Broken Dreams

When I came to Trinity Catholic it was quite nerve racking starting at a new school all over again, but this time it was high school. I was optimistic I was in a new school and had a chance to meet new friends. So I thought that I would try the easiest Fall sport and it happened to be soccer. I was thinking if I should really join. Well I had one year of experience and I thought “how hard could it be its just kicking a ball around a field.”I was thinking about how I would be a starter, outrun everyone, and have a laid-back coach who doesn’t really care about the game. “I WAS DEAD WRONG”
On the first day of practice the wonderful laid-back Coach Turick made us run about 5 deadly laps around the field. Everyone was in such great shape because by the end of the second lap, I was already out of breath. I thought that I would outshine everyone even though I did nothing soccer related over the summer, something I truly regretted. By the time I was finishing my last lap, everyone had already gotten a drink of water and was already onto the next activity. A major rule that Coach Turick told the team was to always, “Go hard, or go home. And I really wanted to go home. I thought that practicing five days a week was too hard and stressful for me to keep up with. Also I wasn’t even good so team doesn’t need me. Even though I was so stressed out and tired during practice I always hid that anxiety feeling behind a big goofy smile.
Coach also told me that if you work hard during the practice you will always get playing time. So over the next grueling few weeks, I went hard at every practice. When our first game came I was so happy because I knew that I went hard during practice. So I just sat on the bench waiting for coach to call me. The game ended; he never called. It was then I realized that I was just “benchwarmer.” I always think that if I just lowered my expectations, maybe I would have felt so damaged.