After finishing off a perfect season with a Peach Bowl victory on New Year's Day, the UCF Knights have made history by playing the best season in school history. Even as an undefeated team, UCF went into the Peach Bowl as an underdog against Auburn, who has most notably beaten #4 Alabama* and #3 Georgia* in the weeks leading up to the Earth-shattering game in Atlanta. While this is a tremendous feat in and of itself, it is all the more impressive considering that UCF's Football record was 0-12 by the end of the 2015-2016 season. The major turnaround was largely attributed to Scott Frost's leadership as head coach, but none of it would have been possible without the resiliency of the players. The team was driven to improve and overcome the adversity that held them back that season. It's the success of this UCF team that has inspired me to maintain my own resiliency, even when I feel defeated and less hopeful.

Last year, I got back into competing in Taekwondo after being away from the competitive scene for eight years. Getting back into the feel for sparring has been especially arduous and painstaking. There are a ton of new rules that I've had to learn and facing off against competitors that have far more experience in tournaments than I do makes it all the more challenging. The Taekwondo Club at UCF, much like our football team, is a significantly smaller program than at other schools. Our coach, whose life is solely Taekwondo, has done a tremendous job motivating and working with us to get to the next level. Even though I feel like I am improving since getting back into it last year, I have yet to win a match. At times I feel discouraged and question whether I'm cut out for Taekwondo competitions. After all, at only 5' 4," I'm way shorter than most of the guys I compete against in the men's flyweight (127.9 lbs) division and find myself at a major disadvantage in a sport that places importance on reach.

While the Knights' victory over Auburn may just seem like a feel-good underdog story to many, to me, it means much more than that. It shows that a college football team, that couldn't even win a game a few years ago, worked hard to get better and figure things out. They showed improvement last year, going 6-7 overall and making it to a bowl game. This year, they made the seemingly impossible happen by going 13-0 and winning one of the largest bowl games in NCAA football. After watching this game, I realized that, just like the players on the team, I am a knight. Everyone else in our club is a knight. We are strong and represent the best damn university in the U.S. Just because I haven't been winning any matches lately doesn't mean that I won't.

As we move forward into training for our competitions this year, we need to remember that the pride of Central Florida is strong and that, as long as we bleed black and gold, we can do anything we set our minds to, despite the odds stacked against us.

*These are the current rankings at the time this article was written.