annamattingly
FOR THE PAST four years I have fallen in love with the best sport there is. That is soccer. I really enjoy playing this competitive sport because it is one sport that I feel like I can really compete in. I also enjoy the challenge of having to use only feet.

My main position is left midfielder. I like to be placed in this position because I can use both left foot and right foot. This helps if you are under pressure, and you need to pass to someone quickly in a way that you are not rushed to pass with only one foot. I also like to play here because I have well-balanced endurance. This helps if you are in a really tough game and you won’t get tired as fast as others.

The thing that got me to start playing soccer was, well, I guess I got interested when my mom asked me if I would like to play SYSA ( a little soccer league) with a couple other girls who were from my school. I can still remember my first practice; when I stepped onto the field, I felt as if I had been playing the sport for years.

When I started to play select soccer, my coach thought that we needed to have a couple of team captains—people who were leaders and would be responsible. The only fair way that we could choose the two people was that we would vote between teammates. The next practice, everyone wrote down the names of the teammates they voted for. This was a way that the teammates could choose the person who they thought would be responsible and who would do anything they asked another to do. When my coach read off the two names at the end of practice, I couldn’t believe when I heard that I was one!

To be a captain, it is not so much like the type of a captain on a ship. They are the same as all of the others except they get to wear an armband that says “Captain.” Like I said before, they would be willing to do anything that they would ask another teammate to do.

Have you ever heard the saying, “If you work and try hard, than it will pay off in the long run.” Well, I guess that my perspective of that saying is that it is kind of like that in practice. In any sport, any at all, if you do not try your best and give your coach, teammates, and yourself 100% effort in whatever you are doing, then you will not do nearly as well as you would if you practiced as if you would recieve a gold medal at the end of practice. I am not trying to say that you can always be perfect. All I am saying is that you should never give up and to never feel bad about how you are doing. I know that I have been bummed when I have missed a goal that could have tied the game or even won the game. If you don’t sweat in practice, then you will for sure bleed in battle.

What I am trying to get at is that to be a female athlete, you must do thee things: work and try hard, always feel good about yourself, and have faith in yourself, teamates, coach, and everyone else in your life.