This was my last chance to prove I deserved a place on this team. Everything I’d done in soccer has led me to this moment. Legs rocking like a ship, anxiously I waited to know what team I made. Finally, the coach said…... 

Soccer has been something I've played my whole life. Making goals on and off the field was a regular for me. This year however, I had to accomplish the hardest goal I had set for myself: to make the high school Varsity Soccer team. This goal is something that I’ve aimed for as long as I could remember. In order to score and reach my goal, I would need to do my best. No matter how challenging or difficult a goal you set for yourself is, you should work hard for it and never give up.

When I was in sixth grade, my sister was starting high school and playing on the Varsity Soccer team. That's when I realized there are multiple teams for the high school: Varsity, Junior Varsity A, and Junior Varsity B. She had made the Varsity team, and wanting to be just like my big sister, so did I. One day in English class, my teacher said, “Write short term and long term goals you guys have for yourself throughout your school career.” As soon as she finished explaining what to do I wrote down, To make the Varsity soccer team. After finishing the assignment, a boy in the seat next to me asked, “Why did you do something about soccer, that’s all you ever speak about?” The only answer I had for him was that it was a goal I really wanted to achieve, and that I was going to.

This year over the summer, I participated in the summer clinic the high school ran for the girls’ teams. Doing this would allow me to meet and connect with girls that I could potentially have on my team. One of the biggest disadvantages I faced was COVID-19. Because of Covid, we had to do the workouts over Zoom, which meant I didn’t get to meet new people or play with girls that could potentially be on my team. Pushing through this, I went to all of the workouts to show my dedication. As tryouts got closer, we did a Zoom with the head coach of the Varsity team. During the Zoom meeting, she explained the levels of each team and how to choose what team to try out for and the position you wanted to play.  After this meeting I started to get nervous. “Maybe I should just try out for JV,” I told my dad, “Am I even good enough?” I said stressed out, rethinking everything about tryouts. 

 “Of course you are Em, you’ve been playing your whole life.” After the heaps of reassurance from my dad, I signed up to try out for Varsity, as a defender and midfielder. 

It was finally time for tryouts, the day I had been waiting for. We would be trying out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, if we got invited back. As I got out of the car, legs shaking, I made my way over to the tryouts. After the tryout process was explained, we got put into “pods”, or groups we would stay with for the drills portion of the session. I was thankful to be put with a girl named Kali. A friend of my sister, she and I had talked a few times prior. She was so nice and welcoming, making tryouts a little less stressful. After the first two tryouts, which were mediocre for me, it was time for the third and potentially last chance to prove myself worthy enough to be on the Varsity team. Throughout the span of those days, I faced many challenges. I did what I thought was awful on Wednesday's tryout. I saw girls doing better than me, and I wanted to give up and just accept that I wasn’t going to make the team.  I also believed that if I made the team, people would say, “You only made the team because your sister was on it,” or if I didn’t make the team, people would say “Wasn’t she Madi’s sister? I thought she would be better at soccer.” Despite me getting into my own head, I pushed myself and fought hard through the tryouts. The head coach told us she would pull us all aside and tell us whether we should go next,to the next JV tryout, or go to the Varsity one on Friday.

 The coach called over many girls I knew, and even some of my closest friends, but didn’t say a word to me. Then at last, my friend Lauryn beamed, “she told me to go to the tryout on Friday!”  As she finished telling me the news the coach spoke to the group. She told us that if she didn’t get a chance to talk to you then you were to go on Friday. At this point I figured she was just stringing me along, just to tell me at the last second I didn’t make it. Because of this I had to face the struggle I was having with myself: believing in myself. I was very upset in the car on the ride home and didn’t want to go to the tryout on Friday at all.

 I got home and my sister was confused as to why I was crying. I told her how I believed I was being strung along and she laughed. “Em, so many people have told me how good you’ve done at the tryouts, I doubt your being strung along.” I didn’t entirely believe her, but I took the compliments and mentally prepared myself for the last tryout. Friday rolled around, and I was ready to get the tryout over with. I tried my best at the tryout, messing up a few times and beating myself up over it, but I kept playing hard, moving the ball, blocking and trapping passes like a cage keeps things from getting in or out. 

All the tryouts were finally over and in a matter of minutes I would find out if I was able to achieve a lifelong goal. The coach had all of us sit on the turf as she started calling people over to talk to them about what team they made. Little by little, we would see another girl leaving, which is how I assumed the tryouts went either way; you make the team you leave, you lose, you leave. Abruptly, she stopped calling people over. With 23 girls left, she called all of us over. “This is the team girls” she said so montonely like it was nothing! I was shocked, it felt so surreal to hear that I had made the team. People came up and congratulated me on making the team, then we all went to Fuddruckers for dinner and some team bonding. 

In the end I was able to reach the goal I had been aiming for forever: to make the Varsity soccer team. Although I had doubts in myself, made some mistakes, and wanted to give up, I didn’t and I was able to do so because I continued to push myself and gave 110%. I learned many things from this experience; not to get in my own head, to not beat myself up over the little things, and to be positive. The main lesson I learned was not to give up on myself and have faith. I didn’t expect to make Varsity, but I never allowed myself to give up or quit even when I wanted to. Although you may feel like you can’t do or reach something, you should always try your best and to never give up on yourself because you can accomplish your goals with hard work and determination.