Biggest Game Of Our Season example essay topic

1,060 words
Winning One for Ourselves Just like the several years before, soccer season started on an early July day during what seemed to be the hottest time of the day. Only something was different this year, the moral was a little low, and everyone noticed it. The previous season, the supposed golden team that the coach had put so much faith into, had failed; losing in the first round of sectional play. The low moral was most evident in the coaching staff, especially in the head coach. Head coach Larry Sahm was particularly distraught. He has never coached a High School team that went on to win sectionals and he truly believed that the last season would be his year.

As the practices went on, it became more and more obvious that he really didn't expect much from his team this year. The practices dragged on through the dead heat of the summer. The team worked hard, even though we were well aware that not even their own coach had faith in them. This lack of faith sucked every bit of fun out of that practices that always seemed to be there in the years before.

The players were losing confidence in themselves and each other. The tension within the team was thick. Everyone was becoming frustrated and no one wanted to be there. Then to add to the dismay of the team, Coach Sahm called a small meeting with all the seniors shortly before the first game. "Everyone knows that you guys are nowhere near as good as the team we had last year", said Sahm, "but you all can do me a favor and help prepare the younger kids for next year". This made the situation much worse.

Not only did our coach have no faith in us, but he also thought that we were only good for giving his younger players experience so he can have a successful season next year. With the attitude we had, I was not surprised that we had a very dismal regular season. To say we had a losing season doesn't even do it justice. We were simply horrible. Everything we tried to do went wrong, and the worst part was that nobody cared.

No one expected much out of us, so when they didn't get anything they weren't surprised. We just weren't the team we were last year. All of our hopes and dreams had left with the graduating seniors of last year. Everyone expected it and we proved to them all that they were right. The low moral was like a plague that moved from the coach to the players and even to the parents. After the season ended it became time to prepare for the dreaded embarrassment of the sectional tournament.

The practices didn't really change much, even though we were approaching the biggest game of our season. But the plague had already taken us and we were ready to accept our loss and end the season as soon as possible. Amazingly, something came over one of our captains while we were stretching for the first game of sectionals. Out of nowhere, our captain, Andy Sy berg shouted "Who cares what Sahm thinks?" This caught all of the player's attention, since none of us really knew what it was he was talking about. He went on to tell us that this whole season had been shaped entirely by our moral.

"We have all done what everyone expected us to do and have never tried to do any better", he explained. It was very strange. Even though we had all noticed how the low moral had restricted us, none of us really thought much about it. Andy had brought it to our attention, although it had been right in front of our faces the whole time. Magically a weight had been lifted from each of us. We had all changed our outlook on the upcoming game.

Suddenly we didn't care about what everyone else had thought. Our coach had given up on us long ago and we had just decided to give up on our coach. No longer were we going to go out and play for someone else, now we were playing for ourselves and our teammates, no one else mattered. We went on the field and played our hearts out that first game. And to everyone's surprise we won, and we really won too. We caught the opposing team completely off guard and really beat them bad.

After that game everything was turned upside down. The players were now full of the confidence that we lacked the entire season. Nothing could stop us now. One game after another we progressed our way through the tournament. Eventually we made it to the sectional finals. We were now an entirely different team.

We had forgotten all the people that had lost faith in us because they didn't matter anymore. We were going to win this one for ourselves, just to prove that we could do this. It was a night game; the field was glowing under the many lights up above. There is just something special about night games that any athlete knows.

The small amount of dew on the grass gave the ball a strange glow as it sat on the field. We were ready for this game. After an insignificant pep-talk from our coach, we took to the field. And at the end of the night we had become sectional champions.

After a long and passionate celebration, the team took a knee to thank God for everything we had learned the past season. We now knew that no one could tell us how much potential we had, that was for us and only us to decide. From that point on non of us would allow ourselves to be brought down by others thinking less of us. We were now new people, full of pride and confidence, and we weren't going to let anyone take that away from us.