For as long as I can remember I have always been active in some type of sport.
First, it was gymnastics at age 3. I was all about the tumbling and cartwheels and walking on the balance beam or just hanging on the uneven bars, but as soon as they wanted me to combine it all together, I realized gymnastics wasn’t the sport for me. “You want me to do a cartwheel ON this balance beam? …Yeah I don’t think so” said my 4-year-old self.
At age 4, I started playing soccer. My shin guards went almost past my knees, my team t-shirt looked like a dress, and at first I was more interested in picking dandelions from the middle of the field than chasing around a black and white ball in the 95-degree heat. And, if I’m being totally honest, after game snacks were a big reason I stuck around the soccer field.
At age 5, I added basketball into the mix. Basketball became super cool because I had someone to look up to on the varsity team at my school (family friend). One day, I wanted to be just like her, the star on the court.
Somewhere along the way I got a lot more serious about sports and decided to focus on my skills and finesse rather than just going to practice because my parents signed me up for it. Soccer became a year round sport, summer soccer turned into fall soccer league turned into indoor tournaments. Indoor tournaments were my favorite, I loved the fast paced action and team bonding that occurred at tournaments. Plus, my team was pretty good so that helped.
In 3rd grade I started playing lacrosse, after I told my parents I didn’t want to play t-ball because it was too slow and boring. Lacrosse took a lot of practice, but it was something I found myself actually wanting to practice.
After being recruited to play lacrosse in college, I ended up making the decision to focus more on studying than being a student athlete. Now there are definitely days that I miss it, but I don’t regret for a second that I spent so much time growing up being involved in sports. They are the thing I miss most about high school.
The gifts that playing sports from childhood through high school are a fundamental part of who I am today:
Friends
Without sports, I never would have made many of the friends I have today. Many of my good friends are those I met playing on a team together.
Work Ethic
I learned from a young age that I always needed to give it my all and try my best.
I learned not to just give up because something was hard. My parents rule was I could quit, but not until I FINISHED the season.
Practices weren’t something to take lightly. I had multiple coaches saying to their teams “you practice how you play” and surprisingly it took a while for me to actually believe it. If you don’t practice at 100%, how are you going to play at 100%.
Being part of a team.
I will always have to be part of some sort of team as I grow older. Friends often work as teams, families have to work as teams, and coworkers and companies have to work as teams. Being on a team from a young age quickly taught me what the qualities of both a good team and a bad team were.
Fun
I learned that there is time to have fun, and there is time to be serious and when there can be a happy medium between the two. When there is a three-day break between games and it’s been a stressful week at school and we just won against a very tough team, there is time at practice to have fun. But when it is the day before the only unbeaten team in the league and we haven’t been playing up to our own standards, it is time to buckle down and take practice extremely seriously.
Learning to have a boss
Although I didn’t realize it at the time, having a coach is like having a boss. They get to control what goes on with the team, what your responsibilities to the team are and how the team is going to achieve its goals. This is very similar to in the workplace.
Competitiveness
Although in little league soccer they tell you they don’t keep score, every 5-year-old wants to know if they won the game or not. It is surprising how competitive 8 year old soccer gets, but it shows that they care about what they are doing. I was able to carry over my competitiveness from the field and the gym to the classroom, which really helped me to be a better student.
Without playing sports I wouldn’t be the person I am today. They taught me to actually enjoy going to the gym. I still like to play pickup games with my friends, and I continue to find new ways to keep myself in shape. With that being said, many of the workouts I love to do are those I learned from different teams I was on. I still love to watch sports, whether it is local teams playing, games at my university or sports on TV.
