in this world, who have either never had this pleasure or will never have the pleasure of doing these things again. Unfortunately it sometimes takes dramatic experiences like these, to realize how lucky you are to be able to do these activities.