I'll never forget the memories I made playing the sports I loved while in high school. It was great playing, but what they taught me was better.

They taught me that there is no offseason. When the regular season ends, the season isn’t really over. You have to keep working whether it’s hitting the weight room, running the track, or taking extra swings. You have to work hard in the offseason, so that when the regular season comes, you’re one step ahead of the people who didn’t work hard.

I learned who I should play for. The big thing is not to play for yourself, but play for the name on the front of your jersey. You play for the people who came before you. You play for those who raised you. You play for the people who can’t play the game, and the people who want to play the game when they get older. You never play for yourself. You should always have someone who you play for, whether it’s that little girl in the stands, or your father who taught you how to throw.

Tradition is a huge part of high school sports. Sometimes that’s what high school sports are built on. In high school we always followed the traditions of the one’s who came before us. Our team would focus on tradition and its importance to the program.

I learned that your team is your family. You learn that you would do anything for the girl beside you. One thing that was true was that you don’t always like your family. Even though you might not have liked a teammate off the field, as soon as you stepped onto the field you were best friends. You were best friends because without her, you couldn’t get the win.

Sometimes losing isn’t always a bad thing. The one thing I will take from high school sports is that you never actually lose, you learn. From that loss, you can learn how to fix the errors you made. You can see how to improve your own game, and figure out what your team needs to work on during the next couple practices.

Everything is learned, not given. I learned that either on the field, or in life you have to work for what you want, because not everything is going to be given to you. You have to work hard to get the job you might want, or that starting position on your team. Along with this, I learned that hard work pays off. I learned that when you work hard for something you want that eventually all of your hard work will pay off and you’ll look back and realize that you earned it.

From high school sports I learned life lessons.I learned things such as time management skills, such as how to balance school work, work, and my sport. Another thing I learned was leadership skills. I learned how to motivate younger girls, how to teach others, and how to help others. I learned that before someone can respect you, you have to respect them. Finally, I learned not to judge a book by its cover, because you might end up being friends with someone you thought you wouldn’t like.